Structured observation, and how (and if) it can be applied in the context of architectural drafting course

I’ll assume the following hypothetical case, based on my personal experience and interests.

Hypothetical Case: Department of Fine and applied arts. School of interior architecture (higher education).

Course: Architectural drawing

Research question: The student’s fatigue (Physical and mental exhaustion) during a typical six-hour drafting course.

As it was already commended, the method of structured observation requires a good prior preparation and the strict presetting of all the categories. So the first difficulty concerns the successful illustration and matching of all the possible characteristics of student’s exhaustion (physical or mental) with a limited set of categories. At this stage, it is practically realized that any attempt to codify the human behavior, even the simplest human activity, is a thorny task and requires successful balancing between low inference and high inference categories.

Low-Inference categories:	High-Inference categories:
Advantages: -Are accurate, clear and comprehensible. -The observers can fill the schedule confidently without doubts, hesitations and assumptions. Disadvantages: -Because of the simplicity the categories cannot fully cover the complexity and abstract character of the human behaviour.	Advantages: -Are descriptive and detailed and can illustrate effectively the abstract human behavior. Disadvantages: -Hesitations, delays, confusions from the part of the observer may occur.

The following observation schedule constitutes an exemplary attempt in order to relate a set of categories with the research question.

Every 3 sec check the appropriate code

1st minute

2nd minute

…………..

………….

CATEGORIES

CODES

The student draws without sign of exhaustion

1

The student stops drawing

2

The student stands from the chair

3

The student goes for a break outside the classroom.

4

The student presents general signs of physical fatigue  (pains in the vertebral column, vision problems etc)

5

………………………………………………………

6

…………………………………………………………….

7

Initially and under the prism of positivism, the method of structure observation seems rather advantageous for the purposes of the particular survey. Indeed, it could be argued that the human fatigue, especially the physical one, constitutes an observable condition and therefore it can be recognized and recorded by any observer. The suitability of the method could be further supported, since structure observation helps the observers to focus exclusively on the research question, to observe many students simultaneously and for a long period of time, to analyze the data in a rather easy and simple way and finally to reveal interesting numerical evidences like form example the percentage of the students that suffer from exhaustion, the time after which the students feel fatigue, the effects of drafting on physical health etc. So, a hypothetical research based on structure observation could provide the practitioners with evidences against the student’s exhaustion and could propose effective actions and specific practices, like for example the increasing of the break or the reduction of the total duration of the lesson, etc. 

Of course, the research evidences in order to be valuable they have to meet several criteria and requirements like for example the participation of trained and reliable observers, the adaptation of the observers to the particular educational case, a good prior preparation, a thorough selection of the sample etc. In fact, each educational case, like for example the architectural drawing lessons, requires the familiarization of the observers with the individual characteristics of the course, like for example with the special equipment and tools that the architects use or with the architectural terminology etc. 

It must also be pointed out that the presence of even a "neutral" and non-interacting observer will influence the usual behavior of the research subjects. So, for example the students will probably start playing the role of the diligent and hard-working student or the lecturer will conceive the procedure as a form of academic assessment and he’ll attempt to improve his teaching performance.

On the other hand and under the prism of interpretivism, the method of structure observation will examine the question superficially, since it cannot penetrate in the perspective of the students and divulge their unique views about the course. Indeed the researchers, in case of using exclusively the above method, might fail to survey interesting aspects of the physical and mental exhaustion such as:

·         The exhaustion caused by the lack of interest for the course.

·         The exhaustion caused by the student’s failure or by low self-confidence.

·         The exhaustion caused by several communication problems between the teacher and the students.

·         The exhaustion caused by learning difficulties, etc.

Furthermore, the majority of the phenomena that are related to the human behavior entail many unobservable symptoms, that can’t be noticed and recorded easily by a researcher. In the particular research question, such “hidden” characteristics could be:

·                             Possible headaches and other symptoms signifying mental exhaustion.

·                             The decreasing of the creativity.

·                             Several errors in the drawing.

·                             The reduction of the quality and of the artistic value. 

·                             Other possible incidents that occur individually and don’t fit in any category.

From all the above and in relation to the particular research question, I would say, that the method of structured observation could help the practitioners to improve the architectural-drawing course but only in a few technical issues. In fact, the architectural education is a complicated artistic procedure that embraces completely different aspects of teaching and learning, like for example the art and craft education, the design education, the engineering and technology education. Thus, in the particular research question, where the artistic creation is dominant, a combination of qualitative methods, like the method of interviews, the unstructured observation, the assessment of several portfolios, could be more appropriate and effective. And since nowadays, the computers have conquered almost all the areas of the human creation, the researchers need methods of enquiry that will help them to understand young people’s perspective towards digital technology and to value the inevitable decreasing of the hand-drawing abilities.