1. Monsoureh-Rezasoltani Ismail Said Methods for Evaluating Responses of Children with Outdoor Environments 14-15 November 2009 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

2. 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies INTRODUCTION Outdoor environments shape the children, physically, socially and emotionally. To understand how the environment shapes the children, many researchers in environment psychology, sociology and childhood development utilized different techniques. This study focuses on discussing research method on outdoor environments as children’s play settings. These methods can be categorized into two major types Visual Structured Structured methods : methods which can be performed in verbal and non-verbal reports, and are significant because children are the best people who can explain their experience and perception of their environments (Greig and Taylor, 1999). Visual methods : some complementary methods which are utilized by researchers to get the best result.

3. To suggest some methods which are relevant to do research with children connected to their outdoor environments; AIM AND METHOD (Criteria for selection of articles ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies  Criteria for choosing these studies included  The context focuses on aspects of urban outdoor environment.  The methods are both qualitative and quantitative. Context Method Issues Living surroundings Urban parks playgrounds  The issues were connected to children and their outdoor environments

4. METHOD (Method of analysis ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Context (e.g. elementary school) Subject connected to children, their age and outdoor environment Methods that were used to collect the data. Articles was summarized and classified in terms of several dimensions The major purpose of analysis was to emphasize some special methods in studying with children regarding to outdoor environments. Environmental contexts in all studies are actual and their range are from general environments to special spaces include: Residential neighborhood Grassy location Park Playground School yard Although the studies represent a great diversity of settings, school playgrounds were the most frequent context.

5. FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Percentage of used approaches: Questionnaire 40% Interview 35% Observation 25% Drawing map 25% Photographing 10% Instrument 5% Group discussion 10% Individual interview 25% Using of mixed methods to get the best results Interviews accessibility to the inner world of children: (Greig and Taylor, 1999) Feeling Thought Opinion interviews (as verbal reports) Adults’ interview Children’s interview Parents Teachers Individual interview

6. Group discussion  to speak about their liked, disliked, and favorite environments  to talk about their photos which take in their neighborhoods as a liked or disliked place Children were asked FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Photographing In some studies, the researcher need to know about children’s interests, and this may not to gain through other research methods. Researchers give children Instant camera (Francis and Lorenzo, 2002) Disposable camera (Jutras, 2009)

7. FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Questionnaire  It can be designed and sent to many people swiftly  It can also analyzed easily Types of questionnaire Computerize Online written Direct observation  Observing children’s behavior  Listening to their conversations  Recording them to analyze The method could portrait slices and complexities of children’s lives (McDevitt and Ormrod, 2002).

8. FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Standardized Instruments (Page et al., 2009) Collecting the data may be too long. Gathering the data through other ways is impossible. The instrument will motivate the children to participate in the survey. Because + The data is recorded and analyzed using the statistical software such as SPSS.

9. FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies The researchers need to utilize special methods as complementary methods to do research with children. Indicates children’s inner mind (Greig and Taylor, 1999). Measurement techniques of drawing Sketch map (Ahmadi and Taniguchi/ 2007) Blank map (Ahmadi and Taniguchi/ 2007) Mental map (van Vliet, 1983) The easiest approaches in completion of methods in doing research with children Drawing

10. FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Analyzing sketch map by assessing Orientation Structure of the routes Details A sheet of paper given to children to draw sketch maps of home-school way. Source: Rissotto, A. and Tonucci, F. (2002) Blank map  Children were given aerial map with some key elements in it to find the situation.  Children were asked to identify some data that the researcher needs to know. Hom e Schoo l Blank map Source: Rissotto and Tonucci (2002)

11. FINDING and DISCUSSION (Empirical methods ) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Mental map A sheet of paper is given to children to draw mental map. Children were not given any key elements in the map. For instance, mental map from their home to school. Mental map Source: www.urbantick.blogspot.com

12. Choosing the suitable approach for doing research with children is concerned with nature of research questions, the participants, and what a researcher want to do with them. SUMMARY All research methods point to qualitative and quantitative methods. There can be relationships between qualitative and quantitative methods. These methods have potentials to be overlapped to each other. In many of these studies, researchers have chosen two types of methods: qualitative and quantitative. Two different types of method to do research with children in outdoor environments Visual method Structured method In some of these general two methods, researcher involves in methods directly such as observation. There are also indirectly methods such as photographing and behavioral mapping which is divided into three types; sketch, blank and mental map. some methods are organized and prepared before, then researcher ask the respondents to answer such as questionnaire in three types: computerized, online, written, and structured interview in two types: individual and group, or to utilize such as standardized instruments such as GPS and accelerometer. SUMMARY However Because Therefore

13. SUMMARY (Continued) 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies In order to get the best finding, the results of qualitative and quantitative are triangulated. The results of used methods related to children at outdoor environments STRUCTURED METHOD VISUAL METHOD BEHAVIORAL MAPPING PHOTOGRAPHING OBSERVATION SKETCH MAP BLANK MAP MENTAL MAP QUESTIONNAIRE INTERVIEW STANDARDISED INSTRUMENT COMPUTERIZED ONLINE SURVEY WRITTEN SURVEY INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEW GROUP DISCUSSION GPS ACCELEROMETER INDIRECTLY DIRECTLY

14. THE END 1st National Conference on Environment –Behaviour Studies Thank you for your attention