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Top1. Introduction
In Taiwan, the government is currently implementing its Long-Term Care Plan 2.0 in response to society aging. Educational institutions have cultivated nursing and senior care professionals, but relevant hardware fails to meet the demand of senior citizens, particularly in the size of interior spaces and care facilities, hindering care providers from using their expertise. The main reason for this is that designers of interior space and facilities acquired no relevant knowledge during education. In addition, they cannot empathize with the physical and psychological needs of senior citizens because of the age gap involved. Furthermore, in many Asian countries, including Taiwan, lectures are mostly conventionally teacher-centered. Students become passive recipients of knowledge (Gwee, 2008) and participate in courses less actively, resulting in a lack of problem-solving, analytical, and evaluative skills and of knowledge integration and application abilities. Now that Taiwan has an aging society; appropriate and necessary designs for age-friendly environments are required because of the deterioration in the physical and psychological functions of senior citizens. Students majoring in interior design are generally equipped with basic knowledge regarding universal design from lectures concerning ergonomics, spatial scale, and color psychology. Yet, their designs may not be appropriate because they cannot understand the physical and psychological needs of senior citizens, and they lack critical thinking and self-learning abilities. Therefore, the present study selected “age-friendly space design for senior care” as the research subject and expected to enhance students’ problem-identification and problem-solving skills and also to assist in laying a solid foundation for future lifelong self-learning.
In this innovative curriculum project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the present research team applied problem-based learning (PBL) in students’ group discussion. Students of design, health, and information and distribution science were grouped together for cross-disciplinary discussion to stimulate creativity in designing a diverse and comprehensive intelligent caring space. Accordingly, based on preceding experiences, the present study adjusted conventional lectures and cultivated students’ affective skills through in-situ activities and cooperative learning and encouraged students to participate in practical activities. Instruction from teachers in various fields and peer interactions provided students with guidance, knowledge, and competence, thus attaining practical education. The present study selected care facilities as the learning field and presented the results of teaching practice research. Students from the interior design department were asked to use an aging simulation suit in the care facility and were grouped with students from the nursing department to participate in cooperative learning. Students from the nursing department proposed users’ needs regarding space and equipment from the demand side of nursing care, and they also engaged in situational exercises with the students dressed in aging simulation suits. The situational exercises were aimed at prompting students from the interior design department to develop designs accommodating the needs of senior citizens to effectively address and resolve the inadequacy of space and equipment in the care facility. Students from the two departments engaged in field operation by employing the operation method (“learning-by-doing”), experiencing senior citizens’ needs, and completing their design for the purpose of experimental teaching and improvement of the spatial design in long-term care facilities. Furthermore, students from different academic backgrounds effectively participated in discussion and learning regarding the observed problems through the cooperative learning method and proposed designs that fulfill the requirements of senior care facilities. By practically experiencing the needs of senior citizens, students developed their designs to enhance the applicability of the spatial design and to achieve the aims of experimental teaching. Eventually, learning effectiveness analysis was conducted, and feedback was provided based on students’ design results.