Evaluation of students? visual perception abilities in the scope of basic design/art education in interior architecture programs

Basic Design/Art Education, is a process during which the elements and principles of visual language are explained to the student and consolidated with implementations. In the context of interior architecture a proper comprehension, interpretation and expression of the visual environment and the elements and principles that constitute the visual whole bear importance. Course aims, course content and learning outcomes of the Basic Design/Art Education processes within the 36 active interior architecture programs in Turkey exhibit similarities, however, the student selection methods and therefore the qualifications of students in the cited interior architecture programs differ. Herein, the knowledge of how the visual perception abilities of student groups with different qualifications are affected during the Basic Design/Art Education process, comes into prominence.In this study, through a scientific methodology, considering the probable differences in students? qualifications, it is aimed to evaluate and compare students? visual perception abilities in the scope of the Basic Design/Art Education in interior architecture programs. In order to assess students? visual perception abilities and create a data whole that can be statistically analyzed, a questionnaire/test has been developed as the survey instrument. The items in the questionnaire/test, are created based on standardized visual perception tests, test batteries and survey instruments developed by other researchers, in accordance with the theoretical foundation. During the development process, the expert opinion of interior architecture educators, basic design/art educators, pedagogues and statisticians has been resorted. Pilot studies have been conducted in order to optimize the assessment performance of the questionnaire/test items.The findings of the study indicate that, in terms of overall success average, the students selected with aptitude exams demonstrated higher success rates compared to the students selected with the centralized Student Selection and Emplacement System. Additionally, in terms of the content of Basic Design/Art Education, students selected with aptitude exams demonstrated higher success rates on subjects; artificial elements, shape, light-shadow, and third dimension. According to the results, in order to improve the efficiency of the Basic Design/Art Education process for students and to achieve a coherent skill level at course completion various suggestions have been made.