An Exploration of Study Spaces Among Chinese and Indian Graduate Students

Ibtihaj Alsadun,Lee Duemer,Charles Klein,Kristi Gaines,Michelle Pearson

doi:10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.13

Ibtihaj Alsadun, Lee Duemer + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajad.20210601.13

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Abstract

Over the last 40 years, many environmental design researchers have examined the environment’s impact on people and sought answers to questions on personal feelings with the environment and how people become attached to a place and develop feelings about it. Research in place attachment has primarily focused on the social aspect, leaving a gap in the literature related to concepts of the built environment. The present study seeks to fill this gap by addressing the issue of physical place attachment among specific groups of international graduate students at Texas Tech University, a large public university in West Texas. Previous studies focused on generic and largescale place concepts such as the physical neighborhood ambiance. This study, by contrast, examines how international students from China and India choose and develop an attachment to study spaces around the university. A grounded qualitative research design was selected as the exploratory method of studying how international graduate students select, interact with, and create an attachment to preferred study places on and off-campus. The researcher conducted semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with a purposive sample of 50 Indian and Chinese participants. The results revealed some similarities and differences between Indian and Chinese graduate students in their most and least-preferred physical design and ideal study places. Both groups preferred quietness and natural light. However, Chinese graduate students preferred to study alone, while Indian graduate students felt motivated and supported when studying with others.

Highlights

Over the last several years, many environmental design researchers have examined the environment’s impact on people and have sought answers to questions such as do personal feelings affect satisfaction with an environment, and how do people become attached to a place and develop feelings about it in the first place? People attach to a place for several reasons
One interview was conducted in a Teaching Assistant (TA) office at the Agricultural Sciences Building and the rest of the interviews were conducted at the graduate center
Findings of the preferred places to study showed that 17 participants preferred to study in the TA offices

Summary

Introduction

People attach to a place for several reasons. Over the last several years, many environmental design researchers have examined the environment’s impact on people and have sought answers to questions such as do personal feelings affect satisfaction with an environment, and how do people become attached to a place and develop feelings about it in the first place? They develop memories based on living for an extended period in that place, childhood events that occurred there, people they met, and friendships they made there. The idea of place attachment is a broad concept, involving social and psychological issues on a variety of scales from group to individual responses [17]

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