The Effect of Green Interior Programs for College Students with Developmental Disabilities on Plant Familiarity

Abstract

Background and objective: The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of green interior (greenterior) programs on the plant familiarity of college students with developmental disabilities (CSDDs). To this end, this study developed a horticultural education program based on greenterior contents for CSDDs.Methods: In the first step, a greenterior program was defined by a focus group composed of specialists from industry and academia. In the second step, ten sessions of the greenterior program were performed. In the third step, the effects of the program on plants familiarity scale for CSDDs were examined. Participants in this study were 30 CSDDs in N university, with 15 students as the experiment group and 15 as the control group.Results: When plant familiarity in experimental and control groups before and after the greenterior program were compared, it was found that the mean of the control group had slightly decreased, showing no statistically significant differences (p = .795). On the other hand, the experimental group showed a statistically significant increase in the mean for plant familiarity (p = .000). This result demonstrated that the program has a positive effect on the plant familiarity of CSDDs. This demonstrated that the greenterior program had more positive effects on plant familiarity in the experimental group than in the control group.Conclusion: These findings suggest that the greenterior program was not only effective in improving the plant familiarity of CSDDs, but also had positive effects in the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor/kinesthetic domains. This study can make a significant contribution in providing basic data for implementing greenterior programs to help CSDDs get familiar with plants in horticulture learning.