Abstract: (8 Views)
Schools, as one of the most important social institutions, play a crucial role beyond education by significantly influencing students' psychological, social, and academic development. The quality of the school environment, especially its physical and psychological aspects, fundamentally affects the formation of students' academic self-concept, boosts their self-confidence, and improves their attitudes toward their own abilities. This study aims to investigate the impact of the physical and psychological quality of school environments, along with the behavioral contexts arising from students’ perception of this quality, on the academic self-concept of female secondary school students in Isfahan. Employing a qualitative descriptive phenomenological approach, the research sampled 15 second-grade female students from Farzanegan 1 School who had at least one year of study experience and agreed to participate in in-depth semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi’s method via ATLAS.ti software. Results revealed that physical factors such as natural lighting, green spaces, flexible spatial arrangements, visual aesthetics, and natural elements within the school environment directly reduce stress, increase calmness, and enhance learning motivation. Additionally, psychological qualities including a sense of belonging, memory evocation, environmental beauty, and spatial legibility were found to promote self-confidence, self-efficacy, and positive academic attitudes. Furthermore, behavioral contexts like collaborative spaces, opportunities for group interaction, and psychological support significantly contributed to strengthening academic self-concept and active engagement in the learning process. These findings suggest that intelligently designed school environments, aligned with students’ psychological and social needs, substantially improve educational quality, reinforce academic self-concept, and foster holistic development.
Keywords: School environment quality, Academic self-concept, Spatial design, Behavioral context, Environmental perception, Educational architecture.
Type of Study: Research |
Received: 2025/04/25 | Accepted: 2025/12/7 | ePublished ahead of print: 2026/08/15
Received: 2025/04/25 | Accepted: 2025/12/7 | ePublished ahead of print: 2026/08/15
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