Childrens participation in designing the school ground

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of preschool children in designing their school grounds. It will implementthe concepts of an innovative participatory multi-method known as Mosaic Approach. The Mosaic approach uses a variety of methods including observation, child interviewing, children drawing, children photograph and map-making to generate documentation. This leads to a formulation of the ‘design concept’ which emerged from the documentation, including some surprising design ideas, for example active spaces, personal spaces, scales, colour schemes and materials. This paper summarizes the result obtained from a case study of a group of children under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Malaysia. Results showed that children are capable asa research participants by helping the teachers and landscape architects to understand the environment from their perspectives including what it means, what is important and futures liked and dislike. Their views could provide additional knowledge about their outdoor play and learning experiences and significant implications for planning and designing of their existing or future school grounds. This led to creating a sustainable school grounds design that meets the needs of preschool children in Malaysia.