Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory

Abstract Objective: Environmental crises, public policies, and shifts in cultural decision-making have diminished traditional opportunities for direct engagement with open spaces and nature. The reduced human-nature connection has led to significant psychological effects, particularly among children. Numerous studies highlight the pivotal role of green and natural environments in enhancing social well-being by offering diverse spaces that respond to children's needs and interests, thereby addressing the aforementioned issues.
Creating a spectrum of sensory variations fosters enriched emotional development in children and effectively regulates their emotions. Additionally, such environments enhance children's emotional capacities, including self-confidence, group interactions, dynamic communication, exposure to diverse emotions, and motivation for learning—elements closely tied to emotional intelligence. In this regard, urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture hold substantial potential for preserving and reinforcing nature experiences within contemporary built environments.
Method: This study goes beyond conventional cognitive learning frameworks by employing a biophilic approach tailored to children's developmental needs, examining its influence on emotional intelligence. The primary objective is to identify biophilic design characteristics that effectively support the enhancement of children's emotional intelligence. To achieve this, expert perspectives were systematically analyzed using Q-factor analysis, allowing for the extraction of key indicators that define the relationship between biophilic design and emotional intelligence. This methodological approach ensures that findings are grounded in interdisciplinary insights, reinforcing the role of nature-integrated spaces in fostering emotional growth.
Conclusions: these indicators summarized into four factors: personal experience, social aspects, spatial characteristics, and ecological nature and landscape.

Abstract The present study, based on the promotion of social trust and social interactions, aims at providing a number of guidelines for the design of children’s open learning spaces. An exploratory research is conducted based on both qualitative-quantitative methods. At the primer part of the research which is the focus of this article a qualitative method is applied, using three rounds of Delphi. Consequently, professionals were interviewed in an unstructured way in the field of landscape architecture and social psychology. Then, with the techniques of open and axial coding the content table is created to manage questionnaires. Network sampling method (snowball) on the sample size of 10 professionals is used. The data were analyzed using Q factor analysis and four factors were recognized. The most affecting elements on the social trust in process of learning in open primary school spaces are consist of; social, design, physical spaces and environmental psychology dimensions.

Abstract Considering the effects of open school spaces on students, the aim of the study was to provide guidelines for designing school open spaces to enhance the level of emotional intelligence and learning in primary school children. This can be done through increasing the level of motivation and providing the appropriate space to play. In this research a quantitative-qualitative research method is applied. Also, the Delphi system of gathering data is used to produce content-table and questionnaires. According to Kline, the sample size is calculated around 326. Teachers and school designers were questioned using randomized cluster sampling. The data was evaluated in SPSS software program version 22 using R factor analysis to produce analytical model in Amos. The results of the research indicated that physical aspects of space including: natural and diverse elements, spaces with cultural functions, semi-private (with supervision) and flexible environments, spatial diversity, space for different types of play and diverse connections between open and close spaces affect the changes of emotional intelligence in schoolyard. Thus, it was concluded that school open spaces are physical sites as well as social sets. Students’ behavior, abilities and space applications can be affected by spatial characteristics in school yard and lead to acquiring emotional abilities