Developing a student-perceived satisfaction scale for design studio teaching in Chinese universities

Abstract

The studio teaching model, originating from the Bauhaus in Germany, has played a central role in design education; however, a systematic framework for evaluating its effectiveness remains underdeveloped. This study aimed to develop and validate a student-perceived satisfaction scale for university design studio teaching. A mixed-methods approach was adopted. First, a bibliometric visualization analysis of 4,719 publications identified five major research directions in design studio pedagogy through keyword clustering and co-occurrence analysis, providing the basis for a semi-structured expert interview questionnaire. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews with five experts generated 68,870 words of verbatim transcripts, which were analyzed using Grounded Theory (GT), resulting in 245 concepts, 82 open codes, 22 axial codes, and six selective codes. Based on these findings, an initial 110-item questionnaire was developed and refined through three rounds of Delphi consultation with 11 experts, establishing a three-level evaluation framework comprising six dimensions: Operational vision, Service management, Teaching model, Environment and atmosphere, Assessment system, and School-enterprise cooperation mechanism. The second-level indicators were then transformed into a student-perceived satisfaction scale and validated using reliability analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Finally, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed with 10 experts to determine the weights of the evaluation indicators. A total of 253 valid questionnaires were collected from studio students. The developed scale demonstrated excellent psychometric properties, with a Cronbach's α of 0.962, a KMO value of 0.953, and a significant Bartlett's test of sphericity ( p  < 0.001). The AHP results further established a hierarchically weighted evaluation framework for assessing design studio teaching. The proposed scale provides a theoretically grounded and empirically validated framework for evaluating university design studio teaching. It offers practical guidance for improving teaching quality, supporting evidence-based educational management, and facilitating the sustainable development of design studio education.