An Evaluation of Traditional Methods of Teaching Architecture Students Building Structures in Nigerian Universities

@article{1713571,
      author = {Oyadokun J. O., Amao F. L., Adeyinka R.},
      title = {An Evaluation of Traditional Methods of Teaching Architecture Students Building Structures in Nigerian Universities},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {9},
      number = {7},
      pages = {1865-1874},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1713571.pdf},
      abstract = {The importance of Building structures in the study of Architecture cannot be overemphasized due to its immense contributions and applications in Architectural designs and Building construction. The courses provide the students the needed knowledge and theoretical foundation to understand how building stands, rigid, durable, and beautiful. The courses assist the students to understand structural concepts, loads distribution, behavior of materials under different loads, and how to prevent structural failure that may lead to collapse of buildings in Nigeria. As importance as the courses are, traditional methods of teaching are the predominant methods of teaching Building structures across all Nigerian universities despite its shortcomings, and low performance of students in the courses in which the literature acknowledged. Therefore, there is need to evaluate these traditional methods been used in teaching the courses to Architecture students in Nigerian universities in order to improve on the methods used, performance of students and to better their understanding in Building structures.  The study employed descriptive survey and the research approach adopted was quantitative. It focused on Architecture students of public universities in Southwestern Nigeria universities fully accredited by National Universities Commission (NUC) and Architects Registration Council of Nigeria (ARCON). Five public universities were sampled out of fifteen approved universities with departments of Architecture in Southwestern Nigeria. The universities were: Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo state; Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile ? Ife, Osun State; University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lagos, Lagos state; University of Ibadan (UI), Ibadan, Oyo state and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The principal survey techniques used was questionnaire. The population for the study was one hundred and twenty five (125) students. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, and Likert scaling. The study revealed that tradition methods of teaching are purely used to teach Building structures in Nigerian universities. It was also revealed that the methods affected the performance of students? coupled with lack of proper understanding, inadequate teaching materials and aids, and unavailability of building software to teach the students. The study concluded that there is urgent need to move from traditional to modern methods to teach Building structures in Nigerian universities by adopting a blend of theoretical knowledge, technological proficiency with digital communication such as Building structures software, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Revit, ETABS, SAP2000, Teckla, Digital modeling and 3D stimulation into the curriculum to teach Architecture students in order to improve on their performance.},
      keywords = {Traditional methods, Teaching, Building structures, Architecture students, Nigerian universities.},
      month = {January},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I7-1713571}
  }