Architectural Education in Relation with Thinking Preferences of Students

Document Type : علمی - پژوهشی

Author

Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Because of the multiple dimensions of design issues, it is essential that architectural students as designers be trained in objective, subjective, critical, and creative thinking styles. This study is based on Ned Herrmann’s “Whole Brain Thinking” model studying the “thinking preferences” and thinking styles pertaining to the four quadrants of the brain. Little such research has been conducted to date in the field of architectural education.
The main reason for choosing Herrmann’s model was that it categorizes people according to multiple priorities, unlike other tools which mostly classify individuals according to their thinking styles. The present paper presents a field study in which data was collected from 140 freshman and senior students of architecture and chemistry in ETH Zurich in Switzerland in the form of 120-question HBDI structured assessment.
Research findings indicate that after the completion of the Bachelor’s program, architecture students are more flexible in using different styles of thinking as compared to chemistry students. This explains the effect of architectural education in extending thinking preferences of students, which makes sense with regard to the multi-dimensional aspects of the architectural discipline.
This research shows that architectural education trains students to use their whole-brain capacity, yet intervening factors such as the curriculum and methods of instruction can tackle this effect. The force of this effect toward whole brain thinking can be different in different universities. Therefore, paying attention to the methods of instruction and diverse thinking styles with emphasis on whole brain dominance would improve the quality of architectural education.

Keywords

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History

  • Receive Date: 10 June 2018
  • Revise Date: 27 January 2021
  • Accept Date: 31 December 2020

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