Investigating students’ challenges in learning architectural design process

Abstract

Architectural design education is one of the curricula taught at different levels and requires identifying factors that influence students’ design process. Meanwhile, learning styles and reflective thinking are two variables influencing the design process. Matching teachers’ teaching styles with students’ learning and thinking styles strengthens the design product. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between reflective thinking and learning styles with the design ability of architecture students. The method used is descriptive-analytical and descriptive-correlative. Accordingly, the preference of 140 architecture students from Tehran Azad University and Konya Technical University for Kolb’s learning styles was investigated. In this respect, Kember and Leung’s reflective thinking questionnaire was used for the four components of habitual action, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection, and Kolb’s learning style questionnaire was used for the four components of divergent, convergent, assimilative, and accommodative learning styles. The results showed that there was a direct relationship between reflective thinking and students’ design ability. In other words, with reflective thinking and intellectual ability, appropriate prediction for architectural design can be achieved. In addition, design ability is related to the student’s learning style.