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Creating Mature Thinkers in Interior Design: Pathways of Intellectual Development
Author(s) -
CarmelGilfilen Candy,
Portillo Margaret
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of interior design
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.229
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1939-1668
pISSN - 1071-7641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1939-1668.2010.01043.x
Subject(s) - interior design , critical thinking , design thinking , class (philosophy) , cognition , mathematics education , psychology , convergent thinking , creative thinking , engineering , social psychology , creativity , computer science , architectural engineering , artificial intelligence , mechanical engineering , neuroscience
Critical thinking skills are essential to meeting the economic, sustainable, and social challenges of the future. The purpose of this study was to explore critical thinking in interior design students using the W. G. Perry (1968) scheme, a model of epistemic cognitive development describing how thinking in college students progresses from black‐and‐white absolutes to a contextual understanding of knowledge. The authors present findings from a study involving 32 beginning and intermediate interior design students who were empirically assessed on global and design‐specific thought development using the Measure of Intellectual Development (Widick & Knefelkamp, 1974) and the Measure of Designing (Portillo, 1987), respectively. The study objectives were to examine thought development in interior design students, investigate the relationship between global and design thinking, and explore relationships between thought development, student performance, and class standing. The results supported three levels of thought development: dualistic, transitional, and multiplistic with overall thinking appeared to be more advanced than thinking in design. The study also revealed both types of thinking significantly related to studio performance and class standing. The Perry model appears to have strong potential for understanding thought development in interior design students.