A Critical Review on the Differences Between an Art Student and a Design Student in Their Critical Thinking and Learning Style

Abdellatif, Weaam; ElKhodary, Esraa

doi:10.21608/jdsaa.2020.28503.1013

A Critical Review on the Differences Between an Art Student and a Design Student in Their Critical Thinking and Learning Style

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Weaam Abdellatif ¹
Esraa ElKhodary ²

¹ Faculty of Arts & Design, OCTOBER UNIVERSITY FOR SCIENCES & ARTS (MSA UNIVERSITY), 6th October City, Egypt.

² Faculty of Arts & Design, October University for Sciences & Arts (MSA University), 6th. October City, Egypt.

10.21608/jdsaa.2020.28503.1013

Abstract

Creative thinking is the process of a specific thought that improves the ability of creativeness. The process enables the mind to generate new ideas and to think deliberately in different ways. When comparing between an Art student and a Design student, their creative and critical thinking might have similarities at the beginning of their education, since they are still exploring their talent, but students at their final year or even post graduate students might be totally different from one another. “David Kolb” published his learning styles model which gave rise to terms such as “experiential learning theory” (ELT), and “learning styles inventory” (LSI). In this paper, the researchers suggest that applying David Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT) would differentiate between an Art student and a Design student which could help in guiding students to their strength point and to discover themselves as early as possible, besides helping the educator to design a flexible design course which could match both types and make use of the best of them. The research methodology is based on a theoretical approach covering Kolb's model, critical thinking and a case study on students enrolled at the Faculty of Arts and Design, MSA University. All levels of students were covered in 4 majors as well as a comparable study applied to a sample of students who go through the case study five years ago and had been asked them to redo the questionnaire once more to compare the results.

Keywords

References

7. References

(1) Schön, D.A., 2017. The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge. (2) Schön, D.A., 1987. Educating the reflective practitioner. (3) Waks, L.J., 1999. Reflective practice in the design studio and teacher education. Journal of curriculum studies, 31(3), pp.303-316. (4) Waks, L.J., 2001. Donald Schon's philosophy of design and design education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 11(1), pp.37-51. (5) Kvan, T. and Jia, Y., 2005. Students' learning styles and their correlation with performance in architectural design studio. Design Studies, 26(1), pp.19-34.
Table 1. Students' questionnaire results

97

(6) Uluoǧlu, B., 2000. Design knowledge communicated in studio critiques. Design Studies, 21(1), pp.33-58. (7) Demirbaş, Ö.O., 2001. The relation of learning styles and performance scores of the students in interior architecture education (Doctoral dissertation, Bilkent University). (8) Demirbaş, O.O. and Demirkan, H., 2003. Focus on architectural design process through learning styles. Design Studies, 24(5), pp.437-456. (9) Newland, P., Powell, J.A. and Creed, C., 1987. Understanding architectural designers' selective information handling. Design Studies, 8(1), pp.2-16. (10) Demirbas, O.O. and Demirkan, H., 2007. Learning styles of design students and the relationship of academic performance and gender in design education. Learning and instruction, 17(3), pp.345-359. (11) Slaats, A., Lodewijks, H.G. and van der Sanden, J.M., 1999. Learning styles in secondary vocational education: disciplinary differences. Learning and instruction, 9(5), pp.475-492. (12) Dunn, R. and Dunn, K., 1975. Learning styles, teaching styles. NASSP Bulletin, 59(393), pp.37-49. (13) Indrasiene, V., Jegeleviciene, V., Merfeldaitė, O., Penkauskiene, D., Pivoriene, J., Railiene, A., Sadauskas, J. and Valaviciene, N., 2019. WHAT CRITICAL THINKING AND FOR WHAT?. SOCIAL WELFARE: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, 1(9), pp.24-38. (14) Paul, R. and Elder, L., 2006. The Miniature Guide to Critical thinking. Concepts and tools. Foundation for critical thinking. Dillon Beach, CA. Retrieved Dec, 8, p.2015. (15) Montana-Hoyos, C. and Lemaitre, F., 2011. Systems thinking, disciplinarity and critical thinking in relation to creativity within contemporary arts and design education. Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation & Development, 8(2). (16) McLeod, S., 2013. „Kolb–Learning styles‟, Simply Psychology. (17) Kolb, D.A., 1981. Learning styles and disciplinary differences. The modern American college, 1, pp.232-255. (18) Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A, Kolb Learning Style Inventory workbook version 3.2, Philadelphia, PA: HayGroup, 2013. (19) Kolb, D.A., Boyatzis, R.E. and Mainemelis, C., 2001. Experiential learning theory: Previous research and new directions. Perspectives on thinking, learning, and cognitive styles, 1(8), pp.227-247. (20) Mathew, P., Mathew, P. and Peechattu, P.J., 2017. Reflective practices: A means to teacher development. Asia Pacific Journal of Contemporary Education and Communication Technology, 3(1), pp.126-131. (21) Gibbs, G., 1988. Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit.