Investigating Possibilities of Developing Self-Directed Learning in Architecture Students Using Design Thinking

Stanislav Avsec and Magdalena Jagiełło-Kowalczyk
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Stanislav Avsec: Department for Physics and Technology Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Magdalena Jagiełło-Kowalczyk: Institute of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, 30-084 Kraków, Poland

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-25

Abstract: Education systems are struggling to effectively integrate in their study programs the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which define the challenges we need to overcome as a society in the 21st century. This study revealed the special agency that architecture and built environment have in shaping our social, economic, and natural environment using system and design thinking. Despite the several studies on the metacognitive design process, several cognitive traps still exist when developing design thinking in architecture education. This study investigated design thinking and self-directed learning in undergraduate architecture students. Responses collected from a sample of 117 undergraduates were subjected to bootstrapping in structural equation modelling to find significant relationships of reversed action when design thinking is used for developing self-directed learning. The findings suggest that design thinking is strongly connected with self-directed learning, and as shown in the resulting model, all components of self-directed learning are strongly explained by design thinking variables. This can provide insights for curriculum designers and educators on how to shape effective design thinking processes in architecture education to overcome existing shortcomings while improving interpersonal skills, creativity and digital skills, make pedagogical changes, and enhance redesign of learning outcomes towards sustainable architecture.

Keywords: sustainable development goals; design and design thinking; self-directed learning; sustainable architecture; structural equation modelling; bootstrapping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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