Effect of first-semester basic design studio on architecture students’ creative skills: a pre-and post-test assessment

The present study focuses on assessing first-year architecture students’ creative skills by examining the changes in their cognitive skills due to curricular intervention and revealing the possible effects of personality and motivation factors. An experimental research design with related groups pre-and post-test approach was adopted, and a multiple-assessment test battery was developed based on the literature. The pre-and post-test approach was used to evaluate whether (1) the curricular intervention in the first-semester basic design course affected the cognitive skills of the students, (2) there was a significant change in personality and motivation factors of the students, and (3) the effects of the curricular intervention could be isolated from the changes in personality and motivation factors. The responses to the pre-and post-test were statistically analyzed, and findings indicated that the curricular intervention in the first-semester basic design course enhanced the fluency and flexibility dimensions in students’ divergent thinking skills to a greater extent and originality to a lesser extent in visual and verbal stimuli tasks. Such increase was found to be independent of the changes in personality and motivation factors. Rather, it was related to the curricular tasks provided to the students throughout the semester.