Conditions influencing the development of design expertise: As identified in interior design student accounts

Development of design expertise by architecture students

“…Researchers have also used both cross-sectional (Bjorklund & Eloranta, 2008;Cardella, et al, 2006) and longitudinal survey (Adams, Turns & Atman, 2003;Smith, 2015) research designs. Crosssectional studies are based on studies carried out at a point in time while longitudinal studies are based on data collection extended over a period of time and seek to investigate the effect of time on the observed phenomenon.…”

“…Some of these factors have been found to influence the development of expertise especially in fields such as sports (Baker & Horton 2004), engineering design (Cardella, et al, 2006) and interior design (Smith, 2015). Such factors include starting age, familial support, instructional resources and other contextual factors (Baker, Horton, Robertson-Wilson & Wall, 2003); availability and use of instructional resources such as books (Cardella, et al, 2006) and emotional climate of the design studio, complexities of design juries and power differentials in student/ instructor relationships (Smith, 2015).…”

“…Such factors include starting age, familial support, instructional resources and other contextual factors (Baker, Horton, Robertson-Wilson & Wall, 2003); availability and use of instructional resources such as books (Cardella, et al, 2006) and emotional climate of the design studio, complexities of design juries and power differentials in student/ instructor relationships (Smith, 2015).…”

“…Case study method is sometimes used to study students' design processes on a particular design project, through observation (Popovic, 2004). A step further is the verbal protocol method, often used with the interview method, where respondents are prompted to give verbal reports through reflection on mental processes or by narration of events, experiences and life histories (Cardella, et al, 2006;Cross, 2003;Smith, 2015). The card sorting method that is also sometimes used involves observation of respondents while they sort concepts.…”

“…Although these studies shed light on the processes that differentiate the novice from the expert, there remains a need to find out the factors that can be employed by academia to enhance the development of design expertise. This may necessitate the investigation of the characteristics of students, namely their learning inputs as well as motivation, as has been done in the fields of sport (Baker & Horton, 2004) and interior design (Smith, 2015). This would help in developing future professionals who are fit for architectural practice.…”