Improving Design Understandings and Skills through Enhanced Metacognition: Reflective Design Journals

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate and discover whether going through the process of reflection by keeping reflective design journals (RDJ) enhances architecture students’ metacognition and whether this enhanced metacognition improves their design understandings and skills. The study was a mixed‐methods design and utilised content analysis method to identify the metacognitive actions of the participants. The study also investigated participants’ attitudes towards RDJs and their views regarding the effect of enhanced metacognition on their design understandings and skills. Twenty college students registered to an undergraduate course offered by the department of Architecture participated in the research. The findings of the study revealed that by writing in their RDJs, participants were able to progressively enhance their metacognitive skills and performed several metacognitive actions by using the four main metacognitive strategies: awareness, organisation and planning, monitoring, and evaluation. The results also disclosed that participants found RDJ keeping exceptionally effective and stated that their enhanced metacognition improved their design understanding and abilities.

Značaj Dizajnerskih Dnevnika U Uvodnom Kursu Arhitektonskog Projektovanja

“…This is also confirmed by Crowther [9], who states that through graphic dialogue in the studio, criticism remains written in the form of drawings, thus representing an objective commentary. The results of this author, which are in line with our observations, have shown that the establishment of [13] demonstrated that keeping records of the design process increases students' meta-understanding and thus improves their ability to think and design. Oxman [14, p. 330] also considers sketch maps to be an invaluable tool for the development of student projects.…”

“…The presented research was conducted in the school year 2016/17 within the процес пројектовања у студију био материјализован, а самим тим и доступан за каснију обраду и анализу, студенти који су учествовали у истраживању представљеном у овом раду били су у обавези да документују процес развоја свог пројекта у мапи. Оправданост за примену мапа за скице нуде Курт и Курт [13] The design brief given to the students at the beginning of the semester was to propose a conceptual architectural solution for a single-family detached house based on a concise project task that differed for each student. The project task contained data on house residents for whose needs a freestanding housing unit is being designed.…”

“…Justification for the use of sketch maps is offered by Kurt and Kurt [13], who, researching reflective diaries of architecture students, showed that keeping records of the design process and engaging in the thinking process increases students' metaunderstanding and thus improves their ability to think and design. Through reflection and work in the map, students review and analyze all significant phases of architectural and design practice, which allows them to connect what they create in the study with professional procedures.…”

Metacognition in the Wild: Metacognitive Studies in Design Education

“…By metacognition as an instructional outcome, we refer to interventions whose intention was to promote the development of metacognitive abilities and metacognitive thinking. For example, Kurt and Kurt (2017) implemented a reflective design journal with architecture students aiming at enhancing their metacognitive skills and, as a consequence, improving their design skills: "The main aim of this study was to investigate and discover whether the use of reflective design journals (RDJ) enhanced architecture students' metacognition and whether, according to architecture students, this enhanced metacognition improved their design understandings and abilities" (p. 228).…”

“…This is an accomplishment that should not be understated, particularly when compared with students who did not participate in any interventions" (p. 513). Likewise, Kurt and Kurt (2017) report that their intervention "proved to be very effective in activating and enhancing metacognition. The study also revealed that enhanced metacognition improved the understandings and abilities of architecture students.…”