The Potential of Reasoning Methods As a Teaching Strategy Supporting Students’ Creative Thinking in Architectural Design

Much research has emphasized the importance of ‘learning by doing’ in design education. Reasoning methods would be an effective strategy to support students’ reflection-in-action in designing. ‘Knowing how’ is associated with ‘design thinking’, and further, with ‘creativity’, which is essential for design outcomes. This research explores the potential of reasoning methods, specifically analogical reasoning and metaphorical reasoning, in design education for encouraging students to produce creative thinking in a design studio. For one semester, students were educated to adopt analogies and metaphors in designing and how students approached given design problems to produce design ideas was observed. The results showed that adopting reasoning methods as a teaching strategy in a design studio encouraged the development of the students’ design thinking by reorienting their approach to design, which eventually led to enhanced creativity in designing. Based on the results, this research presents critical issues to be considered for encouraging students to utilize analogical and metaphorical reasoning in designing.

Keywords: Analogical reasoning; creativity; design education; design thinking; metaphorical reasoning