CREATIVITY IN PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION: UNDERSTANDING THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Year: 2016
Editor: Erik Bohemia, Ahmed Kovacevic, Lyndon Buck, Christian Tollestrup, Kaare Eriksen, Nis Ovesen
Author: Alhussain, Danah; Loudon, Gareth; Wilgeroth, Paul
Series: E&PDE
Institution: Carfiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Section: Creativity
Page(s): 102-107
ISBN: 978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract
This paper examines current research into the relationship between creativity and the immediate
physical environment, and how it has been found to influence the creativity of undergraduate product
design students. This includes conducting an experiment testing the familiar physical environment of
the students, and exploring studies about how taking students into a different, more immersive
environment affects learning and stimulates creativity. By comparing the result of that experiment to theories about how environments can affect creativity,
the score difference is not statistically significant overall even though one of the test groups scores
marginally higher than the others. This outcome maybe occurs due to the type of experiment chosen,
the scoring method or the test environments. The paper concludes by outlining plans for further
investigation as part of a recently commenced PhD research project.
Keywords: Design, Creativity, Learning Environments, Learning, Enhancing, Physical Environment.