Comparing University Design Students’ and Tutors’ Perceptions of Creativity

Abstract

This paper explores the perceptions and views of creativity amongst UK-based architecture and product design tutors and design students. This study is an extension of the authors’ earlier work that examined a group of design tutors’ views on creativity in design in a UK university design education context. The authors adopted a semi-structured interview approach and collected a series of rich insights into how design tutors and design students conceptualize creativity and how both perceive their role in developing creativity. The findings of the research indicate clear differences in the way that design tutors and design students assess their creative potential. Yet, at the same time, they both find it very difficult to define and conceptualize. The results also show that the design students generally acknowledge the role that design tutors play in promoting cultures of creativity in the university design studio, but also stressed the importance of the wider socio-cultural system. Lastly, the research reveals that many aspects of creativity in the university design studio remain shrouded in mystery and this lack of knowledge of creativity and how it facilitates design may well be compromising the education of design students. There is, however, clear interest from both the design tutors and students regarding creativity, and the value of domain-specific versus general notions of the concept of creativity in developing this cognitive skill.

Keywords:

• creativity
• perception
• design tutors
• design students
• university design education

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul A. Rodgers

Paul A. Rodgers is professor of Design at Imagination, Lancaster University, UK. He has also recently been appointed the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) design leadership fellow. Before joining ImaginationLancaster he was professor of Design Issues at Northumbria University School of Design (2009–2016), reader in Design at Edinburgh Napier University (1999–2009) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre (1996–1999). He is the author of more than 150 conference and journal papers and nine books on design that are available in Chinese, Spanish, and Italian. His current research interests include exploratory and experimental design research methodologies, design for change, and how disruptive design interventions can enact positive change in health and social care and elsewhere.

Paul Jones

Paul Jones is professor of Architectural Scholarship and head of Architecture at Northumbria University, UK. Prior to becoming an academic at Northumbria University, Paul taught at Manchester School of Architecture and practiced as an architect. His principal area of inquiry is design research, particularly as demonstrated through undertaking international architecture competitions, where he has achieved outstanding success, winning – or being placed – in 14 out of the 20 he has entered. These include the design of sustainable cities, important civic buildings, and master-plans for urban developments. This success has led to important building commissions and exhibitions in prestigious venues around the world. He has recently won a competition to design a $500 million health tourist resort in the Caribbean; he is now working with architectural practices to realize this project. Paul has also written books and for journals in the field of architecture and design.