More seeing in learning

Abstract

Recently, creativity has received increased attention for educational programs from primary to tertiary levels. This research examines the intricacies of the creative process to understand what creativity is and how an educational environment can nurture creative learning through seeing and doing. I argue that the architectural design studio deserves further attention for its pedagogy that trains students to see and act at a faster pace. Based upon my teaching experience and research with students who excelled and struggled in the design studio, I designed a case study to examine the design studio through a working educational program, NuVu, which is a multidisciplinary program for high school students. The NuVu case study offers surprising successes and challenges of modifying the architectural studio for both students and instructors; namely to adapt to the studio culture with its critiques and prototyping and to balance the 'seeing' and 'doing.' The main contribution of this work is to shed light upon how the design studio cultivates creative thinking and how it can be adapted successfully for a different context outside of its architectural confinement.