Using an analogical thinking model as an instructional tool to improve student cognitive ability in architecture design learning process

Lack of creativity is a problem often plaguing students from design-related departments. Therefore, this study is intended to incorporate analogical thinking in the education of architecture design to enhance students’ learning and their future career performance. First, this study explores the three aspects of architecture design curricula, interaction and students’ cognitive development. Then the study discusses learning based on analogical thinking into two parts: analogical learning and analogical reasoning. The samples in this study were the freshmen of the Department of Architecture, China University of Technology. The model was used in a five-week unit of the course of Architecture Design, a required course for all the freshmen. Questionnaires were given to the students before and after the unit to evaluate the influences of the model in the dimensions of Teaching, Teacher-student Interactions, Student–student Interactions, Cognitive Development, and Overall Learning Performance. The questionnaire results were collected and statistically analyzed. The analysis results indicated that, the students scored significantly higher in each of the dimension after the unit than before the unit. These findings suggested that the use of an analogical thinking model can be helpful in the teaching of architecture design. Hopefully, the findings of this study can provide helpful references for not only teaching of architecture design but also future related research.