Assessing visual skill development in basic design education

Abstract

Basic design education focuses on developing an understanding of the building blocks, organization principles and modes of thinking for the visual language, which is in essence a collection of conscious activities that form the foundation of any design process. Even though there are varying teaching methodologies, basic design courses share many common points. One of the underlying reasons of the variations in basic design education is the diversity of student profiles. Consequently, understanding student groups and transforming basic design education accordingly bears importance for effective learning. This research aims to understand the effects of basic design education on different student profiles in the context of visual perception and expression. Accordingly, visual abilities of two groups of basic design students from seven interior design departments were compared. One group (n=138) was admitted with a centralized test and the other group (n=115) was admitted with a visual aptitude exam to their respective programmes. A survey instrument was created for the experiment, based on standardized visual perception tests and other measuring tools developed by researchers. Findings indicated that students admitted through a visual aptitude exam demonstrated higher visual capabilities compared with students admitted through a centralized test. According to the results, suggestions were made for adjusting basic design content to achieve a coherent skill level among different student profiles at course completion.