Correspondences and divergences between teachers and students in the evaluation of design creativity in the design studio

The assessment of design creativity is a fundamental issue in the educational curriculum in schools of architecture. Assessment in the form of criticism is carried out in the design studio, where students acquire skills and knowledge, forge judgments about their design outcomes, and get feedback from their instructors. This study focuses on the assessment of creativity in design problem solving. The major objective of this research was to test to what extent architects and design students share the same conceptions of creativity, and how similar they are. Contrasting differences were found between the two groups. While architects focused on innovation aspects, students paid more attention to operational aspects, such as dealing with design requirements. It is maintained that handling these differences by means of intervention programs in the design studio may promote the acquisition of design processes and procedures by the students, and also that, it will contribute to bridging the gap between the way teachers and students perceive and evaluate design creativity.