Enhancing Creativity in Landscape Architectural Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was twofold: to investigate the feasibility of improving creative thinking within the framework of a senior design course in landscape architecture, and to test whether professors of landscape architecture recognize creativity traits in their students. The subjects were seniors in landscape architecture at West Virginia University, divided into “control” and “experimental” groups. Creative learning activities were substituted for some standard learning activities for the experimental group. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking were used for “pre” and “post” tests. The post test results revealed that the experimental group made significantly greater gains in total creativity scores than the control group. In the second part of the study the subjects were 385 seniors from 18 Landscape Architectural programs. The results revealed that the professors' ratings did not correlate with the students' creative thinking scores. The general implications are that creativity training should be included in courses of design and as part of the continuing education of L.A. teachers.