An Experimental Study on the Relationship between Sensory Awareness and Creativity in Design Education

Today, by the fact that various approaches are tried in design education, an eye-centred approach is dominant among them. Whereas, in the development of the concept of creativity, it is thought that the awareness gained in sensory process will increase the creativity of the designer. This study is based on the hypothesis that, in spite of the increasing domination of the eye in design education, multi-sensory awareness training, which will allow for the integration of vision with other senses, may affect creativity positively. This study was conducted with the freshmen, who studied in the Department of Interior Architecture in Karadeniz Technical University during 2014-2015 academic year, with the aim of creating awareness for the senses of the students, and revealing the effect of their awareness on creative thinking. This experimental study was conducted in three main steps: Firstly, the creativity levels of the students were determined by Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT, Form A - pre-test). Secondly, multi-sensory awareness education was applied by basing on TTCT verbal and formal creativity parameters in order to reveal the effect of awareness on creative thinking. Thirdly, the effects of sensory awareness acquisitions on the creativity levels of students were determined by the post-test (TTCT, Form B). As a result of the statistical analyses carried out within the scope of this study aiming to create awareness of the senses and to draw attention to the relationship between the senses and design education, it was determined that multi-sensory awareness education increased students' creativity. It was found out by TTCT that the total verbal and formal creativity of the experimental group, which had multi-sensory awareness education in addition to their existing first-year interior architecture education, are significantly increased.