Analysis of Learning Styles to Improve Architectural Education (Case Study: Architecture Students of Urmia University)

Knowing students is an important and effective aspect of teaching in architecture studios. Without properly knowing architecture students and their reactions, they cannot be taught under a standard, pre-determined program. One of the ways to know students is to know their learning styles, which shows their learning preferences and different learning methods. Corresponding teaching styles with the learning styles of students leads to a strengthened motivation for learning and academic achievement. With the increasing number of applicants entering the diverse fields of scientific and technical programs and their different learning types, there is an urgent need to know the characteristics of learners in various academic disciplines, including architecture. With an assessment of architectural education, this paper expresses that attention to learning styles is one of the ways to overcome the weaknesses in the field. The research method in this study is descriptive-analytic, through which architecture students of Urmia University are categorized based on Kolb’s learning styles inventory. Data are analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. The findings show that the dominant learning types of architectural students are the Assimilator and the Converger. Also that the students are Assimilators in the first half of their academic program, and Convergers in the second half, and that there is no significant relationship between learning styles and gender. After analyzing the findings, suggestions are made for students such as taking a specific test with necessary artistic prerequisites before entering the discipline, taking the learning styles test in the early stages of university education, and for educators such as adapting educational delivery to students' learning styles in the early years of education to motivate them to continue their education, and using varied teaching styles for different learner types. In addition, some examples and solutions are mentioned for adapting teaching to the needs of architecture students to make architectural education more effective.