Individual dispositions and the adoption of surface learning in design

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the inter-relationship between students' mind-sets, tolerance for ambiguity and self-efficacy to the learning approaches that design students adopt. Data was collected using a questionnaire and distributed to industrial design students from two universities in Malaysia. We find significant differences between high and low surface learners. In contrast to low surface learners, high surface learners were associated to a fixed mind-set and views their design capability as unchangable, are highly tolerant of ambiguity and rates themselves highly on self-efficacy.