Improving Green Building Education by Addressing the Learning Style and Prior Knowledge of Students

Abstract

Green building education requires successful teamwork of students from different disciplines to solve challenging problems. Team performance depends on both team process behavior and team cognition. There have been many studies on team process behavior such as communication. However, establishing a common understanding of a team, i.e., the essential part of team cognition, still lacks adequate research. To gain this common understanding, concept learning is critical. A concept learning process can be improved when factors affecting it are addressed. This paper discusses the results of an empirical study addressing the relationship between the concept learning process and such a factor, the learning style of students, in a multidisciplinary team context. An experiment was conducted comparing two groups of students in terms of acquiring knowledge about certain concepts in green building. One group learned concepts by using a conventional method, and the other group was given concepts customized to their learning styles. Tests were conducted at various stages, and the results were statistically analyzed. The findings indicate that, in general, the group that was given customized study materials showed significantly more improvement in their concept learning than the group who learned concepts through conventional materials. This initial finding is based on a small group of students. Additional studies on the impact of other factors such as thinking style need to be conducted in the future.