Investigating Attitudes of Design Students Toward Parametric Design: Parametric Design Attitude Scale (PDAS)

This study aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to evaluate architecture students’ attitudes toward parametric design. Adapting items from three established instruments on design technologies and programming, a four-phase methodology was employed. In the first phase, relevant attitude scales from the literature were examined and adapted to parametric design. The second phase involved administering the adapted scale to architecture students and conducting exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, resulting in a four-dimensional structure: perceived usefulness; interest and preferences; functionality and application areas; and practicality and challenges. In the third phase, the finalized scale was applied to twenty-three students after a parametric design course alongside four affective measures. In the final phase all five survey results and students course performances are analyzed for correlations. The results showed that while PDAS shows strong relationships with self-confidence and design thinking variables, moderate correlation with task performance and other variables. This indicates that parametric design education requires balanced and sustainable pedagogical approaches.