Construction Quantification Achievement: The Effect of Individual Cognitive Ability and Demographic Differences

Abstract

In responding to the construction quantification learning effect and academic achievements of the quantity surveying learners, the study examines the effects of several potential characteristics concerning specific individual differences such as cognitive abilities and demographics. Specifically, the study aims to compare the effects of individual differences in cognitive thinking, such as low or high spatial visualisation abilities and the demographics of learners (gender and age), towards the construction quantification achievement. The target respondent would be the quantity surveying learners (potential semi-professional graduates) in Malaysian public institutions. This preliminary study used a quantitative approach to determine the critical factors and indicators that lead to learners' moderate performance in the construction quantification course. A significant relationship between spatial visualisation ability (SVA) and the construction quantification achievement concludes that spatial intelligence serves as a framework to support people facing difficulties interpreting 2dimensional (2D) graphics representation. Seemingly, SVA is crucial to be possessed by the potential learners who wish to enrol in the quantity surveying programme. To successfully function and become more independent construction quantification learners in quantity surveying technical disciplines programme, these people need to have more spatial ability. However, there are no significant differences between different gender and age learners categories in spatial visualisation ability test (SVAT) scores and the construction quantification test (CQT) scores as the findings were insignificant. The result obtained in this study hoped to clarify the importance of cognitive ability and demographic differences to the construction quantification achievement.