Volume 2, Issue 2, November, 2015
ISSN 2201-1323
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Embedding Metacognitive Skills in Spatial Design Education Marisha McAuliffe, Penelope Martin, Leah Cameron and Jasmin Hankinson, Queensland University of Technology, Australia (Pages 1 to 11) Metacognitive skills are considered to be essential for graduates from higher education institutions. In teaching spatial design, a fundamental aspect of student learning is the ability to ‘frame’ problems, generate solutions and explore possibilities of different solutions. This article proposes an innovative approach to design education through the implementation of strategies into the design process. The externalisation of implicit and tacit learning through metacognition connects theoretical concepts to interior design process and practice, as well as allowing students to engage and critically analyse issues surrounding theory and practice, thus equipping them with the skills as future design professionals. |
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Preliminary Study of Creative Problem Solving on Open-ended Mathematical Problems Lim Keng Keh, Univeristi Technologi Malaysia, Malaysia and Zaleha Ismail, Univeristi Technologi Malaysia, Malaysia (Pages 12 to 25) This paper aims to find out how undergraduate engineering students solve open-ended mathematical problems. More specifically the paper provides an insight into the effects of using Creative Problem Solving (CPS) when solving open-ended mathematical problem. This preliminary study was carried out in a local Malaysian university. Students (n= 25) had to solve open-ended mathematical problem collaboratively with the use of pen, paper and calculators. Intervention through Creative Problem Solving strategies was used as a guide to help the students to solve such problems. After they had solved the problems they were interviewed individually.The results showed that engineering students use different ways to solve open-ended mathematical problems.
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Networked Professional Learning Dr. Tina Doe, Education Consultant, Australia. (Pages 26 to 47) This article is about the importance of High Impact Instructional Leadership in schools and introduces the Teacher Professional Learning Initiative framework (Doe, 2013; 2014; 2015). High Impact Instructional Leadership is a professional learning clinic based on the work of Doe (2014 & 2015). Principally the framework prescribes that teachers have to make space and take time to find a place for paced professional learning (ST2P) (Doe 2011). The article investigates whether her signature professional learning model, Space Time Place and Pace (ST2P) is transferable to an Instructional Leadership network. High Impact Instructional Leadership (HIIL) participants work both individually and collectively to action their vision for improvement, innovation and change in teaching practice with a firm focus on moral purpose, that is, maximising learner outcomes. If school performance culture can be seeded/enhanced and sustained through HIIL networked professional learning then ST2P is an efficacious Instructional Leadership Model. |
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On Imagining in Spatial Design Marisha McAuliffe, Queensland University of Technology, Australia (Pages 48 to 58) Using imagination during the design process is a critical part of how designers design. However, what designers imagine - see in the mind’s eye - during the design process is a complex and difficult to articulate phenomenon, which, until recently, has not been greatly understood or articulated. This early study reports on an education context where exercises were integrated into undergraduate design studies aimed to enhance the imagining process. Outcomes suggest that exercising the imagination in this context assists future designers to become more skilled in design synthesis practices which explore various temporal, existential and physical qualities in future spaces, as well as be able to articulate the seemingly ‘mysterious’ aspects of the design process. |
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Leadership in Creating the Outstanding School: A Paradigm Shift in Style and Practice Dr Bruce M. Robinson, Jumeira Baccalaureate School , Dubai, UAE (Pages 59 to 75) This paper focuses on the leadership practices needed to set up the conditions for building an outstanding school. Purporting a shift in the way school leaders think about schooling today, Dr. Bruce explores the need for developing a collaborative school culture to build a learning platform to meet the needs of students growing up in an information rich world. In doing so he offers practical advice for school leaders gained from a wealth of experience in leading international schools. |
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Tensions in Creating an Innovative Community of Vocational Education and Entrepreneurship Dr. Elina Oksanen-Ylikoski, Director, Communications and Development Omnia, the Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region, Finland and Dr. Teemu Ylikoski, Director of Regional Services Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland. (Pages 76 to 82) New innovations are necessary to ensure and enforce entrepreneurship skill development and working-life-centricity in vocational education. We present an example from Finland. InnoOmnia is a multi-actor knowledge community within a VET organisation. It brings together students, entrepreneurs, and teachers in a non-formal setting where traditional roles are revamped. A number of traditional silos have been broken in order to build a co-learning innovation environment. The transition is not painless, however. Using a large dataset of text and visual content, we identify tensions relating to the transition. The tensions fall under the themes of community borders, operational culture, structures and leadership. InnoOmnia is not perceived as one community. Rather, every participant seems to have his or her own representation of it. Based on these differences, conflicts arise. Our research indicates that an innovative, entrepreneurial community inevitably contains destructive and conflicting forces as well. A key force counterbalancing the tensions is enthusiasm. |
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Testing: Room for Creativity Pamela A. Watters. University of Rhode Island, USA (Pages 83 to 96) This literature review examines the placement of formative assessment as pedagogy to foster creative learning in our classrooms. Formative assessment and its features are contrasted with those of summative testing. Formative assessment theory, methodologies, and outcomes are presented. Theories and evidence on the negative impact of standardized testing on creativity are discussed, as well as principles of good instructive practices in creativity learning. The specific characteristics of formative assessment that support creativity learning are detailed. It is shown through work of researchers such as Pintrich and Schunk, that formative assessment fosters a student goal structure which emphasizes the healthy motivational beliefs, positive learning attitudes, perseverance, and openness to academic challenge that is also supportive of creative learning. Finally, acknowledgement of the challenges of implementing policy to use more formative assessment are balanced by a call for criticality in developing the important 21st century skills of innovation, critical thinking and creativity. |
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The importance of Reflective Journaling as a research tool used to analyse the professional identity of pre service Technology Teachers Deborah Trevallion. The University of Newcastle, Australia. (Pages 97 to 110) The advancement of a tertiary student’s professional identity as a technology teacher is essential to grasping Technology education concepts and framing future Technology education research.The aim of this research is to examine the professional identity transition that occurs for students’ over the course of a technology teacher education pre-service program and to determine the factors that contribute to a successful transition. It will examine the student’s initial identity as a trade worker, trace their identity, knowledge, skill, values and attitudes developed during their first course in a Technology Teacher pre service university program. This study is a part of a larger study. This study uses online journaling during their first technology foundation course, as a way to examine the professional identity change of Technology students moving from a technical/trade worker to a Technology teacher. The journaling is time-lined against specific pedagogies in order to gain insight into the impact on the Technology teachers developing professional identity. Analysis is carried out using the Most Significant Change technique (MSC) (Davies & Dart, 2005). MSC is a technique for monitoring and evaluating change. This study suggests that a student’s tertiary education should be focused on them developing their identity as a professional Technology teacher. A technology teacher’s understanding of the nature of technology heavily influences their professional identity, their perceptions of technology education and consequently shapes their teaching practice. The influences on the development of this identity, both positively and negatively, will direct pedagogues used in their teaching preparation and will also direct future research in Technology education. |
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Passionately Curious: How passion affects creativity in the context of supervisor support Tumpa Dey (Fellow, XLRI, School of Management, Jamshedpur), Assistant Professor, Institute of Management Technology, Hyderabad, ;Prof. Munish Thakur, Associate Professor, XLRI, School of Management, Jamshedpur and Prof. E S. Srinivas, Professor, XLRI, School of Management, Jamshedpur (Pages 111 to 135)
In a sample of 400 employees working in 7 different large as well as moderately-sized manufacturing and engineering companies in and around Jamshedpur, India, I plugged a research gap recognized by creativity experts in the form of identifying a motivational mechanism other than intrinsic motivation that could affect creativity. Building on self-determination theory, I developed and tested a model in which harmonious passion (HP), identified as a novel motivational mechanism affects employee creativity with work engagement playing an important role in translating HP into employee creativity especially in an atmosphere of support from the supervisors. As hypothesized, HP positively related to employee creativity, work engagement partially mediated this relationship in a supportive atmosphere. Same-source common method bias was reduced by employing dyadic data, both from the employees as well as their supervisors. |
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"My Russian Aunt" or "Dad, It Works": Towards Folkloristic Teacher Training (Commentary Piece) Yaron Vansover, Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel-Aviv, Israel (Pages 136 to 151) Teacher training poses a paradox: Everyone agrees that classroom management is the most troubling area for young teachers during their first years in school. Everyone expects teacher training programs to try to equip their graduates with the proper tools to deal with this difficulty. But, amazingly, everyone also agrees that these training programs almost completely ignore the issue of classroom management. The article presents the customary research solution orientation to mitigate this paradoxical tension, and points to its limitations. Instead, it raises a different orientation which centers on teaching stories. This folkloristic orientation does not require generalization, clarity or exclamation points. |