‘I have enjoyed teaching science more’: Changing the attitudes of primary teachers and pupils towards science

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This article explores issues with primary science, changing attitudes towards primary science and the interrelationship between attitudes and experiences. It examines findings from research that investigated the views and experiences of twelve science leaders undertaking a professional development programme designed to develop primary science pedagogy and leadership. Qualitative data collected using questionnaires, an interview, focus group, and programme submissions were analysed thematically and using keywords. The findings suggest changes in science leaders’ and teachers’ attitudes towards teaching science and of pupils towards learning science. By considering attitudinal change as a particular form of learning leading to the acquisition of ‘personal knowledge’ after Eraut, this article raises questions about individual and social construction of attitudinal knowledge. It also explores the way attitudes and experiences interrelate and how teachers’ professional development might influence collective attitudinal knowledge across school communities and, in turn, enhance individual learning.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Thinking Inside the Box — Graduate Students\u27 Perspectives on Hindered Creativity: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of adult graduate students who have had their creativity hindered in an educational context. The phenomenological method developed by Thomas and Pollio (2002) at the University of Tennessee was utilized to understand the essence of meaning and to gain an in-depth awareness into the experience of hindered creativity from an adult learner‟s perspective. Participants in this study experienced having their creativity hindered in a variety of ways with a prolonged and multifaceted aftermath. The study was conducted with twelve adult graduate students from a state university. Utilizing phenomenology and transformative learning theory as the conceptual framework for the study, the data revealed three themes that stood out against the ground of the learners‟ mistrust of authority. A dynamic relationship between the professor and student within the academic box created the ground of the experience. Within the ground of the box participants experienced an initial mistrust of the professor who hindered their creativity. This mistrust dominated their experience and influenced their relationship with the professor and academia. The mistrust was then interpreted by the participant to be either justified or unjustified depending upon the merit of the explanation provided by the professor upon the time of the hindrance. The outcomes of the hindered creativity were described by the participants through their changed mindsets of acceptance, cautiousness, and loss of confidence. Upon reflection of the experience, each participant offered his or her own understanding of how the situation could have been handled differently so that the hindering could have been a positive learning experience. These findings reveal highly individualized adult learning experiences laden with the potential for powerful outcomes and changes to the learner‟s creativity and identity. The hindrance of creativity brought to the educational setting influenced the future manifestation of creativity by the adult learners. Implications for practice include professors recognizing their implicit assumptions, power, and influence in relation to the adult learner. Careful considerations are required by the professor when creativity is going to be hindered. Further research recommendations are also included

Evolutionary collaborative design studios

Cataloged from PDF version of article.In Collaborative Design Studios (CDS), knowledge and information can be shared in discussions among students and instructors, while developing alternative solutions and the task coordination is achieved through the networked environment. In this study, a model called Evolutionary Design Collaboration (EDC) model is proposed as a framework for the collaboration of design courses, based on situatedness and reflective practice. A CDS including an information and a collaboration web site is conducted at the conceptual design level based on EDC model. The design critiques in redline files and the design diaries are evaluated by segmentation method. The redline files are analyzed with respect to ‘design abstraction’, ‘space and representation’ and ‘variables’ in problem domain and ‘micro-strategies’ and ‘design activities’ in design strategies. The analysis of design diaries is based on the behaviors and features of problem requirement and solution spaces. Moreover, two questionnaires are given at the end of CDS to identify usability problems in ease of use and user satisfaction. It is observed that the content of the critiques in CDS is similar to the content of the critiques of traditional design studios. The concept of situatedness is highly practiced as the new issues are introduced to the current design. Moreover, the active role assigned through collaboration to the students enhanced the design process. The high emphasis on the features of design solutions in design process is a similar approach to faceto-face communication. Finally, the results of the study showed the evolution generated by the reflections of participating courses during the collaboration through Internet.Sagun, AysuPh.D

Issues of structure and agency in computational creation, in and out of school

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, February 2013.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. "February 2013."Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-219).We live in a computational culture - a culture in which we are surrounded by computational systems and interfaces, from social networks to banking infrastructure, to entertainment platforms, to transportation systems. This culture introduces new expectations and new opportunities for learning, creating new demands for what to learn and offering new possibilities for how to learn. In this dissertation, I adopt a predominantly qualitative approach to exploring learning in computational culture, studying how the Scratch programming environment and online community are employed to support learning both in and out of school. To this end, I conducted interviews with 30 kids working with Scratch at home and 30 teachers working with Scratch in K-12 classrooms to develop descriptions of computational creation in these two settings. Using a theoretical framework of agency and structure, I analyze how the at-home and school-classroom contexts enable - or constrain - young people's agency in computational creation. Despite common assumptions that at-home learning is necessarily low-structure/high-agency and that at-school learning is necessarily high-structure/low-agency, I argue that structure and agency need not be in opposition. Designers of learning environments should explore intermediate possibilities, finding ways to employ structure in the service of learner agency.by Karen A. Brennan.Ph.D

Creative geeks? Investigating creativity support systems for information technology students

This study investigated creativity and what factors can be conducive to a creative educational milieu. The results of this study highlighted the diverse nature of creativity, and substantiated the need for an audience specific ‘Creativity Support System’. An outcome was a model of creative needs specific for an educational settin

The Anatomy of Design: Foundations, Models and Applications

Brazier, F.M.T. [Promotor]Treur, J. [Promotor