Metacognition and knowledge application: an empirical study in product design education

The relationship between creativity and knowledge has been a debated topic in creativity and design research. Current studies have made a great effort to emphasise the significance to creativity of a specific type of knowledge, e.g. domain-specific/general, rather than interpreting their application, i.e. how they are used. That is, there is still a lack of studies to investigate the ways in which knowledge and skills within or across domains are actually used, since Christiaans and Venselaar (2005) have claimed. The lack of a performance-based measurement of creativity probably renders it difficult to ascertain whether a specific knowledge item is related to a specific creative performance. Moreover, the methodologies applied by current studies to design knowledge and creativity were based on qualitative approaches drawn from data collected from a single school in one country, ignoring the importance of the cultural context.This thesis is supported by an investigation of a creativity-relevant construct that connects to knowledge application within the context of Product Design Education. The principal creativity-relevant construct is identified as metacognition: this identification was achieved by conducting a literature survey focusing on creativity research, which is linked to creative thinking, according to current understanding of applied knowledge, and is thought to predict creative performance. Different kinds of knowledge applied in product design students’ final-year design projects (FYDPs) have been assembled and arranged into three categories. An empirical study was conducted in the form of a survey to examine the relationship between metacognition and the frequency of applying each kind of knowledge in the process of the FYDP. Cultural factors were also considered in this study based on 375 samples collected from China (228 samples) and the UK (147 samples), representing Western and Eastern cultures. The findings identified the shared and different frequencies of applying subject-related knowledge among students with different levels of creative thinking ability. The thesis proposes five aspects of subject-related knowledge, including product-oriented, reflection-facilitating, socio-cultural environment related, conceptual-process related, and cross-disciplinary knowledge. The data indicates that product-oriented, reflection-facilitating, and socio-cultural environment related knowledge are frequently applied by students who reported higher metacognition scores. The main contribution to knowledge made through this thesis is towards design education research, where these findings may inform and extend academic support for design tutors and students to improve the FYDP process and offer further insights into China’s design education.</div

Firm Characteristics and Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Nigerian Listed Firms: An Empirical Investigation

In recent past, Corporate Social Responsibility has been a fundamental subject of discussion in academic literatures because of its vital contribution to sustainable development. In line with this assertion, this study assessed the corporate social responsibility (CSR) performances of listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). A cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study and secondary data compiled from the annual reports of those companies were used for the analysis. The study employed multiple regression estimation technique to analyse the CSR ratings of sixteen (16) companies used as the basis of investigation. The study found that while market capitalization had a positive significant relationship with corporate social responsibility practice, period of existence on the listing of Nigerian Stock Exchange had a negative relationship. Also, the industrial goods sector had a positive significant relationship with CSR practice while the oil and gas sector had a significant negative relationship. It is therefore recommended that activist groups, NGOs and community leaders should be more dynamic to challenge organizations to do more for their communitie

Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards and Market Performance of Listed Banks in Nigeria

Abstract. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of the adoption of IFRS on the market performance of banks in Nigeria. Secondary data were acquired from the financial statement of 15 money deposit banks listed on floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) while regression and paired sample test analyses were used to determine the association between the adoption of IFRS and the market performance of listed money deposit Banks in Nigeria. The study found a positive and significant relationship between the adoption of IFRS and the market performance of listed money deposit banks in Nigeria proxy by Dividend pay-out (DPO) and Dividend Yield (DY). Furthermore, the paired sample test result indicates a significant difference exists between Dividend pay-out (DPO) and the adoption of IFRS while no significant difference exists between Dividend Yield (DY) and the adoption of IFRS. Thus, the study recommends that the global adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards particularly in developing economies like Nigeria should be properly implemented and studied, so as to keep abreast with the various changes the would likely affect the market performance of the Nigerian Banking industry

Global News Coverage on Victimization and Challenges of Roma Migrants from Romania: An Experiential Study

The issue of Roma migrants from Romania has generated debate and discussion among media experts, scholars and policy analysts across the globe. The socio-cultural implications of this issue have triggered an increase of reports and commentaries on international news television outlets across the globe. Interestingly, there have been various qualitative and quantitative studies on social mobility of migrants in Europe. However, there is paucity of research investigations on communication perspectives on the issue of victimization and challenges of Roma migrants from Romania. Thus, the need to generate empirical evidences on the rise and fall of media report on the experiences, motivations, and ambitions of Roma migrants from Romania is critical, considering the fact that the dramatic increase of Roma migrants in Western Europe is alarming. This study examined global news coverage on socio-cultural issues of Roma migrants from Romania, using Youtube videos as examples. Furthermore, this study examined the audience mindset on global news coverage of Roma migrants. The method adopted was content analysis and 12 news videos of three selected global TV outlets were analyzed; British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN) and Aljazeera. The timeline adopted for the analysis was between June 2014 and March 2016 to achieve the objectives of the study. Also, four research questions were raised and adequately answered in this study. From the findings of the study, three predominant sociocultural challenges affecting the Roma migrants were identified and discussed, which are ethnic marginalization, structural poverty and racial bias. It was recommended that non-government agencies and concerned bodies should work hand-in-hand to provide structures for skill acquisition and human capital inclusion. Furthermore, the EU should reinforce its benefit systems for Migrants as well as partne

Bankers’ Perspectives on Integrated Reporting for Value Creation: Evidence from Nigeria

This study aims to examine the opinions of Zenith bank employees on the value, content and processes as well as the challenges of Integrated Reporting () in Nigeria with the hope of highlighting recommendations to encourage organizations to adopt it. Ninety eight employees responded to our survey. Generally, the respondents agree that () has value that could lead to better reporting of corporate activities. They also identified challenges that could mitigate the value of (). It was however noted that some of the challenges could be overcome with time, given that framework exist that is being test run by a number of organizations. The study recommends that there should be awareness campaigns to sensitize organizations on the value of . This paper contributes to the extant literature by offering insights of Zenith Bank employees on

Impact of Ethics on the Conduct of Professional Accountants in Nigeria

High profile corporate collapses and fraud with which accountants are said to have been associated with has given rise to the questioning of the integrity of the professional accountants. This systemic failure has brought into focus issues of long standing debate with respect to how to curb this act and regain the confidence of the public in the professional accountants and the professional accountancy bodies at large. The study examined the impact of code of ethics on the conduct of professional accountants in Nigeria. Regression Analysis, Correlation Technique and Ttest were employed in analyzing the data collected. The results revealed that the fundamental principles of ethics have a significant impact on the positive conduct of professional accountants. It further revealed that there is no difference in the various opinions of stakeholders with respect to the impact of the code of ethics. It is therefore recommended that early stage teaching of ethics in all schools and continuous improvements taking into consideration changes in time, based on the current trend should be encouraged. There should also be a program in place to effectively monitor the adherence level of accountant

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2016

It is our pleasure to welcome you at the 7th International Conference on Systematic Innovation. It is our objective to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of recent advances in the field of TRIZ Methodology, Knowledge-Based and Systematic Innovation. The goal is to enable practitioners, researchers and scientists to exchange ideas on the these topics and to provide an international forum for exchanging new ideas and recent achievements by the TRIZ community and enabling further advances and collaboration with the industrial community. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the organizing, scientific and technical committees. The reviewers of the papers had a very important job, contributing significantly to the success of the conference. We also wish to express our thanks to our invited speakers. Very special thanks to our students, sponsors and to all who helped us with logistics, conference website, and publications. Welcome to Portugal and Lisbon. We hope you all have a very happy and rewarding meeting.publishersversionpublishe

The Beneficial Past: Promoting Adaptive Reuse as a Beneficial Design Method for East and South-East Asia

The pace of modernizing Asian cities has created a threat of erasing their architectural heritage, history, and sense of place. This is true particularly in regard with many industrial neighborhoods and utilitarian buildings that are not considered as ‘important’ part of architecture heritage than older monuments and other preservation sites. This Doctor of Architecture research project will provide clear evidence to show that many exisiting industrial buildings in Asia are not only significant part of the architectural heritage of their context, but also potential targets for adaptive reuse. Hence, this study defines adaptive reuse as a beneficial, green design method for Asian cities, citizens, and developers alike. The method of adaptive reuse should be practiced in East and South East Asia, on industrial and utilitarian buildings, to prevent the disappearance of urban historic character. However, the practice should be authentic, preserve original materials, and not replicate portions that are nonexistent. The focus of this research is to cover adaptive reuse of industrial and utilitarian buildings, an architecture that is often underutilized, unnoticed, and demolished without a whim of thought in Asia. The focus cities of Beijing, Yokohama, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore will be used for this research, because elucidating examples of successful adaptive reuse can be found in these cities. In addition, this research will discuss international case studies of adaptive reuse in order to further develop basis for the applications of adaptive reuse method in Asia. This project will center around seven conjectures to why Asian urban developers might be reluctant to adaptively reuse buildings. The seven conjectures will define: Appropriate adaptive reuse, clarify adaptive reuse, address issues of danger in adaptive reuse, address the significant histories of industrial development of Asian cities, discuss the interest in adaptive reuse, illustrate the profitability for adaptive reuse, and finally conform international standards that fit the Asian context. This project’s conclusion will illustrate that by changing the function of old industrial buildings in Asia, they can continue to be part of the architectural heritage of their location, and preserve its sense of place. This D.Arch project does not seek to change the world, but aims to warn against wanton demolition of the existing built environment for the sake of development