Fractals and music

Many natural phenomena we find in our surroundings, are fractals.  Studying and learning about fractals in classrooms is always a challenge for both teachers and students. We here show that the sound of musical instruments can be used as a good resource in the laboratory to study fractals. Measurement of fractal dimension which indicates how much fractal content is there, is always uncomfortable, because of the size of the objects like coastlines and mountains. A simple fractal source is always desirable in laboratories. Music serves to be a very simple and effective source for fractal dimension measurement. In this paper, we are suggesting that music which has an inherent fractal nature can be used as an object in classrooms to measure fractal dimensions. To find the fractal dimension we used the box-counting method. We studied the sound produced by different stringed instruments and some common noises. For good musical sound, the fractal dimension obtained is around 1.6882

public class Graphic_Design implements Code { // Yes, but how? }: An investigation towards bespoke Creative Coding programming courses in graphic design education

Situated in the intersection of graphic design, computer science, and pedagogy, this dissertation investigates how programming is taught within graphic design education. The research adds to the understanding of the process, practice, and challenges associated with introducing an audience of visually inclined practitioners—who are often guided by instinct—to the formal and unforgiving world of syntax, algorithms, and logic. Motivating the research is a personal desire to contribute towards the development of bespoke contextualized syllabi specifically designed to accommodate how graphic designers learn, understand, and use programming as an integral skill in their vocational practice.The initial literature review identifies a gap needing to be filled to increase both practical and theoretical knowledge within the interdisciplinary field of computational graphic design. This gap concerns a lack of solid, empirically based epistemological frameworks for teaching programming to non-programmers in a visual context, partly caused by a dichotomy in traditional pedagogical practices associated with teaching programming and graphic design, respectively. Based on this gap, the overarching research question posed in this dissertation is: “How should programming ideally be taught to graphic designers to account for how they learn and how they intend to integrate programming into their vocational practice?”A mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative analyses is taken to answer the research questions. The three papers comprising the dissertation are all built on individual hypotheses that are subsequently used to define three specific research questions.Paper 1 performs a quantitative mapping of contemporary, introductory programming courses taught in design schools to establish a broader understanding of their structure and content. The paper concludes that most courses are planned to favor programming concepts rather than graphic design concepts. The paper’s finding can serve as a point of departure for a critical discussion among researchers and educators regarding the integration of programming in graphic design education.Paper 2 quantitatively assesses how the learning style profile of graphic design students compares with that of students in technical disciplines. The paper identifies a number of significant differences that call for a variety of pedagogic and didactic strategies to be employed by educators to effectively teach programming to graphic designers. Based on the results, specific recommendations are given.Paper 3 proposes a hands-on, experiential pedagogic method specifically designed to introduce graphic design students to programming. The method relies on pre-existing commercial graphic design specimens to contextualize programming into a domain familiar to graphic designers. The method was tested on the target audience and observations on its use are reported. Qualitative evaluation of student feedback suggests the method is effective and well-received. Additionally, twenty-four heuristics that elaborate and extend the paper’s findings by interweaving other relevant and influential sources encountered during the research project are provided. Together, the literature review, the three papers, and the heuristics provide comprehensive and valuable theoretical and practical insights to both researchers and educators, regarding key aspects related to introducing programming as a creative practice in graphic design education

Teachers Learning: Engagement, Identity, and Agency in Powerful Professional Development

Professional development (PD) is seen by a broad cross-section of stakeholders — teachers, principals, policymakers — as essential for instructional improvement and student learning. And yet, despite deep investments of time and money in its design and implementation, the return on investment and subjective assessments about PD’s effectiveness remain uneven. In this thesis, I focus in-depth on professional development experiences that teachers identify as their most powerful and ask what these experiences could suggest toward improving PD design, policy, and research. Specifically, drawing on 25 in-depth accounts of powerful professional learning, I analyze PD across three papers, each of which applies a distinct analytical lens. First, using self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan, 1985, 2000), I explore the extent to which powerful learning experiences help to satisfy the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Second, using the growing body literature on professional identity (e.g., Beijaard et al., 2004), I posit that teachers may be motivated to pursue professional learning experiences that align with their core beliefs and identity. Extending this literature, I elaborate three distinct conceptions of how identity interacts with PD: an affinity for the what (content), the who (facilitation), and the with whom (community). I similarly discuss ways that powerful learning may help to form or transform teacher identity. Third, observing a pattern in the data and drawing on emerging literature on teacher agency (e.g., Priestley et al., 2015), I define teacher agency in professional learning as a multi-dimensional construct – agency over, during, and emerging from PD – and analyze the extent to which each dimension was evident in powerful and contrastingly negative professional learning experiences. I conclude that increasing dimensions of agency may be a promising lever for improving professional learning at both an individual and system level.Finally, by privileging teachers’ unique perspectives and emphasizing the deeply subjective nature of learning, this thesis aims both to complement and complicate the existing research on PD design and effectiveness and the policy imperative for scale

Computer education: new perspectives

Computer technologies were introduced into educational contexts over two decades ago and while there is some argument about the extent to which computers have realised their potential, they have undoubtedly had a significant impact on education. A look into any school will reveal computers being used widely by clerical staff, teachers and children. It is clear that computers are here to stay, but it is less clear as to how effectively they are being used in the learning process. Teachers not only need to use computers but they need to use them well, and in order to do this they must understand what computer technology can offer and the ways in which such technology can be used in teaching and learning

Rethinking Schooling

Taking a collection of seminal articles from the Journal of Curriculum Studies, this book offers readers a vantage point for thinking about the worlds of schools and curricula, focusing in particular on the concept of seeing schools, curricula and teaching in new ways. Each of the chapters sheds fresh light on the ways of thinking the aforementioned. Themes include: classrooms and teaching pedagogy science and history education school and curriculum development students’ lives in schools. Written by an international group of distinguished scholars from Britain, North America, Sweden and Germany, the chapters draw on the perspectives offered by curriculum and pedagogical theory, history, ethnography, sociology, psychology and organisational studies and experiences in curriculum-making. Together they invite many questions about why teaching and curricula must be as they are. Rethinking Schooling provides new futures for education and alternative ways of seeing them

THE EMERGING SCIENCE OF WELLNESS IN THE COLLEGE WRITING CURRICULUM

This dissertation argues that the college writing curriculum – and indeed any educational program---would benefit from an emphasis on human wellness and the arts. Wellness consists of one’s emotional, social, spiritual, physical, intellectual, and vocational well-being. Additionally, students’ environmental circumstances, like home life, finances, diet, exercise, and work obligations play a huge role in balancing personal health, especially in marginalized communities. Since one’s physiological and psychological connection impacts one’s identity and health, improving writing in the classroom requires holistic and creative approaches for rewiring individual thinking. I draw from positive psychology, where concepts like complex optimism and positive emotions nurture the groundwork for forming resilience and increasing one’s range of thought responses, and from neuroscientific application, where brain plasticity opens the ability to restructure thinking. I place an emphasis on creative thinking with concepts such as “flow,” where one’s interests guide learning and growth, and explore arts-based research methodologies by illustrating art and project examples for the expansion of embodying new avenues to learning. After surveying 20th century education and composition theorists who emphasize creativity and play, I evaluate the critical writing stages of invention and reflection which shapes the writing process. Along the way, I highlight the memoirs of Jesmyn Ward’s, Men We Reaped and Jimmy Santiago Baca’s, A Place to Stand to demonstrate various components of wellness and composition strategies such as developing character strengths, positive emotions, and interests, examining mindful self-perception, as well as embracing arts-based research projects, and practicing metacognitive reflective writing. I then turn my attention to ideas from the educational theorist, Margaret Naumburg, whose two professional careers reinvented education, art, healing, and innovation. Wellness is unarguably a growing need for colleges where the dropout rate continues to escalate up from 40 percent and where one in two students face mental issues in their lifetimes which peaks during college. As wellness theorists Margaret Schneider Jamner and Daniel Stokols’ research shows, reducing toxicity in physical settings like colleges through preventative measures greatly impacts lifelong health. Cultivating one’s health through connecting with arts-based research practices positively influences present and future health, motivation, self-efficacy, creativity, and happiness

The experience of flow and learning by designing interactive multimedia software

As computer technology is increasingly adopted in education, some students continue to have little context for its use. This is particularly true of tertiary drama education students, of whom many still remain computer illiterate. Constructivist pedagogy proposes that a learner constructs knowledge through active participation in their learning. An approach that is gaining currency which applies this principle is learning by designing. This approach was adopted for this study, with the premise that the process of designing multimedia software for their peers would not only motivate these students to use computers but could also lead to a deepening of their understanding of the subject matter. Questions that arise in response to this hypothesis include: what do students learn from designing multimedia software; and what motivates their engagement in this task? These questions where addressed by a project which spanned a two week period at a university. Five university drama education students participated in designing multimedia software which aimed to elucidate the process of devising plays for their peers. The data this activity generated provided the foundation for five case studies which document the students\u27 engagement and learning processes. The findings indicate that the learning by design approach paved an effective learning approach. Also, the use of flow theory as a theoretical framework was helpful in developing an understanding of each person\u27s individual process of engagement. The thesis comments on this theoretical framework and suggests a number of hypotheses for further testing by education professionals

Understanding Inquiry, an Inquiry into Understanding: a conception of Inquiry Based Learning in Mathematics

IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) is a group of educational approaches centered on the student and aiming at developing higher-level thinking, as well as an adequate set of Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (KSA). IBL is at the center of recent educational research and practice, and is expanding quickly outside of schools: in this research we propose such forms of instruction as Guided Self-Study, Guided Problem Solving, Inquiry Based Homeschooling, IB e-learning, and particularly a mixed (Inquiry-Expository) form of lecturing, named IBLecturing. The research comprises a thorough review of previous research in IBL; it clarifies what is and what is not Inquiry Based Learning, and the distinctions between its various forms: Inquiry Learning, Discovery Learning, Case Study, Problem Based Learning, Project Based Learning, Experiential Learning, etc. There is a continuum between Pure Inquiry and Pure Expository approaches, and the extreme forms are very infrequently encountered. A new cognitive taxonomy adapted to the needs of higher-level thinking and its promotion in the study of mathematics is also presented. This research comprises an illustration of the modeling by an expert (teacher, trainer, etc.) of the heuristics and of the cognitive and metacognitive strategies employed by mathematicians for solving problems and building proofs. A challenging problem has been administered to a group of gifted students from secondary school, in order to get more information about the possibility of implementing Guided Problem Solving. Various opportunities for further research are indicated, for example applying the recent advances of cognitive psychology on the role of Working Memory (WM) in higher-level thinking