209,709 research outputs found

    Design as a framework for innovative thinking and learning: how can design thinking reform education?

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    The need for educational reform has led to much research documenting the value of experiential learning and creative problem solving to increase relevance and motivation in learning. Design, which may be succinctly defined as purposeful thought and action, can serve as a framework and catalyst for teaching and learning strategies that promote innovative, high end thinking, cooperative teamwork, and authentic, performance assessment. This keynote will feature research findings and two models of large-scale applications of design education in the K-12 curriculum. Both projects are funded by major grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Department of Education in the United States. As models of best practices and applied research that have been assessed and documented, they can provide useful and valuable examples for other art educators and educational sites. This research was conducted through the "Design for Thinking Teaching Institute, at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, which also was the host site for the National Design for Thinking Network and the Design Link for Teaching the Arts, Link-to-Learn projects. Other sites and research will also be addressed

    The Global Engineer : Incorporating global skills within UK higher education of engineers

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    Internationalizing the Curriculum

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    Developing young children's understanding of place-value using multiplication and quotitive division

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    This paper focuses on selected findings from a study that explored the use of multiplication and division with 34 five- and six-year-old children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The focus of instructional tasks was on working with groups of ten to support the understanding of place value. Findings from relevant assessment tasks and childrenā€™s work highlighted the importance of encouraging young children to move from unitary (counting by ones) to tens-structured thinking

    Quantifying Changes in Creativity: Findings from an Engineering Course on the Design of Complex and Origami Structures

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    Engineering educators have increasingly sought strategies for integrating the arts into their curricula. The primary objective of this integration varies, but one common objective is to improve studentsā€™ creative thinking skills. In this paper, we sought to quantify changes in student creativity that resulted from participation in a mechanical engineering course targeted at integrating engineering, technology, and the arts. The course was team taught by instructors from mechanical engineering and art. The art instructor introduced origami principles and techniques as a means for students to optimize engineering structures. Through a course project, engineering student teams interacted with art students to perform structural analysis on an origami-based art installation, which was the capstone project of the art instructorā€™s undergraduate origami course. Three engineering student teams extended this course project to collaborate with the art students in the final design and physical installation. To evaluate changes in student creativity, we used two instruments: a revised version of the Reisman Diagnostic Creativity Assessment (RDCA) and the Innovative Behavior Scales. Initially, the survey contained 12 constructs, but three were removed due to poor internal consistency reliability: Extrinsic Motivation; Intrinsic Motivation; and Tolerance of Ambiguity. The nine remaining constructs used for comparison herein included: ā€¢ Originality: Confidence in developing original, innovative ideas ā€¢ Ideation: Confidence in generating many ideas ā€¢ Risk Taking: Adventurous; Brave ā€¢ Openness of Process: Engaging various potentialities and resisting closure ā€¢ Iterative Processing: Willingness to iterate on oneā€™s solution ā€¢ Questioning: Tendency to ask lots of questions ā€¢ Experimenting/exploring: Tendency to physically or mentally take things apart ā€¢ Idea networking: Tendency to engage with diverse others in communicative acts ā€¢ Observing: Tendency to observe the surrounding world By conducting a series of paired t-tests to ascertain if pre and post-course responses were significantly different on the above constructs, we found five significant changes. In order of significance, these included Idea Networking; Questioning; Observing; Originality; and Ideation. To help explain these findings, and to identify how this course may be improved in subsequent offerings, the discussion includes the triangulation of these findings in light of teaching observations, responses from a mid-semester student focus group session, and informal faculty reflections. We close with questions that we and others ought to address as we strive to integrate engineering, technology, and the arts. We hope that these findings and discussion will guide other scholars and instructors as they explore the impact of art on engineering design learning, and as they seek to evaluate student creativity resulting from courses with similar aims
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