Development of Creative Thinking Skills with Aesthetic Creativity Teaching Activities in Social Studies Course

This research is qualitative research that examined the effects of aesthetic creativity practices on students' creative- thinking skills in a Social Studies course. The research was designed according to the case study design of qualitative research methods. The study group was determined by criterion sampling from purposeful sampling types. The study group comprised 12 fourth-grade students and their classroom teacher and were from a middle socioeconomic school in Hatay in the 2017-2018 academic years. In the Social Studies course, aesthetic creativity activities were implemented through performance tasks in a 17-hour period, and students' development in creative thinking skills followed. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and structured observation. The interviews were conducted with the students and the classroom teacher. To evaluate students' development, the classroom teacher was interviewed at the end of the process. The students were interviewed at the end of the process, and the data were analyzed through content analysis. The data obtained from the observations were analyzed descriptively through the Creative Thinking Skills Evaluation Rubric (CTSER), structured by the researchers, and comprised creative thinking, imagination, idea production, humor, research, product creation, and problem-solving sub-dimensions. The results revealed that the students showed the most improvement in the dimensions of idea production and humor. In addition, the students demonstrated a distinguishable development in their research, problem-solving, and image dimensions. Although the students developed product building skills, none attained the level of creating unique products. Another result is that the aesthetic creativity teaching practices achieved the objectives in terms of sense-making and affective skills (e.g., providing a pleasant classroom environment, expressing emotions)

Factors affecting citizenship education according to perceptions and experiences of secondary-school teachers

The present study examines the factors affecting citizenship education, such as school, environment, students, teachers, and the curriculum, as perceived and experienced by secondary school teachers. The study is qualitative and uses a phenomenological design. Maximum diversity sampling was used for selecting participants. The sample consisted by eight teachers of geography, history, and philosophy who worked in three different secondary schools in the Sahinbey district of Gaziantep province in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data was collected through semi-structured interview forms and analyzed through content analysis. The data revealed causality relations. The results of the study reveal that participants categorized the concept of citizenship and citizenship education as individual, state, rights, and responsibility, which is in line with the literature. All of the participants carried out studies on citizenship knowledge and skills during their teaching processes. It was discovered that citizenship education is realized through informal (unplanned) education together with curriculum content. According to participants, citizenship education is affected by various positive and negative factors such as students, teachers, and the curriculum

Simple Precision Creation of Digitally Specified, Spatially Heterogeneous, Engineered Tissue Architectures

Complex architectures of integrated circuits are achieved through multiple layer photolithography, which has empowered the semiconductor industry. We adapt this philosophy for tissue engineering with a versatile, scalable, and generalizable microfabrication approach to create engineered tissue architectures composed of digitally specifiable building blocks, each with tuned structural, cellular, and compositional features.Paul G. Allen Family FoundationNew York Stem Cell FoundationNational Institutes of Health (U.S.)National Science Foundation (U.S.)Lincoln LaboratoryInstitution of Engineering and Technology (AF Harvey Prize

Super-resolution imaging reveals resistance to mass transfer in functionalized stationary phases

Chemical separations are costly in terms of energy, time, and money. Separation methods are optimized with inefficient trial-and-error approaches that lack insight into the molecular dynamics that lead to the success or failure of a separation and, hence, ways to improve the process. We perform super-resolution imaging of fluorescent analytes in four different commercial liquid chromatography materials. Surprisingly, we observe that chemical functionalization can block over fifty percent of the porous interior of the material, rendering it inaccessible to small molecule analytes. Only in situ imaging unveils the inaccessibility when compared to the industry-accepted ex situ characterization methods. Selectively removing some of the functionalization with solvent restores pore access without significantly altering the single-molecule kinetics that underlie the separation and agree with bulk chromatography measurements. Our molecular results determine that commercial stationary phases, marketed as fully porous, are over-functionalized and provide a new avenue to characterize and direct separation material design from the bottom-up

Evolution of microscopic heterogeneity and dynamics in choline chloride-based deep eutectic solvents

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are an emerging class of non-aqueous solvents that are potentially scalable, easy to prepare and functionalize for many applications ranging from biomass processing to energy storage technologies. Predictive understanding of the fundamental correlations between local structure and macroscopic properties is needed to exploit the large design space and tunability of DESs for specific applications. Here, we employ a range of computational and experimental techniques that span length-scales from molecular to macroscopic and timescales from picoseconds to seconds to study the evolution of structure and dynamics in model DESs, namely Glyceline and Ethaline, starting from the parent compounds. We show that systematic addition of choline chloride leads to microscopic heterogeneities that alter the primary structural relaxation in glycerol and ethyleneglycol and result in new dynamic modes that are strongly correlated to the macroscopic properties of the DES formed

The Effects of Designing a Transdisciplinary Inquiry-based Curriculum on Pre-service Teachers: A Case of International Baccalaureate

The present study aims to investigate the effect of the design process of transdisciplinary inquiry curriculum on the PYP preservice teachers' group work skills, reflective thinking levels and curriculum design orientations. The study employs convergent design. For the quantitative part of the study a one-group pretest-posttest experimental design was employed, and the qualitative dimension was based on the case study design. The study group consisted of 15 pre-service teachers from different branches attending a university's International Baccalaureate Education Certificate training program. Pre- service teachers designed a transdisciplinary inquiry-based curriculum for 6 weeks. Qualitative data were collected through self-evaluation form, group evaluation form and semi-structured interview form. Quantitative data were collected through Group work Skills Scale, Reflective Thinking Levels Scale and Curriculum Design Orientations Scale. Qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. Frequency analysis was performed for the evaluation forms; the results of the scales were analyzed with the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test. The effect size was calculated with the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) statistic. A significant difference was observed in the posttest in terms of the group work skills, reflective thinking levels, and curriculum design orientations of the preservice teachers in designing a transdisciplinary inquiry-based curriculum, which implies that the application was effective. The study found that pre-service teachers favored student-based and inquiry-based curriculum and their performances were improved in terms of fulfilling responsibilities, time-management, providing support and making an effort. In addition, pre-service teachers had difficulties in curriculum planning, writing main ideas, organizing activities, considering the age level and writing action etc

Primary School Teachers and Teacher Candidates' Perceptions of Efficiency in Designing and Implementing Teaching Based on Individual Differences

WOS: 000466499700005The purpose of this research is to examine the designing of the characteristics such as "prior knowledge and skills, the speed of learning and the level of reasoning, learning style and multiple intelligence" which are accepted as individual differences and the perception of application efficiency of primary school teachers and teacher candidates. The study was designed according to phenomenology which is one of the qualitative research methods. Participants in the study were selected according to the criterion sampling among primary school teachers working in schools in different socioeconomic levels in Adana and Gaziantep in the fall semester of the 2017-2018 academic year and primary school teacher candidates continuing their education in the same period. In this case, 13 female, 10 male out of 23 primary school teachers and 17 female 3 male out of 20 primary school teacher candidates attended. In the research, the data were collected through "Daily Lesson Plans" and "Demographic Specifications Form", "Semi-structured Interview Form Based on Individual Differences" developed by the researchers. The obtained data were converted into findings by content and descriptive analysis. The analyzes show that primary school teachers have included the implementations for determining the prior knowledge and skills, learning styles and dominant intelligence areas, and teacher candidates have an awareness of how to do this too. However, primary school teachers and teacher candidates do not find themselves efficiency in designing and implementing the teaching process based on different prior knowledge and skills, the speed of learning and the level of reasoning, learning styles, and multiple intelligence activities

Aesthetics and aesthetic creativity in social studies

WOS: 000476657700010This study's aim is to investigate the primary school teachers' views on the applications of aesthetic and aesthetic creativity in social studies class. It was designed as a phenomenological study as one of the qualitative research methods. The participants of the study consisted of 8 primary school teachers working in schools with different socio-economic substructure in Adana and Hatay in the 2017-2018 academic year. The data were collected through semi-structured interview form, and analysed following content analysis method. The findings of the study revealed that teachers conceptualize the concept of aesthetic in different ways; they consider that aesthetic creativity is as important as scientific creativity; that aesthetic education contributes to mental and emotional development of the students; that social studies class is effective in gaining creativity; and accordingly, they have included aesthetic education in their courses. The findings of the study revealed that teachers conceptualize the concept of aesthetic in different ways; that they consider that aesthetic creativity is as important as scientific creativity; they believe aesthetic education contributes to mental and emotional development of the students; that they think social studies class is effective in gaining creativity; and, therefore, they include aesthetic education in various ways in their courses

Reproductive biology of the Short-snouted Seahorse, Hippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758) in the Eastern Black Sea of Turkey (Osteichthyes: Syngnathidae)

WOS: 000536982100001The reproductive characteristics of the Short-snouted Seahorse, Hippocampus hippocampus, was studied in the eastern Black Sea shore over a one-year period. Average standard length was 10.38 cm (6.15-13.3 cm) and weight 1.88 g (0.68-3.02 g). Males were slightly more common than females (females: 48%), but the difference was statistically insignificant (p>0.05). This was highest in autumn and lowest in winter, while there were no differences between the sexes (p>0.05). A sequential spiral of developing oocytes was observed from the earliest stage in the germinal ridge to the mature edge with the largest oocyte. Mature oocytes were found in histological sections during the summer season and the results obtained from gonadosomatic index values confirmed that the summer season is the breeding period of H. hippocampus at the eastern Black Sea shore of Turkey