The Experience of Teaching Creative Practices: Conceptions and Approaches to Teaching in the Community of Practice Dimension

This paper explores conceptions and approaches to teaching held by academics in departments of art, design and communication and explores links between the conceptions, the approaches and the communities of practice associated with the subject context. Much of the work which has examined teachers’ conceptions built on research frameworks that also explored students conceptions and approaches to learning. This study of conceptions of teaching is phenomenographic, results are presented in the form of an outcome space of the categories of conceptions. This analysis is enhanced by a quantitative study using the Approaches to Teaching Inventory with reference to the sociocultural perspective on practice, particularly emphasising learning to practice. This paper concludes with a discussion of the phenomenographic study of conceptions of teaching and the quantitative investigation of approaches to teaching and their relation in turn, to the concept of communities of practice

Designing the interface between research, learning and teaching.

Abstract: This paper’s central argument is that teaching and research need to be reshaped so that they connect in a productive way. This will require actions at a whole range of levels, from the individual teacher to the national system and include the international communities of design scholars. To do this, we need to start at the level of the individual teacher and course team. This paper cites some examples of strategies that focus on what students do as learners and how teachers teach and design courses to enhance research-led teaching. The paper commences with an examination of the departmental context of (art and) design education. This is followed by an exploration of what is understood by research-led teaching and a further discussion of the dimensions of research-led teaching. It questions whether these dimensions are evident, and if so to what degree in design departments, programmes and courses. The discussion examines the features of research-led departments and asks if a department is not research-led in its approach to teaching, why it should consider changing strategies

Qualitative Differences in Approaches to Teaching, Teacher Satisfaction and Communities of Practice in Art, Design and Communication Courses

The aims of this study were to investigate how approaches to teaching relate to the concept of communities of practice and to monitor teacher satisfaction as a function of approach to teaching. Following interviews with art, design and communication teachers, a slightly revised ATI, with the inclusion of teacher satisfaction and communities of practice items, was distributed to teachers in the UK, USA and Australia. 130 returned questionnaires were analysed. The results show; (a) that the ATI has validity in design-related areas, (b) that teacher satisfaction is related strongly and positively to student-focused approaches to teaching, and (c) that all teachers aim to develop students‟ skills, but those with a student-focused approach are more likely to also focus on the practice and the real world problems of the profession. The positive correlations between an emphasis on development for the professions and a student-focused approach to teaching, and teacher satisfaction and a student-focused approach to teaching, offer insight for those involved in the further development of teaching practice

Building a Tailored Text Messaging System for Smoking Cessation in Native American Populations

When starting new and healthy habits or encouraging vigilance against returning to poor habits, a simple text message can be beneficial. Text messages also have the advantage of being easily accessible for lower-income populations spread over a rural area, who may not be able to afford smartphones with apps or data plans. Users benefit the most from text messages that are customized for them, but personalization requires time and effort on part of the user and the counselor. However, personalization that focuses on the cultural background of a pool of recipients, in addition to general personal preferences, can be a low-cost method of ensuring the best experience for patients interested in taking up new habits. In this paper, we discuss the development of a system for motivating users to quit smoking designed for Native American users in South Dakota, using text messaging as a daily intervention method for patients. Our results show that focusing on modular message customization options and messages with a conversational tone best helps our goal of providing users with customization options that help motivate them to live happy and healthy lifestyles

First-Year Project Experience in Aerospace: Apogee Determination of Model Rockets With Explicit Consideration of Drag Effect

This paper describes a student team project using model rockets and engines to learn engineering solution methods for determining the apogee of model rocket when the drag effect is considered explicitly instead of estimating its effect later. Model rocketry is a powerful tool for instructors who wish to incorporate science, engineering, and mathematics into a fun, engaging, and challenging activity for the students. The apogee can be determined using a number of distinct methods: trigonometry, onboard altimeters, analytical calculations, and simulation. This paper emphasizes numerical analytical solution using spreadsheet programming instead of a full analytical solution that requires higher mathematics. Students got a practical introduction to many engineering concepts they will later study. These concepts include thrust, impulse, drag, payload, ascent and descent (with and without a parachute) times, speed, and acceleration. The importance of the future courses in physics was also emphasized. These activities constitute one of two team projects of 1.5 credit portion of a two-credit course in exploration of engineering and technology. Students learn many skills they need later in their studies and professional practice. Teamwork is a skill that they acquired as they organized into a group with many specialized responsibilities for the purpose of launching their rockets, collecting data to be processed and, writing a report. Students also learned or improved spreadsheet skills while performing data entry and necessary mathematical calculations

The Experience of Teaching in Art, Design and Communication.

The aim of this thesis is to explore conceptions of and approaches to teaching situated within the context of practice-based teachers of art, design and communication. This thesis explores conceptions of teaching held by academics in departments of art, design and communication and explores links between those conceptions and the communities of practice associated with the subject context. It also aims to further investigate how approaches to teaching relate to the concept of communities of practice. The qualitatively different ways that teachers of creative practices experience their teaching is explored. The study focuses on teachers of practice-based subjects in art, design or communication. The data is from an interview study of 44 teachers from eight UK Universities and is explored with a phenomenographic approach. The analysis was grouped into three discrete sub-disciplines, media practice (15), fine art (11) and design (18), through which variation in the practice dimensions could also be discerned. The research adopts a second-order perspective on the experience of teaching a practice-based subject in art, design and communication departments. The important feature of this analysis is the community of practice dimension, in particular how teaching is perceived as contributing to engaging with the social practices which constitute the particular creative practice. Following the interviews with art, design and communication teachers, a slightly revised Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI), with the inclusion of skills and communities of practice items, was distributed to teachers in the UK. 73 returned questionnaires were analysed. The results show (a) that the ATI has validity in practice-based areas, and (b) that all teachers aim to develop students' skills, but those with a student-focused approach are more likely to also focus on the practice and the real world problems of the profession. The positive correlation between an emphasis on development for the professions and a student-focused approach to teaching, offers insight for those involved in the further development of teaching practice

Reality Versus Grant Application Research “Plans”

This article describes the implementation of the American Indian mHealth Smoking Dependence Study focusing on the differences between what was written in the grant application compared to what happened in reality. The study was designed to evaluate a multicomponent intervention involving 256 participants randomly assigned to one of 15 groups. Participants received either a minimal or an intense level of four intervention components: (1) nicotine replacement therapy, (2) precessation counseling, (3) cessation counseling, and (4) mHealth text messaging. The project team met via biweekly webinars as well as one to two in-person meetings per year throughout the study. The project team openly shared progress and challenges and collaborated to find proactive solutions to address challenges as compared to what was planned in the original grant application. The project team used multiple strategies to overcome unanticipated intervention issues: (1) cell phone challenges, (2) making difficult staffing decisions, (3) survey lessons, (4) nicotine replacement therapy, (5) mHealth text messages, (6) motivational interviewing counseling sessions, and (7) use of e-cigarettes. Smoking cessation studies should be designed based on the grant plans. However, on the ground reality issues needed to be addressed to assure the scientific rigor and innovativeness of this study

A survey of enabling technologies in synthetic biology

BACKGROUND: Realizing constructive applications of synthetic biology requires continued development of enabling technologies as well as policies and practices to ensure these technologies remain accessible for research. Broadly defined, enabling technologies for synthetic biology include any reagent or method that, alone or in combination with associated technologies, provides the means to generate any new research tool or application. Because applications of synthetic biology likely will embody multiple patented inventions, it will be important to create structures for managing intellectual property rights that best promote continued innovation. Monitoring the enabling technologies of synthetic biology will facilitate the systematic investigation of property rights coupled to these technologies and help shape policies and practices that impact the use, regulation, patenting, and licensing of these technologies. RESULTS: We conducted a survey among a self-identifying community of practitioners engaged in synthetic biology research to obtain their opinions and experiences with technologies that support the engineering of biological systems. Technologies widely used and considered enabling by survey participants included public and private registries of biological parts, standard methods for physical assembly of DNA constructs, genomic databases, software tools for search, alignment, analysis, and editing of DNA sequences, and commercial services for DNA synthesis and sequencing. Standards and methods supporting measurement, functional composition, and data exchange were less widely used though still considered enabling by a subset of survey participants. CONCLUSIONS: The set of enabling technologies compiled from this survey provide insight into the many and varied technologies that support innovation in synthetic biology. Many of these technologies are widely accessible for use, either by virtue of being in the public domain or through legal tools such as non-exclusive licensing. Access to some patent protected technologies is less clear and use of these technologies may be subject to restrictions imposed by material transfer agreements or other contract terms. We expect the technologies considered enabling for synthetic biology to change as the field advances. By monitoring the enabling technologies of synthetic biology and addressing the policies and practices that impact their development and use, our hope is that the field will be better able to realize its full potential