Digital Commons Network^™

In Pursuit Of Democratic Practice: Self-Study As A Democratic Approach To Teaching Social Studies, Andrew L. Hostetler

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Dewey (1916/2009) viewed democracy as a “path or journey”. This suggests that there is no mutually agreed upon end. Similarly, in teaching and teacher education, if viewed as a learning problem, the end is the process according to Ritter (2010) “[t]eaching others how to teach for democratic citizenship represents a process that righteously lacks a conclusion” (p. 90). Without a definitive conclusion there are many potentially valuable conceptions and enactments of democratic living and learning.

Discussing these strong connections between democracy in social studies and self-study, Powell (2010) argues “when social studies teachers engage in ‘reflectively pragmatic’ study of their …

The History Of School And Summer Vacation, James M. Pedersen

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

For more than 100 years the public school system has been the foundation of our society. Millions of our nation’s citizens have moved through the primary, middle and secondary schools which, although they vary slightly from region to region, provided a shared experience and are a part of Americana. History tells us the reasons that school systems used only a 10 month calendar were due to agrarian needs, but in recent years this rationale does not seem as applicable. In light of global competition and America’s consistently poor international rankings, it would seem logical conclusion to extend the school year …

Crossing The Bridge: Transitioning From A Teacher To A Professor, Steven Page, Charles Jenks

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This is a qualitative study that was conducted to gain a better understanding of the experiences of professors in Colleges of Education who were former K-12 teachers. The study presents the responses of eighty nine professors from across the United States. By coding the responses based on the university setting (National, Large Regional, Small Regional) in which the respondents worked the authors found that professors have different experiences in their transition from K-12. The authors found that the size of the university was a factor in how the new faculty felt welcomed and how they were treated by colleagues. Also, …

Painting And Poetry: Third Graders' Free-Form Poems Inspired By Their Paintings, Emilie L. Sears

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

It is important to find the means by which struggling writers can find success in the English Language Arts. For students struggling with reading and writing, the visual arts may be a way of accessing and expressing their ideas and ultimately opening up a world of creative possibilities. This article explores drawing and painting as a pre-writing strategy. The article follows 6 third grade students as the participate in a workshop designed to faciliate poetry writing based on the students' artwork.

Engaging Families In Cross-Cultural Connections Through A School-Based Literacy Fair, Maria Anne Ceprano, Nancy Chicola

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This paper describes how 20 pre-service teachers enrolled in two social studies methods courses at Buffalo State College worked collaboratively to produce a Cross-cultural Literacy Fair at an urban-based elementary school. The participatory events created for the event were provided in conjunction with a community after school program and directed at promoting literacy and cross-cultural understandings not only for the children enrolled at the school but for their parents, as well. Events yielded a positive venue for Teacher Candidates (TCs) to interact with parents and children and demonstrated ways literacy and other cultural understandings can be successfully and appreciatively supported …

Integrating Creativity Into Human Resource Development: Developing Training For The Healthcare Domain, Jamilla M. Walker

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

ABSTRACT OF A PROJECT

Integrating Creativity into Human Resource Development: Developing Training for the Healthcare Domain

The purpose of this project is to integrate creativity into human resource development, training in the healthcare domain. I seek to offer insight on using creativity skills in a training module to deliver a customer service workshop to healthcare professionals. Healthcare has recently been a provocative topic to discuss for all walks of life. Its complexities in how to administer service, the rising cost of insurance, the quality of human care, and a growing elderly population with multiple medical conditions is some of the …

Creativity With Images: A Workshop For Learning And Practicing Ideational Thinking For Visual Thinkers, Ana L. Castelan Valles

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to communicate the foundations of creativity and some tools of ideational thinking to visual thinkers. The goal of this project is to bring visual thinkers into the science of creativity and demonstrate that they can use ideational thinking tools to improve their visual skills. This project also serves as an attempt to identify the cognitive preferences of visual thinkers to foster their creative skills and to enhance their creative process. The finished product is the content of a workshop comprised by five sections. Each section includes an explanation of the essential topics about creativity …

Deliberate Use Of Creative Problem Solving In Art Making, Rebecca Dame-Seidler

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the productivity of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) tools in the visual art making process. The project offered the opportunity for high school student volunteer’s to participate in an after school program called Creative Art Group Experience (CAGE). Volunteers learned and made use of CPS tools to guide their art making. The project researched the effectiveness of using CPS tools in art making documenting volunteer progress and feedback. As an art educator, I had the opportunity to evaluate the impact of using CPS tools with the art-making process. The results of CAGE will benefit how CPS tools …

The Deliberate Integration Of Creativity Into Strategic Planning, Laura A. Ryan

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The Deliberate Integration of Creativity into Strategic Planning

The purpose of this project is to explore the deliberate use of creativity in strategic planning. A framework for strategic planning and metacognition tools aligned with each phase is posited. In addition, a bifurcation of the process is suggested in order to engage in strategic innovation where groundbreaking initiatives are warranted. Creative culture and the make-up of creative teams are also addressed.

Empathy Maps Of The Foursight Preferences, Hanne M. Bratsberg

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Empathy Maps of the FourSight Preferences

The purpose of this project is to make one empathy map for each of the FourSight preferences. The goal of the project is to add a visual representation of the four main preferences to the growing body of data of FourSight. Individuals who are interested in FourSight, both for personal and professional reasons, can use the empathy maps to form a deeper understanding of each preference.

The Social, Cultural, Psychological, Organizational And Physical Environments In The Workplace: A User Guide On Creativity., Deborah L. Schultz

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is a user guide for managers in any organization regarding the Social, Cultural, Psychological, Organizational and Physical Environments in the Workplace: A User Guide on Creativity. A workplace environment is a crucial part of the organizations success. Organizations who understand the role of emotions will significantly improve their ability to explain and predict their employee’s behavior. Mood has importance significances for a workplace environment. The social environment can stimulate creativity through offering a sense of positive challenge in the work; work teams that are collaborative, diversely skilled, and idea-focused; freedom in carrying out the work …

Playing At Work: Creating A Physically Creative Training Center, Christine Grotke

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the idea of fostering creativity in the physical work environment through the use of a training center. The training center would be a place where employees and management of an organization could learn about the Creative Problem Solving process using elements such as play, incubation, and an individual’s interaction with their physical surroundings. Once the physical requirements of what makes a creative environment are learned in the training center, the techniques could then be applied to the workplace in order to encourage a more productive and positive atmosphere. The research and different studies in this paper help …

Human Centered Design Approach To Mentoring, Jennifer Lynn Potratz

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Design Thinking is quickly changing from a model of designing products to becoming known for human centered design. This change has occurred with the work of companies like IDEO, who strive to bring about change to non-profits in socially innovative ways. With this knowledge, more people are utilizing Design Thinking in new and challenging ways. This project serves to use Design Thinking and human centered design to assist in the ongoing challenge of youth who age out of the foster care system by creating a lesson plan to teach foster care and adoption agencies effective ways to recruit mentors and …

Robert Browning: Separating Author From Narrator, Brian C. Rich

English Education Theses

In 1833, John Stuart Mill criticized Browning’s very first poem, Pauline: A Fragment of a Confession, because he claimed that it overexposed the author. What Mill meant by this was that he thought Browning was self-obsessed and depressed. This criticism affected Browning’s writings throughout the middle of his career by provoking him to formulate dramatic monologues in an attempt to distance himself from the narrators he created. But even though Browning was careful not to overexpose himself, his self-consciousness still made its way through to the reader. Browning exposes himself through his narrators in “My Last Duchess,” “Porphyria’s Lover,” and …

Survival Of The Fictiveness: The Novel’S Anxieties Over Existence, Purpose, And Believability, Jesse Mank

English Theses

The novel is a problematic literary genre, for few agree on precisely how or why it rose to prominence, nor have there ever been any strict structural parameters established. Terry Eagleton calls it an “anti-genre” that “cannibalizes other literary modes and mixes the bits and pieces promiscuously together” (1). And yet, perhaps because of its inability to be completely defined, the novel best represents modern thought and sensibility. The narrative form speaks to our embrace of individualism while its commodification seems so natural, perhaps even democratic, to a capitalist economy. A historical look at the novel’s inception reveals that the …

Developing The Creative Groundwork For Building Insight-Provoking Tools, Janese Evans

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Developing the Creative Groundwork for Building Insight-Provoking Tools

The field of Marketing Research strives to reach its potential as a provider of insights related to consumer attitudes and behaviors. Departments have been renamed and hopes have been raised, but little change in process or deliverables is apparent. As a Marketing Research professional, I see that, generally, members of my profession demonstrate a keen lack of skill definition and training around practices that lead to insight. My Master’s Project lays the groundwork for me to become a change leader as a catalyst for insight skill-building in my field. The project includes …

Avatar Training - A Humanistic And Creativity Driven Approach, Nicole M.T. Charest

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Avatar Training

A Humanistic and Creativity Driven Approach

This project is about the development of a program prototype for a humanistic and creativity driven approach to avatar training to be delivered in Second Life™ (SL). Specifically, the program aims at developing the skills necessary to make a presentation in, and to safely explore, SL. It was proposed to create a unique learning framework that takes into account the targeted clientele, adult professionals with no or limited experience with SL, the sensibilities of 3D immersive social virtual environment, the avatar training needs, and the possibility to weave in creativity skills practice. …

The Bionic Self: Unveiling The Phantom Of The East, Christopher J. Jarmark

English Theses

The existence of Palestine is a question that has haunted the East ever since Israel’s occupation laid roots there in the mid-twentieth century. Occupation allowed for Israel not only to conquer the land of Palestine for itself but also, through bloodied battles and harsh socio-political expectations, to squeeze the essence of cultural identity from the Palestinians. As the occupation stripped the cultural heritage from the Palestinians, they were placed into roles of refugees and exiles, leaving them to wander blankly with only the painfully scarred memories of what used to be their home and culture. Ghassan Kanafani and Sahar Khalifeh …

The Sacred Role Of Animal Beings In Iroquois Lore, Melissa J. Martinelli

English Theses

The act of storytelling provides a connection between the spiritual and physical spheres, and the Haudenosaunee people (more commonly recognized as Iroquois) utilize the oral narrative to convey the most sacred truths of their culture. In focusing primarily upon animals and animal beings, one can recognize the deep reverence traditional tribal members feel toward animals as certain legends seek to unite individuals with the spirits, personalities, and bodies of such creatures in narrative form. Too often animals are overlooked as “lesser” beings, yet in legends of the Iroquois they possess potent orenda (great power) that can help one achieve success …

Master Of Your Domain: Descriptions Of Interior Space In The Works Of Charles Dickens And Elizabeth Gaskell As Social Justice Commentary, Ryan P. Bowers

English Theses

Abstract

One of the results of the industrialization of Victorian England was a further straining of the relationship between the rich and poor. This was evidenced by events such as the Preston Strike, a prolonged labor battle between the workers and the masters of the cotton mills. Charles Dickens’s periodical Household Words covered the strike on two occasions, with Dickens himself writing the second article on the event. An attempt to bridge this cultural divide between the classes was undertaken by Elizabeth Gaskell in North and South, a novel that first appeared in Household Words and by Dickens himself …

Creating Self: A Theatrical Exploration Of Identity, Beth D. Templeton

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the relationship between creativity and identity, specifically as they interact through artistic practice. Using research into theater, gender, identity, and creative impulse a performance piece was developed for the stage. The piece used text, improvisational and written music as well as scripted and improvised speech to explore five major area of the human experience. The first iteration of the project culminated in an invitation to stage workshop performances at a local theater and work continues on the development of the piece. While the research focused on questioning the creative impulse of others, the art making revealed that …

House Of Leaves: The End Of Postmodernism, Joseph B. Noah

English Theses

Mark Z. Danielewski’s debut 2000 novel House of Leaves is written in part as an essay titled The Navidson Record by Zampanò. Within this essay, Zampanò includes footnotes and citations to many works both real and fictional. Through investigating some of his footnotes and allusions in The Navidson Record, certain connections to the postmodern movement may be drawn. By interpreting Zampanò’s allusions to Freud, Derrida, and Einstein, elements from Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Late-Capitalism change the reception of Danielewski’s novel. Thorough investigation of a few allusions within the novel House of Leaves reveal many foundations …

The Beyonder App: Designing A Website And A Mobile Application For Teachers To Integrate The Torrance Incubation Model Into Classroom Content, Jenna M. Smith

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

E. Paul Torrance “the father of creativity” was quoted as saying “tomorrow’s world will be vastly different for today’s children. They will do kinds of work that do not exist now. This will require abilities, skills, attitudes and information that we cannot imagine today” (Torrance, 1993, p.159). Today’s world is vastly different, thus requiring creative skills and abilities to achieve success. Students growing up in today’s society are digital natives. This indicates that they do not know a world without technology advances, so technology is fully ingrained in their culture. Yet, today’s educational system has still not adapted to the …

Visual Thinking: Sketching My Future As A Visual Practitioner, Melinda Walker

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

John Berger states in his classic book, Ways of Seeing (1972), “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice…We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.” (p. 8-9) This project looks at the field of visual thinking and the relations to creativity. Extensive practice of the visual and graphic synthesis of information is a key component of this exploration. When appropriate, graphic visuals are used throughout this paper to further emphasize and illustrate the impact of visuals in comprehension and communication. Various references are …

Developing And Sustaining Creative Workplace Teams: A User's Guide, Thomas J. Andahl

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Developing and Sustaining Creative Workplace Teams: A User’s Guide

This project represents the initial work on a practical guide for managers and their employees on how to fashion and nurture creative teams in the workplace. I believe there is a palpable need for such a guide. Managers realize their success depends on their ability to harness the creativity and innovative talents of their employees, but many of them do not know how. For their part, employees naturally want to maximize their creative talents, but many feel that their creative urges are suppressed by the very managers who want to unleash …

Creating A Creativity Class In The Elementary School: Research And Development, Alyssa C. Charles

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project researches the need for a creativity class in the elementary school. Through literary research on current best practices in 21^st century education it becomes apparent that schools must alter what they do in preparing students for the future. Changes must be made to foster and value creative expression and creative problem solving. The goal of this project is to investigate how implicit and explicit creativity training and Creative Problem Solving (CPS) work with fourth and second grade children in a private school. The project outlines the steps taken to spread awareness about the importance of offering a …

Creativity As A 21st Century Skill: Training Teachers To Take It Beyond The Arts, Linda Salna

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Creative Thinking is a critical life skill needed for success in the 21^st Century. The next generation will be working in jobs that may not even exist today. It is education’s responsibility to prepare students by teaching them how to think not what to think.

Given my commitment to bringing creativity to education, this project focused on working with a small group of public school teachers to find effective methods and materials to assist teachers in using creativity tools. Given that teachers are busy people who work within time constraints and the demands of a large set of curriculum …

Everyday Creativity Without Group Brainstorming, Erik Op Ten Berg

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This Master’s project focuses on different ways to nurture everyday creativity at the work place apart from the well-known “scheduled” brainstorm sessions. The project covers an extensive literature review and the description of three concrete products as an outcome. The finished project includes the design of a two-hour workshop, a one-day training course, and a ten-step coaching program, all about “everyday creativity at work”. Workshops and coaching program are based on the Torrance Incubation Model (Torrance & Safter, 1990). They will assist companies and individuals in applying their creative potential with more impact on a daily basis, to ultimately improve …

The Million-Click Thinking Tip, Sarah B. Thurber

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

“The Million-click Thinking Tip” is a social media project. Its ultimate goal is to share tools, tips and insights from the field of creativity with people around the world. Its more immediate goals were to provide a framework for author and speaker Sarah Thurber to learn about public speaking, social media dynamics and message penetration. The five two-minute videos resulting from the project are posted on Youtube.com. They garnered hundreds of hits in their initial weeks online and continue to reach new audiences through Youtube.com, Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com and Twitter.com. The tips created in this project will serve as a prototype …

Imagination In Action: Parents And Children Exploring Creativity Together Through A Children’S Book, Erica L. Swiatek

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

ABSTRACT

Imagination in action: Parents and children exploring

creativity together through a children’s book.

The purpose of this project, imagination in action, is to provide a playful way for parents and children to experience and learn a skill together using a story. The story follows a seemingly ordinary toothpaste cap from Russia to Niagara Falls. To learn about the cap’s adventure the two main characters put the cap under their pillow, and then they dream of where the cap has gone. To enhance the learning and explain the value and importance of creativity not only for children but also for …