Education Commons^™

Reach To Teach, April R. Cowles

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Multiple intelligences theory of Howard Gardner are used as a foundation of research in order to explain how educating students of all learning styles should include interdisciplinary methods and creative applications. Primary and secondary research of Howard Gardner’s theory and interdisciplinary methods, specifically the Integration Model and Broad Model approaches were completed. Two different lesson plans demonstrating how to teach students integrating two disciplines while including creativity were generated as examples of thesis. Qualitative research on creativity and motivation identified connection between the two and why interdisciplinary methods enable more possibilities of adding creativity to lessons taught. Advantages include reaching …

Creativity As A Mental State: An Eeg Study Of Musical Improvisation, Joel A. Lopata

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Researchers in cognitive neuroscience have used brain-imaging methods (e.g., EEG, fMRI) to investigate the neural correlates of creative cognition and have found increased activity in the alpha frequency band (Fink et al., 2009a, 2009b; Martindale, 1975), however few studies have used neuroscientific measures to investigate artistic creativity. Such studies are valuable because they share a characteristic of ecological validity. In this study I used EEG, the Alternate Uses Test (Guilford, 1967), and the Consensual Assessment Technique (Amabile, 1982) to substantiate a conceptualization of creativity as a mental state characterized by a distinct pattern of neural activity. The participants were musicians …

The Value Of Problem Posing In Developing Creatively Gifted Mathematicians, Eric L. Mann

Faculty Presentations

The task of problem posing is often overlooked as a means to develop creatively gifted mathematicians. Silver (1997) suggested that problem posing was an instructional tactic used worldwide to develop creativity in mathematicians. More specifically, Silver advocated that deliberate instructional tactics had to be employed to precipitate creative solutions. Problem posing is often correlated with the aesthetic nature of mathematics.

In this cutting-edge session, participants’ objective is to learn about the value of problem posing through a brief presentation and have an opportunity to generate their own mathematical problem solving tasks given a mathematical concept. The intent is to encourage …

Problem-Solving Pedagogy: A Foundation For Restructuring, Updating, And Improving Undergraduate Theory And Musicianship Curricula, Michael T. Simonelli

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to provide the ideological and practical foundation for an improved approach to undergraduate theory and musicianship pedagogy. I will discuss the structure of conventional theory programs and explore problems inherent to traditional curriculum design. Problem-solving pedagogy, an approach rooted in creative composition and improvisation, will be presented as a complement to traditional theory pedagogy. Balancing problem-solving pedagogy with a more traditional pedagogical approach will provide a practical foundation for improving undergraduate theory and musicianship curricula.

The Inclusion Of Cognitive Complexity: A Content Analysis Of New Jersey's Current And Past Intended Curriculum, Dario Sforza

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Policy makers and educators have stated that the internationally benchmarked standards will place greater emphasis on 21^st century skills including creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, presentation and demonstration, problem solving, research and inquiry, and career readiness. Many educators believe that if schools are “injected” with creativity, students will have a better chance at a prosperous and productive future. Are the current reform movements thwarting the opportunity for students to “find their own niche” and perhaps turning “them into disciples of ‘intellectual clones’ who will do ‘our thing’ rather their own?” (Sternberg, 2003, p. 335). In response to inquiry, this dissertation …

Faculty Share Views On Importance Of Creative Thinking In The Workplace, June-Ann Greeley

June-Ann Greeley

University Commons was filled with students eager to gain insights from “Creativity In The Workplace: Creative & Innovative Thinking from the Classroom to the Boardroom.” The program was presented by SHU faculty who emphasized the importance of creative and innovative thinking abilities that are developed through the university’s liberal arts programs and are key to workplace success.

Faculty Share Views On Importance Of Creative Thinking In The Workplace, James Castonguay

James Castonguay

University Commons was filled with students eager to gain insights from “Creativity In The Workplace: Creative & Innovative Thinking from the Classroom to the Boardroom.” The program was presented by SHU faculty who emphasized the importance of creative and innovative thinking abilities that are developed through the university’s liberal arts programs and are key to workplace success.

Faculty Share Views On Importance Of Creative Thinking In The Workplace, Anca C. Micu

Anca C. Micu

University Commons was filled with students eager to gain insights from “Creativity In The Workplace: Creative & Innovative Thinking from the Classroom to the Boardroom.” The program was presented by SHU faculty who emphasized the importance of creative and innovative thinking abilities that are developed through the university’s liberal arts programs and are key to workplace success.

Trying And Failing: What Do Artists Know About Innovation And The Global Economy?, Catherine Holochwost Phd

Explorer Café

No abstract provided.

Applying Developmentally Appropriate Engineering Challenges In A First Grade Classroom, Kathleen R. Glick

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

The intent of this study was to determine how implementing developmentally appropriate engineering challenges in a first grade classroom could positively impact the students’ levels of persistence, creativity and problem-solving. This study was conducted in a first grade classroom with 22 students located in a first-ring suburb of a major metropolitan area in Minnesota. Data collection methods included an engineering survey used to ascertain students’ knowledge of engineering and a student school attitude survey, both administered at the beginning and the end of the study, work completion tracked through a grade book, simple formative assessments, and teacher observations. The results …

Keeping The Magic: New Educator Award Winners Discuss Creativity And Challenges In Mid-Career, Joy Beatty, Amy L. Kenworthy, Jennifer S.A. Leigh, Suzanne De Janasz, Charles J. Fornaciari, Jane V. Wheeler, Kirsty K. Spence

Amy L. Kenworthy

Extract The New Educator Award recognizes early career teachers who have demonstrated excellence and creativity in their teaching practice, pedagogical research, and service to OBTS. In this session seven NEA winners discuss keeping magic in their teaching practice. Having moved from “new” to mid-career, the session addresses two questions: (1) what is the current career challenge you face? and (2) what attitudes, behaviors, or practices allow you to keep the magic (stay energized) in your career? The session encourages inquiry and dialogue with panellists and audience members about mid-career opportunities and challenges.

Summer Fun With The Brain In Mind, Lori Desautels

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Summer months are typically designated as times for less structure, more pleasure, enjoying the outdoors, and free time. Sometimes, however, our brains feel discombobulated without the structure or schedules that guide us through the other ten months of the year. But whether we're in school, at home, the pool, the playground, or on vacation, we're always using our brains. The brain-compatible activities below are intended for parents to implement with children or adolescents to activate the joy of learning, decision-making, questioning, and playing with ideas during summer break and beyond.

Generating Cultural Capital? Impacts Of Artists-In-Residence On Teacher Professional Learning, Mary Ann Hunter, William Baker, Di Nailon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The introduction of the Australian Arts Curriculum and the rise of a twenty-first century creativity agenda in education signal an opportunity for teacher educators to re-examine the outcomes and potential of arts-based initiatives on teacher professional learning. This study re-visits the outcomes of the Australian Artist-in-Residence program in this context and analyses a subset of data collected for its evaluation. The study reveals that while teachers perceive an improvement in creative capital, it is important to consider questions about the capacity for such programs to generate long term changes in practice. The study illustrates how some States and Territories embedded …

Teaching The Universal Language Of Creativity: A Guide To Training., Carlie R. Arnone

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Teaching the Universal Language of Creativity: A Guide to Training.

The purpose of education in any regard is to provide knowledge and information, to teach something. Parents, educators, and professionals alike are experiencing some difficulty in education, in that they are not being properly taught how to nurture some particular needs of individuals with developmental disabilities, specifically on how to use creativity to do so. Educators, parents, and professionals in the field need to start advocating for a balance between strict regulations and creativity. In the recent years, there has been quite the push for creativity and innovation in businesses, …

Using Creativity As A Form Of Intervention For At-Risk-Youth: The Development Of Creativity2day, Tamika T. Lewis

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project is a detailed description of the development of Creativity2Day, the organization and its workshops, its sole purpose is to positively impact the lives of at-risk-youth and the communities they live in. This project provides a synthetized definition of creativity and a detailed outline on how the deliberate use of the Creative Change Leadership Model, Creative Problems Solving, and the Torrance Incubation Model of Teaching and Learning can be used together as a form of micro-level intervention methods, geared towards the positive development of at-risk-youth who attend Title I schools and reside in low-income communities.

Future-Focused Leadership: Three Mega-Trends Influencing Distance Learning, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Faculty and Staff Publications

While many continue to question the skyrocketing costs and value of a college education, future-focused leaders are recreating learning experiences by blending technology with the human experience. What does the future of distance learning look like, taste like and feel like? It can be difficult to predict the future of education as the world continues to evolve at an increasingly rapid pace; however, distance learning administrators can use a future-focused leadership approach, which includes examining megatrends, to plan for the future. Megatrends are global shifts that influence society, the economy and the environment. The purpose of this paper is to …

Creativity And The Reggio Emilia Approach, Duna Alkhudhair

The William & Mary Educational Review

The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education was developed in the city of Reggio Emilia after the Second World War under the leadership of Loris Malaguzzi. Today, Reggio Emilia schools stand as exemplars for the development of young children’s creativity. This paper provides an overview of the Reggio Emilia approach and examines how it aligns with current research findings related to the development of creativity in young children.

Using The Torrance Incubation Model To Assist Parents With Developing Creativity In Their Children, Melanie L. Lesswing

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Abstract

Using the Torrance Incubation Model to Assist Parents with Developing Creativity in Their Children

The purpose of this project is to utilize the Torrance Incubation Model (TIM) to create a Creative Guide Book to the city of Buffalo, New York. The project also serves as a medium to deliver information about creativity and the creative thinking skills to the target audience of the Guide Book: parents. One goal of the project is to use the three-part TIM model to assist parents in teaching their children a vital 21^st Century skill: creativity. A second objective of the project is …

Ways To Foster Creativity In The Classroom, Peter W. Herman

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Creativity in lesson planning has many positive impacts on student’s retention. Some of these include it challenges students to use upper level thought, increases motivation, and creativity has a trickledown effect on all aspects of the classroom, including the teacher. Current teachers were surveyed, with the majority valuing creativity. These teachers discovered roadblocks in bringing creativity into lesson plans because of time constraints due to curriculum shifts. These constraints and other hurdles can be overcome, and several benefits can be experienced by the teacher and the students. There is a need for training to solve problems in the classroom and …

Musings From A Year Of Ste[A]M...How It Looks Walking Down The Path, Ruth Catchen

The STEAM Journal

This is a follow up article to one in the inaugural issue which describes the beginnings of implementing a STE[a]M curriculum in a school with a high at-risk student population. This article discusses the outcomes and the future after a year of STE[a]M.

Full Steam Ahead: Creativity In Excellent Stem Teaching Practices, Danah Henriksen

The STEAM Journal

This article emphasizes the value of creativity and arts-based learning in the sciences (STEAM education), using one example from a recent research study of creative and effective classroom teachers. The future of innovative thinking in STEM disciplines relies on breaking down the distinction between disciplines traditionally seen as “creative” like the arts or music, and STEM disciplines traditionally seen as more rigid or logical-mathematical (Catterall, 2002). The most exceptional thinkers in fields like science or math are also highly creative individuals who are deeply influenced by an interest in, and knowledge of, music, the arts and similar areas (Caper, 1996; …

Enhancing Your Credibility As A Professional: Things To Do - Things To Avoid, Aaron W. Hughey

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Outback Elvis: Musical Creativity In Rural Australia, John Connell, Christopher Gibson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

However cartographies of music are constructed, they invariably suggest some authentic relationship between particular sites of vernacular musical creativity and a social and economic context that has contributed to a certain distinctiveness. Thus, the literature is replete with accounts of supposedly distinctive Mersey and Otago sounds, New Orleans jazz or Nashville country, and the 'mutually generative relations of music and space' (Leyshon et al., 1995, p. 424). In the conventional narrative, styles are generally deemed to have originated from particular individual and collective scenes associated with key musicians and bands, and talked up as a means of promoting these styles …

Waldorf Kindergarten And Reggio-Inspired Kindergarten: Documenting Value And Effectiveness Of Two Arts-Based Approaches, Daria Stowell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Waldorf kindergarten and Reggio-inspired kindergarten are two arts-based approaches to early childhood education that are viewed as strong educational alternatives to traditional education and serve as sources of inspiration for progressive educational reform. This study describes, interprets, and appraises the intentions and operations of two Waldorf kindergartens and two Reggio-inspired kindergartens in the United States in order to uncover the aims, practices, and values of both.

Five questions guide this study: (1) What are the intentions of Waldorf kindergarten and Reggio-inspired kindergarten? (2) What do Waldorf kindergarten and Reggio-inspired kindergarten look like in practice? (3) What do the children have …

How Creative Are Iranian Efl Teachers?, Reza Khany, Mahnaz Boghayeri

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The study of creativity has been of great interest to educationalists in general and language teaching practitioners in particular. With all these however, very little if any has been reported on the issue in Iranian EFL context. Having this in mind and drawing on the latest profile of creativity, effort was made to see how creative Iranian EFL teachers are. In so doing, a total of 36 English language teachers filled a checklist designed based on EFL Teachers’ Creativity Profile (EFLTCP). The results indicated that the participants’ perception did not match the way they performed their activities in the classroom. …

Towards A New Paradigm In Architectural Education, Ken Snell

Faculty Publications and Scholarship

In anticipation of the arrival of a new creative economy there is much interest, debate and research in the study of creativity, creative learning and teaching, the nature of creative genius, creative play, imagination and invention and in educational policy making. If David Boud is correct in his opinion that “assessment methods and requirements probably have a greater influence on how and what students learn than any other single factor (Boud 1988) then the development of the techniques, tools and methods for the assessment of creativity must be developed and tailored to suit the many disciplines of study that …

Describing Creativity In Design Across Disciplines, Llew Mann, Yasemin Tekmen Araci

Design Thinking Research Symposium

Creativity is an essential aspect of design thinking. Being able to describe creativity and creative processes is important for developing future designers. While much research has been undertaken describing creativity in design, there is very little investigating how creativity and creative thinking varies across disciplines. A coding scheme involving six separate codes was developed initially from the literature, refined and then used to describe how creativity and creative thinking was apparent in the DTRS 10 datasets of Junior Industrial Design, Graduate Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering, Choreography and Entrepreneurship. Based on this analysis, conclusions on how creativity and creative thinking varied …

Organic Creativity In The Classroom: Teaching To Intuition In Academics And The Arts, Edited By J. Piirto, Jane Piirto

Jane Piirto

Creativity can be taught and nurtured, and we can build classrooms in which creativity thrives. This philosophy acts as a central thesis in a new book, Organic Creativity in the Classroom, edited by award-winning author Jane Piirto, Ph.D. This innovative collection of essays explores approaches to teaching creativity from the perspective of experienced educators and artists. The 23 authors have taught for more than 500 years combined, and in this book they share teaching stories and helpful strategies that can be used to encourage students to become more creative within specific domains. The authors include master teachers, curriculum theorists, holistic …