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Full-Text Articles in Education

Creativity And Initial Teacher Education: Reflections Of Secondary Visual Arts Teachers In Ghana, Enock Swanzy-Impraim, Julia E. Morris, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Andrew Jones Jan 2023

Creativity And Initial Teacher Education: Reflections Of Secondary Visual Arts Teachers In Ghana, Enock Swanzy-Impraim, Julia E. Morris, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Andrew Jones

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The development of creativity through learning is a significant part of Ghana's pre-tertiary education system framework. Achieving the successful implementation of creativity from policy to practice in schools relies on teachers in the local school system, who are shaped by their past teaching experiences and the training they have received during initial teacher education (ITE). Using interviews and observation data, this case study explored 16 secondary visual arts teachers' experiences and reflections on their training in relation to creativity and its impact on their current practice. Five themes emerged from an inductive analysis: containment, free expression, self-directed learning, replication of …


Exploring Creative Pedagogical Practices In Secondary Visual Arts Programmes In Ghana, Enock Swanzy-Impraim, Julia E. Morris, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Andrew Jones Jan 2023

Exploring Creative Pedagogical Practices In Secondary Visual Arts Programmes In Ghana, Enock Swanzy-Impraim, Julia E. Morris, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Andrew Jones

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Secondary visual arts education provides learners with opportunities to develop critical thinking, and their creative potential, as part of their personal growth. This development happens when visual arts teachers actively integrate creative pedagogies to target creative thinking in learners. Ghana's 2019 National Pre-tertiary Curriculum Framework has added creativity as one goal for all learners. This research study explores teachers' perceptions and use of creative pedagogies as part of implementing this creativity into their teaching. A multi-site qualitative case study was conducted in government secondary schools within Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana, and data were gathered from interviews and participant observations. The 16 cases …


An Investigation Into The Role Of Innovative Learning Environments In Fostering Creativity In Secondary Visual Arts Programmes In Ghana, Enock Swanzy-Impraim, Julia E. Morris, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Andrew Jones Jan 2023

An Investigation Into The Role Of Innovative Learning Environments In Fostering Creativity In Secondary Visual Arts Programmes In Ghana, Enock Swanzy-Impraim, Julia E. Morris, Geoffrey W. Lummis, Andrew Jones

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Innovative learning environments (ILEs) have been regarded as one of the contributing factors that facilitate creativity in learners. At the pre-tertiary level of education, Ghana has recently undergone educational reform that sees creativity being added as a key goal for education, but it is unknown if teachers' practices within current educational facilities can support the enactment of this goal. The multi-site qualitative case study explores the secondary visual arts learning environments within the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis in Ghana. Interviews and observations were used as instruments for data collection with 16 visual arts teachers. This study confirmed two categories of environments that …


Leadership In Sustainability: Collective Wisdom, Conversations, Creativity, Contemplation And Courage, The Five Pillars Of A Master’S Teaching Unit, Mike Mouritz, Peter Newman, Renée Newman, Jayne Bryant, Aimee Smith, Elaine Olsen May 2022

Leadership In Sustainability: Collective Wisdom, Conversations, Creativity, Contemplation And Courage, The Five Pillars Of A Master’S Teaching Unit, Mike Mouritz, Peter Newman, Renée Newman, Jayne Bryant, Aimee Smith, Elaine Olsen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper provides an overview of insights and lessons learned from nearly 20 years of running a Master’s unit called Leadership in Sustainability and how it has been used to foster change agents in small business enterprises, as well as other parts of our economy and community. The unit is based on five ‘C’ pillars, which are discussed in this paper to show how the teaching was able to assist potential leaders in their journey towards sustainability. Collective Wisdom is the theory of how leaders have used their imagination to solve collective ‘wicked problems’ and how sustainability requires such wisdom. …


Dialogic Communication In The One-To-One Improvisation Lesson: A Qualitative Study, Leon R. De Bruin Jan 2018

Dialogic Communication In The One-To-One Improvisation Lesson: A Qualitative Study, Leon R. De Bruin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This qualitative study investigates the dialogic interactions between teacher and student that enhance learning and teaching within the one-to-one music improvisation lesson. This study analyses the ways teachers elicit student actions, thoughts and processes that develop student skills, critical and creative thinking processes necessary for improvisational development. Interactions and interplay between six Australian conservatoire improvisation students and their teachers were investigated. Data reveal dialogic interactions that span instruction, conversation, inquiry and enablement of student knowledge and skills that constitute a complex socio-cultural tapestry of discursive threads. Teacher-student interactions that activate desired creative student activity engage meta-cognitive processes and the cultivation …


Fostering Creative Ecologies In Australasian Secondary Schools, Leon R. De Bruin, Anne Harris Jan 2017

Fostering Creative Ecologies In Australasian Secondary Schools, Leon R. De Bruin, Anne Harris

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigates and compares elements of creativity in secondary schools and classrooms in Australia and Singapore. Statistical analysis and qualitative investigation of teacher, student and leadership perceptions of the emergence, fostering and absence of creativity in school learning environments is explored. This large-scale international study (n=717) reveals the impact of teacher behaviours, teaching environments and school leadership approaches that promote and impede the enhancement of creative, critical, and innovative thinking, organisation, and curriculum structures. Implications for Australian schools and teaching urge for secondary education to challenge current, practices, pedagogies and environments, arguing for school-based strategies and considerations that enhance …


Performativity And Creativity In Senior Secondary Drama Classrooms, Kirsten Lambert, Peter R. Wright, Jan Currie, Robin Pascoe Jul 2016

Performativity And Creativity In Senior Secondary Drama Classrooms, Kirsten Lambert, Peter R. Wright, Jan Currie, Robin Pascoe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article examines the intersection between the senior secondary drama classroom, creativity and neoliberalism. Informed by a research project involving fifteen West Australian drama teachers and thirteen students, it considers the drama classroom as one site where tensions between the performative needs of neoliberal education and the more humanistic desires that drama teachers embody are enacted. This paper suggests that drama education can be a powerfully transformative vehicle for creative and innovative thinking because of its spatially unique classroom environment and embodied nature. However, collisions between rhetoric and reality, social good and economic return, can mean that young people are …


Creativity From Two Perspectives: Prospective Mathematics Teachers And Mathematician, Gönül Yazgan-Sağ, Elçin Emre-Akdoğan Jan 2016

Creativity From Two Perspectives: Prospective Mathematics Teachers And Mathematician, Gönül Yazgan-Sağ, Elçin Emre-Akdoğan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Although creativity plays a critical role in mathematics, it remains underestimated in the context of a mathematics classroom. This study aims to explore the views and differences creativity displays in prospective teachers and one of their lecturers with respect to the characteristics and practices of creative teachers and the characteristics of creative students. We collected data through interviews with four prospective mathematics teachers and one mathematics lecturer. The study results revealed that their perspectives on creativity varied greatly and were mostly influenced by the characteristics of their diverse backgrounds and teaching practices. The views of the prospective mathematics teachers with …


The Transformation Of Creativity In Entrepreneurial Learning In Teacher Education: A Critical Reflection, Anna Ehrlin, Eva Insulander, Anette Sandberg Jan 2016

The Transformation Of Creativity In Entrepreneurial Learning In Teacher Education: A Critical Reflection, Anna Ehrlin, Eva Insulander, Anette Sandberg

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of this study is to examine how students on a teacher education programme interpret entrepreneurial learning. The study was performed in Sweden, based on a design theoretical and multimodal perspective on learning and communication which provides the basis for how we understand learning processes in early teacher education. The sample consists of course literature, teachers’ PowerPoint presentations and handouts, and narrative texts written by students. The meaning given to entrepreneurial learning is presented from the analysis of the setting, in the teaching materials and the transformation in the students’ texts. We conclude that entrepreneurial learning seeks to challenge …


Generating Cultural Capital? Impacts Of Artists-In-Residence On Teacher Professional Learning, Mary Ann Hunter, William Baker, Di Nailon Jun 2014

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 …


How Creative Are Iranian Efl Teachers?, Reza Khany, Mahnaz Boghayeri Jan 2014

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. …


The Weaving Of A Tapestry: A Metaphor For Teacher Education Curriculum Development, Susan E. Simon Aug 2013

The Weaving Of A Tapestry: A Metaphor For Teacher Education Curriculum Development, Susan E. Simon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher educators rightfully dream of delivering inspiring programs to benefit future teachers and the students they will in turn inspire. However, in the current teacher education environment in Australia, the artisan’s craft of weaving rich texture and producing a masterpiece is potentially over-shadowed by the educational administrator’s continual focus on the mapping of professional standards to produce an accreditation-worthy product. Responding to increased accountability, teacher educators at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, embarked on re-developing programs utilising a process akin to tapestry weaving. This metaphor enriched contributors’ understanding of the complex process of teacher education program …


Chaos Of Textures Or ‘Tapisserie’? A Model For Creative Teacher Education Curriculum Design, Sue E. Simon Aug 2013

Chaos Of Textures Or ‘Tapisserie’? A Model For Creative Teacher Education Curriculum Design, Sue E. Simon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A tapestry or ‘tapisserie’ methodology, inspired by Denzin and Lincoln’s ‘bricolage’ methodology (2000), emerged during the complex task of re-developing teacher education programs at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. ‘Tapisserie’ methodology highlights the pivotal task of determining stable ‘warp threads’ prior to the subsequent interweaving of myriad ‘weft threads’. In our context, the core values of the education team were deemed to be the crucial ‘warp threads’ which would provide structure and navigation through numerous ‘weft threads’. The resultant model assisted teacher educators’ understanding of this complex process within a rigorous accreditation environment. It aims to preserve …


Chinese Students' Perceptions Of Their Creativity And Their Perceptions Of Western Students' Creativity, Bingxin Wang, Kenneth M. Greenwood Jan 2013

Chinese Students' Perceptions Of Their Creativity And Their Perceptions Of Western Students' Creativity, Bingxin Wang, Kenneth M. Greenwood

Research outputs 2013

This paper applies the Four C Model of Creativity ('Big-C, little-c, mini-c and Pro-c') to determine Chinese students' perceptions of their own creativity and their perceptions of Western students' creativity. By surveying 100 Chinese students and interviewing 10 of them, this paper discovered that Chinese students generally perceived their creativity to be less than that of Western students. Differences on mini-c and Pro-c were larger in the direction of Western students being superior, and the items that differed in the opposite direction and those which did not differ were part of the subset of little-c items. The perceived superiority of …