Environmental education in action: a discursive approach to curriculum design

Why do the designers of environmental education do what they do towards the environment through education? More importantly, how do they account for their design decisions (plans and actions)? Using the theoretical and methodological framework of discourse analysis, we analyse environmental education designers' discourse in terms of the discursive resources—or interpretive repertoires—that they use to (a) make their position, (b) make their talk do work and (c) tell a story about events, situations and who they are (identity). Drawing on observations and interviews from a larger programme concerned with understanding environmentalism and environmental education, we identified five main repertoires: relevance, knowledge transferability and translatability, emotionality, expertise and empiricism. The approach provides us with a more refined characterization of the culture of environmental education curriculum design through the ways designers in the field explain their doings, and we explore the important implications for curriculum design in this field.     

The Toughest Teaching: Capturing Attention,Sketching Pictures,and Touching Humanity

Storytelling is fundamental to human nature. and one of the most powerful of all binding forces. In today's world, there are too many stories. It is difticultto get people to pay attention to what you have to say. Any organization must expend considerable effort to identify the story they have to tell and then communicate that tale with one voice. A key element of the story is differentiating yourself from everyone else. To be successful, organizations must incorporate three key elements: They must capture attention, sketch pictures, and touch humanity. It is also important to recognize when outside opinion can help define the message. In higher education, the future environment holds promise for departments such as kinesiology and physical education, provided individuals in these areas are successful in exploring mergers, seeking strategic partnerships, investing in technology, controlling costs, and improving their product by adding value.     

Truth(s), Fiction,and Storytelling in Performance Improvement

The consulting‐oriented field of performance improvement is ideally based on a radically empirical foundation. We are supposed to be data driven and evidence based and to derive all of our processes and all of our advice to clients from empirical evidence (which can be either qualitative or quantitative) that allows us to make clear and distinct links from cause to effect. But much of the time we are simply unable to make conclusions based solely on actual performance data that unambiguously shows us a clear path for identifying gaps and effecting changes. In such a case, what is an earnest professional to do? The answer is, tell a story and change it as you go.     

Embodied design: constructing means for constructing meaning

Design-based research studies are conducted as iterative implementation-analysis-modification cycles, in which emerging theoretical models and pedagogically plausible activities are reciprocally tuned toward each other as a means of investigating conjectures pertaining to mechanisms underlying content teaching and learning. Yet this approach, even when resulting in empirically effective educational products, remains under-conceptualized as long as researchers cannot be explicit about their craft and specifically how data analyses inform design decisions. Consequentially, design decisions may appear arbitrary, design methodology is insufficiently documented for broad dissemination, and design practice is inadequately conversant with learning-sciences perspectives. One reason for this apparent under-theorizing, I propose, is that designers do not have appropriate constructs to formulate and reflect on their own intuitive responses to students’ observed interactions with the media under development. Recent socio-cultural explication of epistemic artifacts as semiotic means for mathematical learners to objectify presymbolic notions (e.g., Radford, Mathematical Thinking and Learning 5(1): 37–70, 2003) may offer design-based researchers intellectual perspectives and analytic tools for theorizing design improvements as responses to participants’ compromised attempts to build and communicate meaning with available media. By explaining these media as potential semiotic means for students to objectify their emerging understandings of mathematical ideas, designers, reciprocally, create semiotic means to objectify their own intuitive design decisions, as they build and improve these media. Examining three case studies of undergraduate students reasoning about a simple probability situation (binomial), I demonstrate how the semiotic approach illuminates the process and content of student reasoning and, so doing, explicates and possibly enhances design-based research methodology.

建筑企业价值影响因素的实证分析

以我国建筑业上市公司为研究样本,分析影响企业价值的因素,实证结果表明,建筑企业价值和资产规模呈U型关系;和资本结构显著负相关;和经营能力、盈利能力显著正相关;和股权集中度、股权激励、研发强度的正相关关系均不显著。     

Commemorating a whole story of woman suffrage

ABSTRACT

To tell the whole story of the struggle for woman suffrage, we need to begin the story well before 1848 and continue it long after 1920. For those teaching about woman suffrage, this essay offers resources that enable you to situate the 19th Amendment within a richer narrative of woman suffrage.     

“关公战蚩尤”神话形成的文化考察

“关公战蚩尤”是一个在山西地区流传很广的神话传说。关公与蚩尤本是两个风马牛不相及的人物,在这则神话中却“战”到了一起。通过文化要素分析法,我们对“关公战蚩尤”的四大文化要素：盐池与蚩尤、关羽、道教,进行具体分析,以弄清这四大要素在怎样的历史背景下相融合,并成为一个整体,从而揭示出这则神话得以形成的合理轨迹。     

中国传统建筑元素在现代室内设计中的运用

富有中国传统文化的建筑元素在现代室内设计中的运用是当今的热门话题之一。纵观近年来我国室内设计师的作品及设计理念可以发现,在当代室内设计中,很多方面都呈现出传统建筑元素与现代设计的有机结合。在快速发展的室内空间设计中,重视中国传统建筑元素的运用,取其精华,不断创新,使当代建筑更具观赏性,更具中国的传统文化特点。     

Storylady

If you have theatrical leanings and find it easy to call on your child-self, you may want to join me in make-believe, as a Storylady (or Storyfella). I'll tell you about some typical pretending days at a children's museum. Soon you will know if you are cut out to be a storyteller. It will be a magic moment.Lora Taylor Gray has been Docent/teacher for many years at KIDSPACE Museum (a non-profit organization) in Pasadena, CA. She is a story lady, storyteller, playwrite for libraries, television, museums, schools.     

Hokanson,Brad & Gibbons,Andrew ed (2013) Design in educational technology Springer (Berlin) isbn 978‐3‐319‐00926‐1 283 pp £90 http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/learning+%26+instruction/book/978‐3‐319‐00926‐1

Here is a well written and well edited book with focus on the concept of design in modern educational technology practice. It is for both new and experienced designers; those new to the field might find opportunities to expand their practice, while experienced designers will find affirmation of many past practices and the opportunity to explore new ideas for future projects. If you think this book is likely to be of value to you, I suggest you buy your own copy Diane P Janes     

Children’s narrative development through computer game authoring

Conclusions The strong motivational influence of computer games on children can be used positively within education. This paper looks beyond the educational benefits which children can gain asconsumers of computer games to explore the additional benefits which could be gleaned from enabling children toproduce their own computer games. In the domain of literacy and narrative development, creating an interactive audio-visual computer game to tell a story has many potential benefits. The Game Maker workshop described in the paper confirms that creating stories within computer games is a task which young people find highly enjoyable, engaging and rewarding. Additionally, the workshop experience suggests that sophisticated game design is well within reach of 12–15 year olds. These motivational advantages indicate that it is well worth exploring how computer game authoring can be used in the classroom to raise both literacy standards and children’s enjoyment of story making activities     

中国传统元素在现代包装设计中的应用

如今,中国传统元素备受青睐,设计师们频频将中国传统元素融入设计当中,这也为中国传统文化的传播提供了一个全新的平台。作为当代本土的设计从业人员如何让中国传统元素与现代包装设计达到完美结合,从而让中国传统元素得到更好地发扬,这既是一种挑战也是一种不可推卸的责任。     

Creativity in advertising design education: an experimental study

Have you ever thought about why qualities whose definitions are elusive, such as those of a sunset or a half-opened rose, affect us so powerfully? According to de Saussure (Course in general linguistics, 1983), the making of meanings is closely related to the production and interpretation of signs. All types of design, including advertising design, are about meaning-making. This study examines the effectiveness of a problem-based learning (PBL) approach in enhancing student designers’ creative flexibility in advertising design. A semiotic approach is employed to examine hand-sketched print advertisements for a bakery promoting the metaphorical theme Bread is Life produced by participants in a series of PBL workshops (the experimental group) and a series of lecture-based workshops (the control group). The visual representations realised through these sketches in association with the metaphor were categorised into different signifiers by five experienced creative directors and are compared on an inter-group basis. The results of the semiotic analysis show the experimental group to have generated a wider variety of signifiers than the control group, thus reflecting the higher degree of creative flexibility that results from the use of a PBL approach. Theoretically, this empirical study addresses a number of conceptual issues in advertising design, creativity, problem solving, divergent thinking and semiotics. Practically, it contributes to an understanding of how a PBL approach can contribute to the enhancement of semiotic association skills amongst student designers in a professional communication context.     

Which events can cause iteration in instructional design? An empirical study of the design process

Instructional design is not a linear process: designers have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of alternative solutions, taking into account different kinds of conflicting and changing constraints. To make sure that they eventually choose the most optimal one, they have to keep on collecting information, reconsidering continuously whether their own decisions are still justified in the light of the latest insights. We have studied the role of iteration during instructional design. For our research, we have used an ISD-based method for the specification of training simulators. During our empirical evaluation study, we introduced five events that are likely to cause iteration. The results show that the quality of the designs is not directly related to the amount of iteration. We conclude that there are different kinds of iteration, triggered by different kinds of actions and events. We propose a list of triggers for iteration some of which originate from outside (new information, new opinions/arguments and acquisition procedures); others are caused by, or evolve from interaction with the design process itself (discovery of missing input, need to repair errors, new insights based on work later on in the design process, and new ideas of the designers). in final form: 4 August 2005     

Religious Influences in Public Education: Political and judicial Developments

What can preservice teachers tell us about the impact of culture on literacy? Participants responded to an open-ended survey asking, “How do you think your culture influences what you read and write?” Three themes emerged in their answers: family influence, self-exploration through literacy, and the cultural politics of literacy. Further examination led to three premises about literacy. Findings highlight the importance of students’ literacy history and provide means for teachers to reframe their instruction, based on student voice.     

Three dimensions of reflective thinking in solving design problems: a conceptual model

Design tasks are omnipresent in our everyday lives. Previous research shows that reflective thinking is one of the critical factors in solving design problems. Related research has attempted to capture designers’ reflective thinking process. Yet a close inspection of designers’ reflective thinking taking place during their design process demands further effort. To understand designer’s reflective practice and to find better ways to promote novices’ reflective thinking in solving real-world design problems, a comprehensive model was developed. This model identified three dimensions to guide the understanding of designers’ reflective thinking during a design process: (1) the timing of reflection, indicating the points in the process where reflective thinking occurs, (2) the objects of reflection, showing the different types of objects that designers may reflect upon, and (3) the levels of reflection, referring to the different levels of designers’ reflection. This model provides for meaningful aspects of reflective thinking to be situated in a design process, which can guide educators and instructional designers in developing appropriate learning environments for facilitating novice and practicing designers’ reflective thinking. Moreover, the model can serve as a stepping stone for further research.     

中国元素在中式餐饮空间设计中的应用

为了使中式餐饮空间体现纯正的中国文化氛围,进一步弘扬中华文化,文章阐述了设计师应在充分掌握餐饮空间设计的基本原则的基础上,充分了解中国元素的内涵,运用现代的造型观念和表现形式对中国元素进行组构和变象,取其神韵形成具有中国特色的中式主题餐饮空间形式。