Malleable Thought: The Role of Craft Thinking in Practice‐Led Graphic Design

This article considers the potential of craft processes as creative engagements in graphic design research. It initially discusses the uneasy history of craft within the discipline, then draws upon case studies undertaken by three established designers who, in their postgraduate theses, engaged with craft as a process of thinking. In doing so, the article discusses craft in relation to embodied creative experience, the culture of learning communities and disobedient thought.     

Classifying curriculum scholarship in Australia: A review of postgraduate theses 1975–2005

This paper discusses an initial analysis of the form of Australian postgraduate scholarship over the last four decades in relation to curriculum inquiry. The study forms part of an ARC funded project on the shifts and emphases of Australian curriculum policy from 1975 to 2005 which seeks to contribute to understandings of how Australian curriculum has developed across states and over time. Analyses of changing emphases within education thesis production are hampered by the lack of systematic and consistent indexing of the theses, but within the criteria and methods we used, the thesis analysis elicited some tantalising findings. These seem to show a changing focus away from curriculum study in the most recent decade of Australian postgraduate theses, following three decades of rising interest in that area of education. But the study also demonstrated inherent methodological and practical problems for doing the inquiry itself, in terms of (1) the ways we categorise and think about education as a field; (2) limitations of the archiving and coding practices we have put in place to sustain a sense of our own history and the need to improve these; and, (3) potentially, research assessment now in train, and its intention to categorise work via “field of research” codes.     

Educational technology research trends in Turkey from a critical perspective: An analysis of postgraduate theses

The aim of this study is to explore the research trends in the context of postgraduate programmes in the field of Educational Technology (ET) in Turkey between 1996 and 2016, and to uncover the possible factors that influence these trends from the perspective of ET faculty members. This study was informed by critical theory and employed the critical inquiry method. In the first phase, content analysis technique was used in order to explore trends in research methods and topics in theses completed in ET postgraduate programmes in Turkey. In the second phase, in-depth interviews were conducted with 11 faculty members regarding the possible influential factors. The findings of the content analysis indicated that ET research was dominated by quantitative research designs in the examined theses. Critical methods were overlooked and social, cultural, and political issues were largely silenced. The findings of the interviews showed that the factors that have been influential on ET research trends were the social impact of the research, personal interests and skills, disciplinary and departmental culture, and feasibility concerns. This study presents implications for better ET research by addressing blind spots of the field and providing suggestions for ET postgraduate students, ET scholars, policymakers and practitioners in a global context and other developing countries since the resulting trends in Turkey were found similar to international trends in the field.     

Active Learning and Teaching through Digital Technology and Live Performance: ‘Choreographic Thinking’ as Art Practice in the Tertiary Sector

This article is an interdisciplinary reflective response to an intensive studio learning and teaching experience involving artists, academics and postgraduate students. The authors of this article teach, research and practise in coding, digital design, dance, and virtual and live performance. As lecturers and students we reflect upon and propose future approaches to art practice in tertiary education informed by live performance, performance capture and studio‐based responses to digital and virtual platforms. We reflect on an innovative contribution to the field of research–teaching nexus as informed by digital and virtual data capture identifying the key element of immediacy in live performance and choreographic improvisation with systems. We reflect on practice‐based inquiry via the Choreographic Coding Lab (CCL) model – a dialogical negotiation between capture technology and interdisciplinary artists in industry and academia. How can we encourage potential studio inquiry as an adapted model in tertiary learning and teaching? Our interdisciplinary voices, presented as authors’ reflections, provide suggestions for future studio‐based, active learning contexts.     

论研究生智慧型学习空间的构建意义、功能与策略——以美国大学为案例

随着教育技术的不断进步,学习空间的打造具备了多种可能性。智慧型学习空间是在全球云资源可共享的条件下,实现课堂教学、研究和实践一体化的学习模式。智慧型学习空间适应了当今研究生培养的多种需求。文章以现实案例与图示设计为基础,从满足理论学习与实践应用的双重需求及满足以职业或学术为导向等多元化的培养需求阐述研究生智慧型学习空间对研究生教育的重要意义,从课堂教学、研究与实践一体化打造个性化、翻转课堂的学习空间探讨其独特功能。中国研究生智慧空间建设可以从有效整合资源和依托各项新技术,打造多功能的、个性化的学习空间等方面推进。     

“Problems and Methods in Research”: A Course for the Beginning Researcher in the Social Sciences

The conventional single‐supervisor model of postgraduate teaching has shown itself to be deficient in a number of areas. In this paper, it is argued that a useful supplement to this model would be a course on problems and methods in research for the beginning researcher. The authors describe their experiences with such a course at Griffith University. Evaluation suggests that the course can provide not only formal research guidance, but also a support system of staff and fellow‐students which can serve to reduce the intellectual isolation of the postgraduate student. This may lead to lower attrition rates and improve the performance and productivity of the postgraduate student.     

Disciplining writing: the case for multi‐disciplinary writing groups to support writing for publication by higher degree by research candidates in the humanities,arts and social sciences

This article addresses multi‐disciplinary writing groups in supporting writing for publication for higher degree by research candidates in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. Drawing on focus group discussions with postgraduate research students from the Faculty of Arts at Monash University in Australia who participated in the writing groups, it investigates the participants’ perceptions of the multi‐disciplinary nature of the groups and some of the benefits of sharing writing with fellow postgraduate research students from different fields of study. Discussing both the strengths and weaknesses of the multi‐disciplinarity of the groups as identified by participants, the authors suggest that such groups can provide a forum for postgraduates to develop their ‘professional’ academic identity and develop their writing beyond the context of their theses and can have some unexpected benefits to participants’ sense of themselves as disciplinary proponents. The multi‐disciplinary context is thus considered as providing a level playing field in which postgraduates may approach the writing process as a shared methodology, encompassing a suite of specialised but generic skills that cross‐disciplinary boundaries.     

Facilitating Meta‐learning in Art and Design Education

Art and design programmes are educationally unique in that students themselves play a central role in determining their own learning needs. To be successful in their study, art and design students are required to operate with a high degree of independence and self‐direction. Developing the skills for greater self‐reliance requires students to become aware of their conceptions of the subject of study, and of themselves as learners in a particular learning context. Developing greater self‐awareness as a learner and becoming more independent in one's learning is captured by the concept of meta‐learning. In this article I present an alternative strategy to prevalent diagnostic approaches to assist in developing a student's capacity for meta‐learning in the subject context of art and design. An inquiry cycle was created to provide a structure within which to facilitate generative thinking about learning through engaging with fundamental questions related to the subject of learning (art and design) rather than the learning subject (i.e. the student). This method represents a departure from existing approaches to engaging students in meta‐learning. A pilot study used to trial the effectiveness of this strategy is also presented here. The inquiry map, and the conceptual base upon which it was developed, were found to be useful ways to structure reflective thinking about learning and to assist in developing a student's conception of the subject.     

Developing Expertise: Benefits of Generalising Learning from the Graphic Design Project

The ability to transfer knowledge between design projects has been linked to developing expertise and, as such, is an important skill for designers. However, externalising and analysing the knowledge from the design project in ways that support transfer can be a challenge. This article explores how reflective practice can foster the conditions for knowledge transfer and links these outcomes with design expertise characteristics. A structured and critical approach to reflection was introduced alongside a graphic design project with the aim to foster the conditions for transfer to other projects. A case study strategy of inquiry was employed, drawing on a qualitative research approach, and framed by theories of reflective practice and cognitive psychology. The research demonstrates that graphic design students readily reach an ability to describe, analyse and make judgements from their design experience. However, the types of reflection that supports knowledge transfer from one design experience to another – generalisation and abstraction – are not as apparent. This outcome aligns with the behaviours associated with the expertise characteristics of a novice designer.     

Interpretation becoming other: A response to Leslie Bloom

This response to Leslie Bloom's "Interpreting interpretation: gender, sexuality and the practice of not reading straight" explores Bloom's interpretations of her interpretations of a research participant's life-history narrative. Taking as a given that sexuality places research in a crisis of knowledge and limits, I ask how Bloom's meta-interpretive narrative informs inquiry that seeks not only to break with heteronormative structures of knowing but also to exceed the given. As Bloom's article suggests, to understand the researcher as in a constant state of transformation is to understand interpretation as always in process, always other to itself, inviting new responses. This process of becoming other highlights the perpetual reworkings of the implications of researchers' implications and relations as interpreters of others'- and our own- lives and experiences. Becoming other by interpreting interpretation demands that we let go of certainty by acknowledging the unknowability of the other in self-other relations, the other in our relations to self, and the other in interpretation itself.     

Narrative inquiry and the problem of representation: ‘giving voice’, making meaning

In this article, the author argues that the exploration of alternative forms of research representation can result in new possibilities for making meaning in educational research. Narrative inquiry as a methodology has become established as an approach in education but remains contested in many ways. How we come to an understanding of such research findings and in particular how the issues of voice and representation are resolved are subject to much debate. Here, the author proposes that using fictive methods of representation of research, particularly poetry, can have implications for the ways in which meaning is made and therefore the possible meanings that can be made. Further, this article argues that the poetic form allows for the inclusion of many voices and stories in a non-hierarchical manner, making the author's influence explicit without it being dominant. Researchers have argued for poetic representations of research data as a means to evoke the participants' experience whilst making the author's influence explicit; here, it is argued that poetry can be utilized to provide a fuller representation of the research, placing the voice of the participants, the researcher and the literature on an equal level within the whole story of the research project. This article first details narrative inquiry as a methodological approach and its particular application to educational research before discussing the issues surrounding voice and representation. Subsequently, fictive forms of representation are explored as a means of addressing these issues.     

“I ‘feel’ like I am at university even though I am online.” Exploring how students narrate their engagement with higher education institutions in an online learning environment

This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot of how learning is experienced by those undertaking online studies. The study explores what impacted upon students’ engagement in this environment and how different facets of their learning experience made a qualitative difference to how individuals enacted engagement. Drawing upon Sharon Pittaway’s engagement framework, the article seeks to foreground student voice as the learners define their engagement in learning, the strategies they employed to assist this process and how engagement was enacted at an individual level. The students’ reflections presented in this article can be used to inform teaching and learning strategies designed to improve engagement in the online environment within the higher education sector.     

Examination of Research Theses

The examination of postgraduate research theses is of vital importance to academic institutions as well as to students. This paper reviews examination procedures at one university, summarising examiners’ comments on 58 theses. A number of questions regarding examiner anonymity, alternatives to the traditional doctoral dissertation, and most importantly, the criteria for the award of degrees are raised. Although great care is taken in choosing examiners, the criteria they are expected to employ are inadequate. Rates of progress of research students in different degree programs suggest that some students may well lack adequate information about the extent of their task as postgraduates.     

“考研热”的经济学解读

近年来,由于多种因素的综舍作用,促使我国报考硕士研究生的人数逐年增多,形成“考研热”。运用教育经济学的“人力资本理论”和“筛选理论”来分析这一现象,以期探求“考研热”的深层原因,并提出解决问题的对策。     

Postgraduate conception of research methodology: implications for learning and teaching

This qualitative inquiry investigates postgraduate students’ conceptions of research methodology and how it contributes to their learning. It explores factors likely to motivate student choice of research methodology and challenges in understanding research methods. The research was carried out at research-intensive universities in New Zealand and in Malaysia with similar postgraduate programmes. Participants were enrolled in Masters and Ph.D. programmes. Findings revealed that participants share a recognition that research methodology is a significant body of knowledge in postgraduate education. However, there were noticeable differences in perspectives regarding what constitutes research methodology and whether or not it should be conceived as a discipline. To some participants, learning research methodology is less of a discipline but rather an acquisition of a set of isolated facts and skills without necessarily acquiring a deeper understanding of research. Furthermore, postgraduate students choose research methodology based on a number of factors such as familiarity with a method, methodological orientation of the primary supervisor, the domain of study, and the nature of research problems pursued. Participants reported that the key challenges they face in understanding research methodology include framing research questions, understanding the theory or literature and its role in shaping research outcomes, and difficulties in performing data analysis.     

Three theses on teaching and learning in higher education

In our article, we explore the possibility of formulating theses about teaching as one way to use research as a basis for educational action. The theses are formulated from current educational research on teaching and learning in higher education. We also explore the potential for action and the consequences derived from the theses. With our theses, we criticise less complex ways of using research for educational purposes. Through theses we can suggest directions for action without prescribing certain methods or procedures and provide answers without reducing the teachers' possibilities for choice or diminishing their responsibility for their actions. Our exploration is an invitation to a collaborative exploration of theses on teaching and learning in order to broaden and deepen our shared basis for educational action.     

研究生学术道德失范与制度构建

当前研究生的学术道德失范现象令人担忧。其根源在于高校学术道德规范的制度存在缺陷：一是高校对研究生的学术道德规范教育严重不足;二是研究生的学术评价制度存在问题,即评价指标单一和只重论文数量不重质量;三是其监督机制和处罚力度不够,使研究生存在学术违规的侥幸心理。要改变这种现状,就必须加强学术道德规范教育,完善研究生的学术评价制度,加大违约成本和处罚力度。     

对我国调整硕士研究生学制的思考

随着我国进入高等教育大众化阶段,为了适应社会经济和科技的发展,参与国际竞争,许多高校推出硕士研究生培养新模式,改革学制。在改革试行阶段,学制改革遭遇到社会和自身的疑虑。因此,学制的设计要以人为本,发挥弹性制培养方式的优势;研究生教育管理制度应朝合理化、科学化迈进;硕士研究生毕业论文形式应多样化。     

Implementation variation and fidelity in an inquiry science program: Analysis of GLOBE data reporting patterns

This article examines variations in patterns in the enactment of a large‐scale kindergarten through Grade 12 science inquiry program. Student data reports in the GLOBE program provide a useful measure of implementation because key design elements in the program are student collection and reporting of local environmental data. We examined associations among teachers' responses to survey items to patterns in GLOBE data reporting to develop hypotheses about important contextual factors related to program implementation. Implications for the study of science inquiry programs are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 294–315, 2004