A Rational Examination of Integrating “Classics” into University General Education Curriculum: An Empirical Survey Based on N University

Abstract

The power of general education curriculum comes from the enduring classics. The authors apply research methods such as questionnaire survey, interview, and observation to investigate the state of general education curriculum implementation at N University and analyze problems faced by incorporating classics. Based on this, the authors propose that universities should rationally review the practical value of “classics” in general education and enhance the effective integration of classics into general education curriculum by improve the texts for teaching, instruction methods, teaching personnel, and assessment modes, to achieve general education’s objective of cultivating the “whole person.”     

Creativity: An essential component for effective leadership in today's schools

One of the most contentious areas in creativity theory is the question of domain specificity. How we conceptualize creativity — as something that transcends content domains, or as something that varies depending on the domain in question — has important implications for both creativity research and creativity training programs. The Amusement Park Theoretical (APT) model of creativity is the first creativity theory to successfully bridge the gap between these contrasting views of creativity. The APT model uses the metaphor of an amusement park to explore creativity. There are four stages: Initial requirements, general thematic areas, domains, and micro‐domains. The first level (initial requirements) is very general, and each subsequent level gets more and more domain‐specific. The APT model can provide a powerful framework for creativity assessment, selection of students for gifted education programs, and the development of creativity training programs.     

Identifying and developing creative giftedness

To a large extent, creativity is a decision. Children as well as adults are creative, not by virtue of an innate ability, but by virtue of a set of decisions. In essence, they decide for creativity, rather than an innate set of abilities deciding whether they are creative. Thus, creative giftedness is not a fixed trait, but a decision‐making skill that can be developed. In this article, I present ten decisions people can make to decide for creativity. Included are teaching examples of these decisions as well as teaching activities to facilitate students' learning how to make these decisions.     

Metaphors as a way to explore qualitative data

Qualitative data can allow us to see multiple meanings and realities of human experiences. Sometimes the variations of realities makes interpretation challenging. This article provides examples of how metaphors, related to the life history context, "extend horizons of insight and create new possibilities" (Morgan, 1997, p. 351) to view the participants, the researcher, and the story of research as well as to add to the knowledge about Finnish scientists' creative processes. Metaphors connect different layers of text (academic story (normal font), personal story (bold font), and the meta-story) and tease out a story of research with multiple faces, changing stages, views, and alternative interpretations. I do not look for conclusions or a single definition of creativity. Rather, I ask questions and trouble the "category of creativity", addressing methodological issues of educational research.     

Connections teachers make between creativity and arts learning

Background: Creativity is often cited as one of the capacities that needs to be actively encouraged in all aspects of schooling. However, what creativity is and how it may be promoted through formal teaching and learning approaches remain contested. There are also differences between educators in terms of how they understand, discuss and conceptualise this complex concept.

Purpose: This paper focuses on the difficulties associated with talking about creativity in education. It considers the ways in which schoolteachers who are involved in the area of arts education understand, describe and discuss the concept of creativity and how it interacts with their classroom practice.

Sample: Twenty-three educators who taught Arts (either as generalist primary classroom teachers or as specialist teachers), and the leadership team from a Kindergarten to Year 9 (pupil ages 5–15) school in the suburbs of a city in the Australian state of Victoria participated in the project.

Design and methods: In this phenomenological study, data were gathered from participants through questionnaires, discussion groups, email prompts and reflective journals. The material was analysed qualitatively.

Findings: By examining the teachers’ dialogic and discursive responses about creativity, it was possible to capture some broad ways in which the participants spoke about creativity. Data were analysed thematically and grouped into categories that represented the connected ‘creative orientations’: thinking orientations, action orientations, emotion orientations and skill/outcome orientations.

Conclusion: There is a need for educators in and across a range of discipline areas to share, map and think about creativity. The approach adopted in this exploratory study offers a way that could be used to focus discussions and help facilitate educators’ talk about creativity.     

Improvisation,planning and the creative process

Abstract

We anticipate and create the future in many ways. Through active planning, improvisation, and even procrastination, we move beyond the moment. The purpose of this paper is to argue that future oriented processes are creative processes. By engaging in formal and informal educational activities children learn to create the future from the present and the known from the unknown. In this paper I explore the uses of improvisation and planning as vehicles for creativity by describing some of my work as well as research and ideas of others in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and education     

Developing knowledge intensive ideas in engineering education: the application of camp methodology

Background: Globalization, technological advancement, environmental problems, etc. challenge organizations not just to consider cost-effectiveness, but also to develop new ideas in order to build competitive advantages. Hence, methods to deliberately enhance creativity and facilitate its processes of development must also play a central role in engineering education. However, so far the engineering education literature provides little attention to the important discussion of how to develop knowledge intensive ideas based on creativity methods and concepts.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate how to design creative camps from which knowledge intensive ideas can unfold.

Design/method/sample: A framework on integration of creativity and knowledge intensity is first developed, and then tested through the planning, execution and evaluation of a specialized creativity camp with focus on supply chain management. Detailed documentation of the learning processes of the participating 49 engineering and business students is developed through repeated interviews during the process as well as a survey.

Results: The research illustrates the process of development of ideas, and how the participants through interdisciplinary collaboration, cognitive flexibility and joint ownership develop highly innovative and knowledge-intensive ideas, with direct relevance for the four companies whose problems they address.

Conclusions: The article demonstrates how the creativity camp methodology holds the potential of combining advanced academic knowledge and creativity, to produce knowledge intensive ideas, when the design is based on ideas of experiential learning as well as creativity principles. This makes the method a highly relevant learning approach for engineering students in the search for skills to both develop and implement innovative ideas.     

Creativity,Curricula and Paradigms

What are the relations between creativity, curricula and paradigms? In this paper the historical development of major curriculum theories are interpreted in terms of their relation to creativity as a goal of organised learning. Further, the development is analysed by discussing the organising of learning for creativity from the viewpoints of different sociological paradigms. These represent mutually exclusive ways of understanding knowledge production and societal change. A synthesis of how schools try to reach creativity as a goal for organised learning, seen through the 'dark glasses' of curriculum traditions and paradigms, is presented. The paper ends with some concluding remarks regarding how creativity fits into a curriculum profile needed under the present level of economic globalisation.     

学困生家庭作业布置的困境与出路——基于上海市某中学的实证调查

新课改理念下的教育呼唤差异性和多样性,人才的培养亦注重创造性和差异性,然而传统的家庭作业模式压制了学生,尤其是学困生的个性与创造性的发展,影响了基础教育整体教学质量的提高,如何为学困生这个特殊的群体设计合理的作业,让学困生在作业中体会快乐、学有所得是本文的主要目标.     

Neoliberalism and the discursive construction of ‘creativity’

ABSTRACT

This paper resists normative definitions of ‘creativity’ to argue that the concept is constructed by neoliberal discourses in education policy. The analysis is firstly centred on the Australian context, and this is further informed and complimented by a global perspective. Focusing on two pivotal policies, The Melbourne Declaration of Educational Goals for Young Australians and PISA 2012 Results: Creative Problem Solving, the paper argues that universal versions of creativity, such as those that align the concept with problem-solving or design endeavour, are a product of market logic. Using Foucault’s concept of homo economius, it traces how creativity is subsumed into discourses of workplace readiness and rapidly changing environments, and proceeds to identify how select and partial discourses of the concept, such as creativity as instrumental and determinable are supported, while there is a silence around alternative conceptualisations. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the discursive positioning of creativity by neoliberal themes and formations brings about real effects: certain work practices are valued more than others and particular student and teacher subjectivities are endorsed or demoted ‘in the name of’ creativity.     

TAG teachers: Only the creative need apply

Creativity is an asset to any teacher, but it is crucial for teachers of gifted and talented students. Inventive and productive creativity are necessary to efficiently and effectively develop or modify programs and curricula. Expressive creativity is present in instructional interactions with students, and creative problem solving skills are needed to enhance students’ creativity. Implications for supporting and enhancing teachers’ creativity are considered.     

Parent's views on education for the gifted

A survey was sent to parents of children enrolled in two public and three private school programs for the gifted to ascertain their educational philosophical positions and conceptions of giftedness. In general, the results showed that the parents preferred an eclectic, child‐centered instructional approach. Their conception of gifted intelligence was broad and complex, integrating many aspects of creativity, motivation, and mental power (IQ).     

On becoming an academic developer: A personal journey

Abstract

Academic Development is a diverse and complex profession that is becoming an increasingly important aspect of higher education, albeit that in general terms it is not necessarily highly enough valued at institutional and departmental levels. To raise the profile of the profession it may be tempting to provide a narrow definition of the nature of Academic Development and the appropriate credentials of the ‘Developers’. Such a move could stifle the creativity and the diversity of skills that exist within the profession and that render it problematic to define. However, to place value on our chosen field it is important for Developers to work towards a shared conception of Academic Development as a unique profession. The intention of this paper is to contribute to the dialogue and discussion of this issue through critical reflection on my personal journey into this profession. While some of the issues raised by Andresen (1996) relating to the nature of Academic Development, pathways to credibility within the profession and issues relating to accredited programmes for Academic Developers are addressed, it is important to state that this paper is limited to reflections on my own journey, which I consider to be neither unique nor ordinary, into the profession.     

Developing Design through a Creative Problem‐Solving Process: A Group Community Art Project

For the past few years, creativity has gradually become an important element in the national cultivation of talent in Taiwan. Although traditionally art education is closely linked with creativity, the academic research on general art education is very insufficient. Therefore, the goal of this research is to investigate how creativity could be cultivated in curriculum planning for general art education at technology universities as well as what students’ learning process was when they participated in a course's creative activity. The research applied the theory and steps of creative problem‐solving (CPS) on a general art course to design a group practical activity combining with the local community. This involved converting the steps of creative problem‐solving into different stages of group design activities with the goal of constructing a design process equivalent to the process of problem‐solving. The main research results revealed that students could experience the problem‐solving process through group design activities and develop their divergent and convergent thinking at the same time. Moreover, the cooperative learning model is the most appropriate teaching strategy for students from non‐art‐related departments when cultivating their creativity.     

Communities of innovation: Individual,group, and organizational characteristics leading to greater potential for innovation

In this paper I will explain what I see as some of the core attributes of Communities of Innovation, or communities fostering collaborative creativity, and what we have learned from the research literature about each attribute. There is a critical need to design learning environments that foster creative thinking in students, particularly in the area of collaborative creativity. Many of the current problems and challenges graduates will face in society and industry are too large to be faced alone. However, the research and pedagogical understanding of how to develop skills in collaborative creativity is still underdeveloped. In seeking to understand what collaborative creativity would look like in education, I reviewed the literature on organizational and social creativity, along with social learning theory, to develop a framework of characteristics common to most environments that foster collaborative creativity in students (West, 2009). This framework describing Communities of Innovation explains some of the similar characteristics at the individual, group, and organizational levels of innovative communities.     

Learning Organisations,Investors in People and New Labour's Learning Society

In this article I intend to explore two models of what constitutes a Learning Organisation. One model is a broader and developmental one which comprises: anticipating future problems; paying attention to the external environment; continuously seeking improvement; approaching problem solving through conceptual analysis and on an organisation-wide basis; rewarding initiative and creativity; defining jobs to encourage risk-taking, exploration, initiative and knowledge sharing. The second model is the much more functional and mechanistic one proposed under the Investors in People (IiP) with its emphasis on 'commitment, planning, action, evaluation'     

Nietzsche,Eternal Recurrence and Education: The Role of the Great Cultivating Thought in the Art of Self‐Cultivation (Bildung)

In this essay, I briefly outline Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal recurrence that has implications for education, and life in general; and, lastly, I argue that from an educational point of view, Nietzsche's doctrine of the eternal recurrence is best viewed as the great cultivating thought that has radical ramifications for any project of character education. Indeed, Nietzsche's concern with self‐cultivation (Bildung) to a large degree brings together the central tenets of his thinking to emphasise an ethics of character that is meant to serve as an alternative approach to cultivating character or the self in such a way that it reveals ‘what one is’ now (being), and who they could become (becoming). In order to bring this about, Nietzsche does not conceive the eternal recurrence as a theoretical doctrine, but as an exercise that we incorporate into our lives as a habitual practice, vis‐à‐vis, through repeated and prolonged meditation, reflection, thought and dialogue on the significance of the idea in such a way that it transforms the individual for the better. Subsequently, the idea of the eternal recurrence only becomes cultivating and truly educational if it transforms our lives in such a way that we come to revalue the self as a work of art to a point where we are able to educate ourselves against our age.     

Individual and contextual variables among creative scientists: The new work paradigm

This article discusses the individual and contextual factors that are salient to high levels of creativity among scientists working in organizational settings in the modern world. The article contrasts such scientists with traditional depictions of creative scientists and draws implications for future directions for creativity research and for the education and development of young scientists.     

高职院校基于创新人才培养的逻辑通识课考量

在新的时代背景下,高职院校应将培养创新型人才,即具有创新精神和创造能力,充满可持续发展潜力和职业迁移能力的"职业人"作为高职教育人才培养的重要目标.基于逻辑思维在思维创新过程中的关键作用,应以受教育者逻辑思维素质的培养作为实现人才培养目标的突破口.高职院校应大力推广逻辑通识课程,不断加快逻辑教学研究与课程建设,充分发挥逻辑学科在培养高素质的创新型人才方面的重要作用.