The Project ‘Art for Learning Art’ in Contemporary Art Museums

Projection‐based augmented reality and virtual reality are used in a visual arts‐based educational project in contemporary art museums from an a/r/tographic perspective. The project ‘Art for Learning Art’ (in Spanish, Arte para aprender arte), at the Museo CajaGRANADA in Granada (Spain) has been developed in collaboration with the University of Granada since 2013. We have employed creative, educational and research methodologies inspired by exhibited works in art museums to encourage visual feedback of visitors participating in collaborative installations. Two such experiences also were produced at the Tate Liverpool Gallery and Museum in March 2018; utilising the methodology of mediation through projection‐based augmented reality and virtual reality, which introduces facets of visual and physical experience that alter the whole experience for the museum's public. By putting on virtual reality headsets, and playing with physical movements, we generate images and change the projections in the museum using projection‐based augmented reality to disrupt the way the public typically moves in the museum. The purpose of the developed interrelations with artworks in the Museo CajaGRANADA and the Tate Liverpool Gallery and Museum was to create collaborative digital images by playing with select artworks exhibited in the museums’ collections. We use this kind of mediation in art museums to develop a visual understanding to provoke learning about art through art creation in a contemporary way. The results are extraordinary as images; they are collaborative artworks, which connect visually with the artworks in the exhibition.     

The Sciences and Christian Formation: Helping Today’s Students Find Deeper Faith in a Science-Dominated World

The perceived conflict between science and Christianity continues to be a strong and prevalent narrative, both inside and outside the church. As three long-time science professors in Christian higher education, we have seen firsthand how this conflict orientation threatens both Christian faith and science education. National surveys confirm that many millennial Christians feel a tension between their faith and the discoveries of science, and some leave Christianity over science or the church’s response to it. This article presents an overview of approaches and resources for bringing healthy conversations to campus, including theological principles to frame the discussion, ways to keep the conversation civil and constructive, models for the curriculum and co-curriculum, and roles for administrators. In the midst of controversial issues, educators who work within the context of Christian colleges and universities can disciple students to deeper faith in a science-dominated culture.     

Perception of Faculty of the Bologna Process at a Spanish Technical University: A Perspective of Change and Improvement

The Bologna Process affects the academic community, particularly faculty members who have to implement the process. This study is an initiative by a group of lecturers to evaluate the perception of faculty members in the implementation of the Bologna Process. The aim was to assess the evolution of their opinion on the process since a 2011 survey, and their degree of agreement with the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The results show that faculty members call for more adequate training for the new EHEA process and more institutional support. The study reveals the need for greater involvement and collaboration among faculty members to improve the reform process.     

Towards Good Practice in Community‐Based Arts Education in Hong Kong

Through the participation of local communities in the arts, Community‐Based Arts Education (CBAE) raises awareness of ecology and the environment, and also facilitates the search for and establishment of a socio‐cultural identity. It provides students with specific forms of experiential learning involving out‐of‐classroom experiences. Since 2003 the Education Bureau in Hong Kong has promoted learning arts in the community in an informal arts educational context. To suit the needs of CBAE, since 2011 the Leisure and Cultural Services Department has offered four successful community‐based arts educational schemes to local primary and secondary students. The aim of the schemes is to enrich students’ knowledge of arts and culture and strengthen their capacities to learn arts appreciation and criticism. Between 2011 and 2013, over 30,000 primary and secondary students participated in the schemes. This article reports on a study of the schemes which aimed to identify key elements of good practice in CBAE from students’ and teachers’ perspectives. In this larges‐cale study, a total of 15,430 students between Primary 1 and Secondary 6 (age 6 to 17) and 1,306 teachers who participated in the schemes were invited to take part in surveys and focus group interviews. The results show that the three central tenets of self‐determination theory, namely, competence, autonomy and relatedness, are the key elements of good practice in CBAE. It is hoped that the research findings will enrich existing knowledge of and provide a new research direction for CBAE.     

Benefits,Challenges, and Opportunities of Conducting a Collaborative Research Course in an International University Partnership: A Study Case Between Kansas State University and Tallinn University of Technology

A globalized world requires research to transcend geographical boundaries; this includes training students in international collaborative research. The purpose of this project was to identify the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of students from two universities (Kansas State Univ. and Tallin Univ. of Technology) working on an international research project together. For this purpose, six graduate students from the Center for Sensory Analysis and Consumer Behavior, Kansas State Univ., partnered with 20 Food Science major students from a Product Development class at Tallinn Univ. of Technology. Students worked together by distance in a partnership developing a rye bread sensory lexicon for systematically understanding the sensory properties of this product category, conducting Landscape analysis by using sensory mapping techniques on rye bread products from Northeast Europe for capturing the market complexity and to identify opportunity for new product development and new products concepts. Students from Kansas then went to Estonia for further meetings. After the trip, students and professors were asked for their feedback. Results showed that students identify learning food trends from another country as the main benefit of their international collaboration, followed by intercultural skills and knowledge transfer. Language and difference in time zones, as well as educational backgrounds, were identified by students as the main challenges of the collaboration. When US students were asked to rate the learning outcomes stated in the syllabus, understanding the cultural characteristics of Estonia was the one scored highest. Professors mentioned this opportunity is unique because it gives a cultural component programs usually not only an offer and a chance to develop time management skills by working across divergent time zones, but also to practice options for managing language barriers. This project shows that it is possible to setup a partnership between students across different countries and have a positive outcome that includes unique learning experiences for students; especially in terms of time and project management.     

Improving Museum Docents' Communication Skills

This article presents the results of a study evaluating a program to help museum docents improve accessibility for visitors with communication challenges (such as hearing, language and/or speech disorders). This was done by adapting docent presentations. The docents' speech patterns were evaluated before and after a training program, and showed significant improvements in the rate, duration, and use of pauses in their speech. There also was significant improvement in ensuring that view of their faces remained unobstructed—important for people with communication disorders—in order to facilitate the consistent visibility of their facial expressions and visual cues. The training was found to be effective in adjusting the docents' presentations so that the museum experience would be improved for visitors with communication challenges.     

Neuromyths Among Teachers and Student Teachers

Many so‐called brain‐based educational approaches have been strongly criticized for their lack of empirical support and occasionally for their use of pseudoscientific concepts. As a result, several use the term neuromyths to refer to false beliefs or misinterpretations regarding neuroscientific facts. We surveyed both teachers and student teachers concerning their agreement toward hemispheric dominance, modality dominance, and the Brain Gym© method. Results suggest that teachers as well as student teachers believe in the reality of hemispheric and modality dominance but only a few were aware of the Brain Gym© method. Correlation analyses show moderate relationships across different beliefs and/or their perceived benefits in education. Teachers believed more than student teachers in hemispheric dominance and its pedagogical relevance. Together with other studies, the results suggest that teachers and student teachers could benefit from appropriate training in this new field of research.     

Assembling,disassembling and reassembling ‘youth services’ in Austerity Britain

This paper moves from a reading of processes that are transforming public services in ways that amount to a dismantling of the welfare state in the UK. In order to interrogate these processes, the paper focuses on ‘youth’ and ‘youth services’. Framed by an analysis of the aggressive disinvestment of ‘austerity’, we take up Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the assemblage as a tool to map and understand the apparently disparate factors or components that come together to produce a ‘youth service assemblage’ and its disassembly and reassembly. As we do this we demonstrate the usefulness of assemblage as way of encountering the productivity of relations across components and avoiding an account that over-states the force or scope of ‘policy’. The paper concludes that by analysing in terms of assemblage, new challenges for thinking about politics emerge, in particular the limits of thinking in terms of a resistant political subject and the need to engage ambiguity.