The Use of Analogies and the Design Brief Information: Impact on Creative Outcomes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Koronis ◽  
Hernan Casakin ◽  
Arlindo Silva ◽  
Jing Wen William Siew
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
The Other ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Analogical Thinking ◽  
Design Task ◽  
Improve Design ◽  
Design Students ◽  
University Setting

Abstract This study is aimed at ways to assess and improve design students’ creative outcomes and assist educators in crafting design briefs for design studios. The procedure entails a controlled yet analytical experiment in a university setting intended to test the potential of using analogical thinking to enhance the Novelty and Usefulness of design solutions. The control group received a brief that contained stimuli in the form of typical examples without instructions to use analogies. A second group was provided with a brief including stimuli elicited by text representations in the form of word pairs, and instructions to use textual analogies. The last group received the same stimuli as the other groups above; however, with instructions to identify negative features before using textual analogies. One hundred and seven first-year undergraduate students took part in the study. The results demonstrated that design briefs with specific instructions to use textual-based analogies contributed to highly novel outcomes. However, when analogies were elicited by statements concerning negative issues of the design task, students were able to produce more useful outcomes. We suggest that textual-based analogies can be employed as a good in-class pedagogical tool for improving novice designers’ creative outcomes overall.

Gender and Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-177
Author(s):  
Didem Koban Koç
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teaching Program ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings

The present study investigated gender differences in the use of linguistic features as well as the social meanings attached to those differences. Academic essays, written by 44 (22 male, 22 female) first-year undergraduate students enrolled in the English Language Teaching program at a government university were analyzed with respect to the use of linguistic features (adjectives, empty adjectives, intensifiers, linking adverbials) as well as the number of words and sentences used by the students. The results showed that, in comparison to males, females used more adjectives, intensifiers, and words. Males, on the other hand, used more empty adjectives and linking adverbials than females. Based on the results, pedagogical implications are discussed, and recommendations are provided in order to increase teachers' awareness of gender differences and improve students' writing skills.

The Effect of Expressive Writing on Symptoms of Depression in College Students: Randomized Controlled Trial

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 427-450
Author(s):  
Sarah M. C. Robertson ◽  
Stephen D. Short ◽  
Abigail Asper ◽  
Kelly Venezia ◽  
Catherine Yetman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Expressive Writing ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Physical Illness ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
First Year ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Physician Visits ◽  
Symptoms Of Depression

Introduction: The first year of college can be particularly difficult for students, as they typically face a number of emotional, developmental, social, and financial challenges. Expressive writing (EW) is a writing intervention that requires participants to write about their thoughts and feelings related to a particular event over several days. Methods: Participants in this study included 90 first-year undergraduate students. Participants were assigned to the EW condition (writing about their thoughts and feelings related to their transition to college) or a control condition (writing about any object or event of their choosing). Participants completed 3 consecutive days of writing, and then completed two follow-up visits that occurred one month and six months post-intervention. Participants were divided into two groups based on their initial depression scores (one group with minimal symptoms, and a second group with mild/moderate/severe symptoms). Results: Among participants in the mild/moderate/severe group, those in the EW condition demonstrated significant decreases in depression symptoms over the six-month study period, while participants in the control condition did not. Among this same subset of participants, those in the EW condition also demonstrated significantly fewer physician visits due to physical illness when compared to the control group. Changes in depression and physical illness visits were not found for participants with minimal symptoms of depression. Discussion: EW is a low-cost procedure that has been empirically demonstrated to alleviate symptoms of depression six months post-intervention. However, this finding only held for participants who were initially categorized in the group of participants with mild/moderate/severe symptoms of depression (as opposed to those participants initially categorized with minimal symptoms of depression). Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

Enhancing Engineering Students' Performance on Design Task: The Box of Parts

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Bairaktarova ◽  
William Graziano ◽  
Monica Cox
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Engineering Application ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Design Task ◽  
Correlational Design ◽  
Assembly Instructions ◽  
Mechanical Objects

Most definitions of engineering give machines and mechanical objects a central role. Engineers are makers and users of mechanical objects in their environment. Research supports the notion that interactions with engineered artifacts enhance engineering learning. This study introduces a task simulating a real-world engineering application and uses this task to examine how aptitudes, interests, and direct manipulation of mechanical objects influence performance. We hypothesized that engineering students would generate better assembly instructions when they had the box of component parts (BOP) than when they had the engineering drawing only. We also hypothesized that student's mechanical aptitude (MA) and interests in things each would interact with experimental condition's impact on performance. First-year engineering students (N = 383) created assembly instructions in a mixed experimental and correlational design. A random half was assigned to create instructions with a drawing only, whereas the other half created with both a drawing and a box of component parts present. Assembly instructions were evaluated by professional engineers blind to experimental conditions. They rated instructions from the BOP group as superior to those coming from the control group. Students with greater mechanical aptitude received better evaluations, but there was no evidence the experimental variable was moderated either by mechanical aptitude or by thing orientation (TO). This study suggests that mechanical objects can enhance engineering instruction, especially when they are aligned with professional practice.

scholarly journals Design Training and Creativity: Students Develop Stronger Divergent but Not Convergent Thinking

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiansheng Xia ◽  
Mengxia Kang ◽  
Meng Chen ◽  
Jia Ouyang ◽  
Fei Hu
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Divergent Thinking ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Abstract Reasoning ◽  
Convergent Thinking ◽  
Senior Design ◽  
Design Students ◽  
Raven's Progressive Matrices

Design training programs that teach creativity often emphasize divergent thinking (generation of ideas) more than convergent thinking (evaluation of ideas). We hypothesized that training would lead to more both types of creativity, but especially divergent thinking. Three groups of university students (N=120; n=40 in each group) were recruited to participate: senior design students (graduate students with at least 4years of design training as undergraduates); junior design students (undergraduates in their first year of design training); and undergraduate students in majors unrelated to design. The students completed three tasks in a classroom setting to assess divergent thinking (Alternate Uses Task), convergent thinking (Remote Associates Task), and nonverbal abstract reasoning (Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test). The results of one-way ANOVAs showed that as expected, senior design students significantly outperformed junior design students and non-design majors in divergent thinking. However, contrary to expectations, senior design students had significantly lower scores than the non-design group on convergent thinking; the junior design students’ scores fell in the middle but were not significantly different from either of the other groups. There were no group differences in nonverbal abstract reasoning. These findings suggest that design training significantly improves students’ ability to generate ideas but does not improve, or may even hinder, their ability to evaluate whether the ideas are useful for the task at hand. The results have implications for developing a research-based curriculum in design training programs.

scholarly journals Form-Focused Instruction on Non-English-Majored Undergraduates’ Foreign Language Writing

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Yougen Lou
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Term Experiment ◽  
Language Writing

This paper reviewed a one-term experiment on form-focused instruction (FFI) in teaching foreign (English) writing to 162 first-year non-English-majored undergraduate students majored history, economics, computer, agriculture, plant protection, floriculture and veterinary from Yangtze University as participants. Participants in this study consisted of 81 non-English-majored undergraduate students in the control group (CG) and 81 non-English-majored undergraduate students in the treatment group (TG). The participants in CG were taught by the traditional method: grammar-translation teaching method and the participants in TG were taught by the new teaching method of FFI. The results showed that 1) compared with a teacher-dominated approach for CG, FFI in teaching English writing for TG did a better job in enhancing students’ English writing ability; 2) participates in TG hold positive opinions towards FFI in English writing..

scholarly journals Fostering Germane Load Through Self-Explanation Prompting In Calculus Instruction

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecep Anwar Hadi Firdos Santosa
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Control Group Design ◽  
Worked Example ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Multivariable Calculus ◽  
Calculus Instruction ◽  
Quasi Experimental

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of self-explanation prompting to students’ germane load while studying mathematics in the multivariable calculus course. This research employed a quasi-experimental method with matching-only posttest-only control group design. The subject of the research consists of 72 first-year mathematics education undergraduate students. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in students’ germane load between students who implemented worked-example with self-explanation prompting and students who implemented worked-example without self-explanation prompting. However, it was revealed that the students' germane load was categorized high in both classes. It indicates that the worked-example method could foster students' germane load. Nonetheless, these results cannot be evidence that self-explanation prompting is capable to foster students' germane load. However, there is an association between germane load and learning objectives. When students achieve the learning objectives, then its learning method is able to foster the germane load. To assess the learning objectives, the posttest was arranged. The results stated that students who implemented the worked-example method with self-explanation prompting had better test scores than students who implemented the worked-example method without self-explanation prompting. This result was sufficient to provide evidence that the use of worked-example with self-explanation prompting could foster students’ germane load students in the multivariable calculus course.Keywords: Germane load, Worked-example, Self-explanation prompting

scholarly journals Critical thinking in college students: evaluation of their beliefs in popular psychological myths

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Gonzalez-Cuevas ◽  
Marcos Alonso Rodriguez ◽  
Valeria Nogales Cuellar
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Gender Effect ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Year ◽  
Health Sciences Students ◽  
Degree Of Acceptance

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of acceptance of psychological myths in undergraduate students in Health Sciences. Our results showed that first-year Psychology students believed more myths than did the other first-year Health Sciences students (Medicine, Dentistry, and Optics and Optometry). Third-year Psychology students drastically reduced their beliefs in myths in comparison with first-year Psychology students (Cohen’s d=1.7). Overall, we found a gender effect, being women less gullible than men in believing in myths. Age did not account for differences in myth acceptance. All in all, these results suggest that beginning Psychology students seem to accept more myths than other first-year Health Sciences students regarding psychological misconceptions. However, college exposure in Psychology students may favor critical thinking by diminishing myth beliefs.

scholarly journals eRubrics in cooperative assessment of learning at university

Comunicar ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (43) ◽  
pp. 153-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Cebrián-de-la-Serna ◽  
José Serrano-Angulo ◽  
Mayerly Ruiz-Torres
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
The Other ◽  
University Teaching ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Computer Lab ◽  
Written Test ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Los Grupos ◽  
Academic Year

Teamwork is one of the most widespread teaching methods used to achieve learning skills. Despite the difficulty of finding out the degree of individual learning taking place in each member of the group, these methods are having an increasingly greater importance in university teaching. The present article shows the results of an R+D+i1 project aimed at «analysing the impact of eRubrics ?electronic rubrics? on the assessment of university learning in various forms». Likewise, it aims to show the scope of eRubrics in improving cooperative skills, which are achieved through teamwork and cooperative assessment of tasks in the computer lab. The experiment takes place in three groups selected from a total of six groups of students from the First Year of Primary Education Teaching during the 2011-12 academic year. From the three groups, one acted as the control group and the other two as the experimental groups in which eRubrics were used. Differences were found in students’ results in a written test taken by all the groups, as the group using eRubrics achieved better results than the other two. Additionally, a qualitative analysis was conducted, by classifying the answers of students in the control group with regard to the evaluation criteria that they used, in order to check for coincidences with the eRubric criteria used by students in the experimental groups. El trabajo cooperativo mediante tareas y proyectos en equipo es una de las metodologías más generalizadas en educación para lograr las competencias de aprendizaje. Estas metodologías están teniendo cada vez mayor aceptación en la enseñanza universitaria, a pesar de la dificultad de conocer los aprendizajes individuales producidos en cada uno de sus miembros. Este artículo muestra los resultados de un proyecto de I+D+i cuyo objetivo general consiste en «Analizar el impacto de las eRúbricas –rúbricas electrónicas- en la evaluación de los aprendizajes universitarios en sus diferentes modalidades», y pretende mostrar el alcance de esta herramienta para mejorar el aprendizaje de las competencias o habilidades cooperativas, producto del trabajo en equipo y la evaluación cooperativa de tareas en el laboratorio. La experiencia se desarrolla con tres grupos elegidos (205 estudiantes) de un total de seis grupos de estudiantes de 1º del grado de Primaria en el curso 2011/12. De los tres grupos, uno actúa como grupo de control y los otros dos como grupos experimentales en los que se ha utilizado eRúbricas. Se observan diferencias en las notas de una prueba escrita común a todos, con mejores resultados en los grupos con eRúbrica. Además, se realiza un análisis cualitativo categorizando las respuestas dadas por los estudiantes del grupo de control sobre los criterios de evaluación que éstos utilizan, para ver las coincidencias con los criterios de las eRúbricas usadas en los grupos experimentales.

scholarly journals Increased learning by using board game on muscular system physiology compared with guided study

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Cristina Gavião Luchi ◽  
Lais Tono Cardozo ◽  
Fernanda Klein Marcondes
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Board Game ◽  
Muscular System ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
System Physiology ◽  
Improved Learning ◽  
Student’S T ◽  
Teaching Learning

The aim of this work is to describe the “Muscular System Game,” created to assist in the teaching-learning process concerning the physiology of the muscular system, and to evaluate its effect on the learning of university students. Participating in this study were first-year undergraduate students of the pharmacy course (game group, n = 21, 5 men and 16 women, age 23.57 ± 4.92 yr) and the nursing course (control group, n = 22, 2 men and 20 women, age 22.90 ± 4.93 yr), who had the same level of preparation. After theoretical classes concerning the physiology of the muscular system, all students were instructed to study the topic. In the next week, the students of the game group performed the activity with the board game, and the students of the control group undertook a guided study activity, which contained a list of exercises with the same questions used in the game, to be answered by groups. In the week following these activities, all of the students answered evaluation questions about the topic. The scores obtained for the two groups in the evaluation were compared using Student’s t-test for unpaired samples, considering a significance level of 0.05. The score obtained for the control group (5.78 ± 0.38) was significantly lower than the score for the game group (7.50 ± 0.47; P < 0.05). The results obtained indicating that the use of an educational board game about the physiology of muscle contraction resulted in significantly improved learning, compared with the use of guided study.

scholarly journals Comparative study on the effectiveness of virtual simulation and jaw model for undergraduate periodontal teaching

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Jiawei Xing ◽  
Min Zheng ◽  
Jie Sheng ◽  
Kailiang Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Clinical Training ◽  
Virtual Simulation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Group V ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Jaw Model ◽  
Theoretical Assessment

Abstract Background To compare the effect of virtual simulation and jaw model on the development of pre-clinical periodontal skills in undergraduate students and to improve future pre-clinical training strategies. Methods Sixty volunteer sophomores and juniors from the stomatology at Lanzhou University were enrolled in the current study and randomly divided into four groups: Jaw model (Group J, the control group), Virtual reality (Group V), Virtual-Jaw (Group V-J), and Jaw-Virtual (Group J-V). All of the participants received training on uniform basic periodontal knowledge before completing the first theoretical assessment. Then, they obtained total 8 hours of operation training and completed a second theoretical assessment. Their performance was evaluated using the supragingival scaling processes, and clinical operation scores were graded by a blinded professional using an established standard scoring system. Results There was no significant difference in the first theoretical outcomes between the four groups (P > 0.05). The second theoretical scores of the V-J and J-V group (60.00 ± 4.47, 58.33 ± 4.35) were significantly improved as compared with the first theoretical scores (49.67 ± 4.81, 48.00 ± 4.93, P < 0.05). The operation process scores of students in Group V-J and J-V (72.00 ± 5.92; 70.00 ± 3.05) were higher than those in the other two groups (V: 61.67 ± 7.85; J: 60.67 ± 2.58). Additionally, the scaling process performance of students in Group V-J and J-V (53.00 ± 3.05; 63.40 ± 4.39) was improved as compared with that of students in the other two groups (V: 41.90 ± 5.23; J: 47.40 ± 4.31). Conclusion The combination of virtual reality and jaw model during periodontal pre-clinical training may improve students’ grades and help them develop professional skill. More importantly, we suggest that the jaw model should be applied prior to virtual reality.

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