scholarly journals Creativity in primary schools: An analysis of a teacher’s attempt to foster childhood creativity within the context of the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence

2020 ◽  
pp. 136548022096833
Author(s):  
Krystallia Kyritsi ◽  
John M Davis

The importance of creativity in education has been increasingly recognised by policy-makers and, as contemporary research argues, the way curricula are organised and implemented impact on children’s creativity. Scotland has recently introduced a new curriculum, the ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (CfE), but there has yet been no research on how the implementation of the CfE has impacted on childhood creativity. This paper uses qualitative data (field-notes and interview transcripts) – from a case study conducted in one Scottish primary school classroom with 1 teacher and 25 children aged 11–12 – to explore what cultural and structural issues influence childhood creativity. This paper is primarily based on teacher’s data and also includes data from seven children. The study found that the CfE can be implemented in both rigid and flexible ways and that structural barriers to creativity emerge when, amongst other causes, cultivation of skills within a tick-box system is perceived as more important than exploration and risk-taking, and when teachers are pressured to evidence the outcomes of their work. This paper concludes that the cultivation of creativity requires schools to build participatory frameworks which leave space for reflection and co-construction and which value diversity, equity and collaboration.

2021 ◽  
pp. 089976402110345
Author(s):  
Alaina C. Zanin ◽  
Katrina N. Hanna ◽  
Laura V. Martinez

This study utilizes structuration theory to reveal how volunteer coaches in an all-female youth sport program describe barriers and agency to their organizational mission of athlete empowerment. The dataset in this ethnographic case study comes from volunteer coaching experiences within two youth sport teams. Ethnographic data included field notes from four volunteer coaches, collaborative interviews, archival organizational documents, as well as athlete and parent interviews. A qualitative analysis, informed by structuration theory, revealed specific legitimate, dominant, and symbolic structures that enabled and constrained volunteer and youth athlete empowerment within the teams. The analysis also revealed a process of mirroring empowerment, a novel theoretical concept, which describes how athletes reflected back their own empowerment to empower volunteer coaches. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
Nathan O. Buonviri

The purpose of this case study was to examine the instructional approach of a highly successful Advanced Placement Music Theory teacher. I visited the participant’s class twice a week for 14 weeks, taking field notes, conducting interviews, and collecting instructional artifacts. Analysis of qualitative data revealed three main themes: classroom atmosphere, instructional strategies, and the Advanced Placement exam. The participant’s classroom atmosphere was built on effective pacing, student rapport, and an active, open learning environment. His instructional strategies included offering individual attention to students, asking questions to model thinking, and connecting sight to sound. He used the Advanced Placement exam as both an instructional guidepost and motivational tool. Implications for music educators include the need to focus on specific approaches conducive to successful theory teaching, which may share both similarities and differences with approaches they use when directing ensembles.


Geografie ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liviu Chelcea ◽  
Raluca Popescu ◽  
Darie Cristea

Our understanding of gentrification outside of the Anglo-Saxon core is relatively undeveloped. In order to contribute to a more de-centered approach, we ask who are the gentrifiers and how do they change central city neighbourhoods in a post-socialist context? The answers are explored through a mixed-methods approach, using both quantitative and qualitative data: construction permits analysis, census tract data, field trips, and interviews with tenants, former owners, and real estate agents. Findings indicate that gentrifiers vary in nature. They include state tenants, former owners, marginal gentrifiers, political capitalists, and institutional investors. Through their actions, central neighbourhoods have gained younger, more educated, and smaller households. Beyond this case study, we emphasize the usefulness of rent gap theories, the need to study displaced households, and the potential of property rights to enrich theories of gentrification.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950008
Author(s):  
CHONNATCHA KUNGWANSUPAPHAN ◽  
JIBON KUMAR SHARMA LEIHAOTHABAM

This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation of female entrepreneurs and business performance, and analyzes the moderating role of institutional capital on the entrepreneurial orientation-performance link. The results of the study highlight the important role of entrepreneurial orientation, including proactiveness, innovativeness and risk-taking, in directing business performance of female entrepreneurs and the complex interplay among entrepreneurial orientation variables. It also indicates that accessibility to institutional capital, through regulative, cognitive and normative dimensions, encourages female entrepreneurs to be more entrepreneurially oriented, thus leading to better business performance. In addition, this research proposes an integrated framework to guide policy makers on how institutional capital can play a crucial role in helping female entrepreneurs, stressing the importance of becoming entrepreneurial oriented and thus, achieving superior business performance.


Author(s):  
Amal Al Muqarshi ◽  
Maria Kaparou ◽  
Anthony Kelly

This paper employs a social identity approach to explore the management of a collective organizational culture in a culturally diverse context. Literature suggests that cultural diversity can be an asset for organizations if managed effectively. This study employs a qualitative case-study design, drawn on data generated for a larger project that utilized 16 interviews, eight team meetings’ observations, document analysis and field notes. It instrumentally uses a Department of English as its site due to the prevalence of cultural diversity in such context. The paper explores whether leadership is perceived as effective towards establishing a collective identity in an Omani higher education (HE) domain. The findings suggest that leadership impact is restricted by the central management of the system that translates largely into transactional leadership and hierarchical approaches at the level of the group and largely fails to establish such an inclusive identity. The paper argues that in a globalizing era, Omani HE can only view cultural diversity as an asset that aids its intellectual capital establishment. Hence, it should cater for such a composition and engineer it effectively to achieve better alignment with the requirements of the current market. These findings can be of value to policy makers, researchers and professionals in HE.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayne C. Lammers ◽  
Valerie L. Marsh

This article reconsiders theoretical claims of identity fluidity, stability, and agency through a longitudinal case study investigating one adolescent’s writing over time and across spaces. Qualitative data spanning her four years of high school were collected and analyzed using a grounded theory approach with literacy-and-identity theory providing sensitizing concepts. Findings uncovered how she laminated identity positions of perfectionism, expertise, risk taking, and learning as she enacted her passionate writer identity in personal creative writing, English classrooms, an online fanfiction community, and theater contexts. Using “identity cube” as a theoretical construct, the authors examine enduring elements of a writer’s identity and the contextual positioning that occurs when youth write for different audiences and purposes. Findings suggest that adolescents approach writing with a durable core identity while flexibly laminating multiple sides of their identity cube, a reframing of identity that has implications for literacy-and-identity research.


Author(s):  
Valentina Dagienė ◽  
Tatjana Jevsikova ◽  
Gabrielė Stupurienė ◽  
Anita Juskevicienė

Computational thinking (CT) as one of the 21st century skills enters early years education. This paper aims to study the worldwide tendencies of teaching CT through computing in primary education and primary school teachers? understanding of CT. A survey of 52 countries has been performed and complemented by a qualitative study of 15 countries. In order to identify teachers? understanding-level of CT and its integration approach in the class activities, a case study of 110 in-service teachers from 6 countries has been performed. The implications of the research results may be useful for primary school educators, educational initiatives, government authorities, policy makers, e-learning system and content developers dealing with support for teachers aiming to improve their CT professional development qualification.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndaru Mukti Oktaviani ◽  
Isnaini Wulandari

The curriculum 2013 is a refinement of the previous curriculum KTSP. The curriculum development from KTSP to curriculum2013 had an impact on the changes in most learning systems. Changes in national education standards also affect the implementation of the curriculum 2013. In the implementation of the curriculum 2013 in primary schools, there were obstacles which, based on the results of the FGD with elementary school teachers in Kuningan, West Java, it was found that teachers were still experiencing difficulties in implementing the curriculum 2013. Content standards in the curriculum 2013 which are derived directly from graduate competency standards. This condition certainly hindered the achievement of the overall  curriculum 2013 goals.The research method used in this research is case study. The study was conducted at public elementary schools located in Kuningan Regency, SDN Dukuhdalem, Japara District, SDN 1 Manislor, Jalaksana District, and SDN 1 Purwawinangun, Kuningan District. There are two types of research instruments used, observation sheets and interview guides. Qualitative data analysis is carried out interactively and takes place continuously at each stage of the study so that it is complete, and the data is saturated.The results of the study note that the money scope of the material on the spiritual attitude competence and social attitude competence face obstacles in terms of time in its implementation, the scope of the material on the competency of expertise faces obstacles in terms of costs in its implementation. As well as the scope of the material on knowledge competence faces obstacles in terms of monotonous material, the breadth of the material that is considered to be insufficient so that it does not meet the material requirements in the learning process, as well as the material which is considered incomplete in its implementation


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Janna S. Lancaster

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This qualitative case study examined a period of rapid growth in housing in a midsize city downtown. The research question asked what the process of change was in the downtown during the decade before a growth moratorium was imposed. Sub questions about how the policy makers anticipated and planned for change in the downtown, how growth was limited or encouraged through the existing codes and exemptions to the codes, and what the effects of the growth was on the infrastructure and stakeholders in the downtown. The data collected included publicly available documents, open-ended interviews, newspaper articles, field notes, records of city meetings, and memos. The findings of this case study revealed that open zoning rules allowed market forces to control what was built. The rapid growth also created opportunities for new businesses, an active creative scene, and an expanded recycling program. Participants expressed concerns about the changing place and who belongs. The outcomes of this study illustrate the need for a broad-swath concept of sustainable development, one that includes planning and funding for infrastructure, and protection and development of the existing intergenerational community.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-366
Author(s):  
Karisma Erikson Tarigan ◽  
Margaret Stevani

Vocabulary learning plays an important role in vocabulary acquisition, one possible way to achieve it is by using derivational suffixes. The purpose of the study is to know the students’ responses after they are taught with affixation strategy. The subject of this study is the students of Class IX-1 of SMP Santo Petrus Medan in the academic year of 2017/2018. This study is conducted by applying descriptive qualitative research and in the form of survey research. (The instruments of collecting data are quantitative data (questionnaire) and qualitative data (field notes). The result of questionnaire shows that most of the students choose item Strongly Agree whose percentage is 85.79% and item Agree whose percentage is 14.20%. This finding proves that the students’ learning behavior changed positively, that is, their attitude and motivation heightened significantly by using derivational suffixes strategy to teach vocabulary. The data of students’ morphological awareness response of the use of derivational suffixes shows that: (1) Affixation helps to remember English vocabulary better, (2) Affixation helps connect vocabulary with its meaning, (3) Affixation helps to develop vocabulary, (4) Affixation helps to recognize noun, verb, adjective, and adverb, (5) Affixation helps to separate form and meaning between root and affix, (6) The rules of affixation make students understand the good spelling of vocabulary,  and (7) Affixation supports English learning. These indicate that there is a significant improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery through derivational suffixes strategy of Class IX-1 of SMP Santo Petrus Medan in the academic year of 2017/2018.


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