Empathy is the mother of invention: Emotion and cognition for creativity in the classroom

2021 ◽  
pp. 136548022198950
Author(s):  
Helen Demetriou ◽  
Bill Nicholl

According to the age-old proverb from Plato’s Republic: necessity is the mother of invention, the main motivation for creating new discoveries is the need for them. However, as well as the necessity factor, we argue that a very important aspect that influences invention and creativity is the empathy factor. This mixed methods research investigated the impact of empathy instruction on the social and emotional skills of creativity in the UK Design and Technology (D&T) classroom. Pupils in year 9 (aged 13 to 14 years) from two schools were assessed for their creativity levels using the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) both at the start and at the end of the academic school year. In the intervening period, whereas the control school continued as normal with its usual D&T lessons, the intervention school’s D&T lessons were replaced by a creativity tuition kit called Designing Our Tomorrow (DOT), which involves instruction in empathising. Pupils from year 7 (aged 11 to 12 years) in a third school were given the DOT task alone and interviewed about their experiences of it. Results showed that unlike the control school, whose emotional and cognitive creative scores in fact decreased over time, the intervention school increased in its levels of emotional and cognitive creativity, as measured by the TTCT. These quantitative as well as the subsequent qualitative interview findings and pupils’ portfolios suggest that creativity can be taught and particularly via instruction that advocates the importance of empathising with the subject matter. The findings are discussed in relation to the need for a holistic approach to teaching, where social, emotional and cognitive dimensions of teaching and learning are needed to complete and enhance the learning experience for the D&T classroom and beyond.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2_DEC_2020) ◽  

Given the impact of coronavirus, all schools across all sectors public and private, in the United Kingdom closed at the end of March 2020. Closures affected every type of establishment across the UK as well as private language schools. Our case study takes place in London and looks into the student experience in a language Mandarin Chinese school. These language students, as very many across the globe, who attended face-to-face sessions up until that point, have since been studying remotely and joining virtual classrooms via Zoom, one of the multiple video conferencing platforms available. To better evaluate students’ online learning experience of remote learning, this study examines the teacher-student interactions that take place via online means and the students’ sense of ‘presence’ (i.e., cognitive, social, and teaching presence) in order to evaluate the lessons we can learn from the online learning experience, going forward in terms of teaching and learning. This study also presents how meaningful and worthwhile the experience has been and how the sense of ‘presence’ plays a significant role in the process of online teaching and learning.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Carter ◽  
Amy Chu-May Yeo

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate similarities and differences between the UK and Malaysian undergraduates in terms of perceived social and emotional competencies (SEC), their effect on academic performance and to make recommendations on curriculum development or teaching and learning interventions to make students more SEC equipped for the “real” world. Design/methodology/approach – This study employed a positivist approach via a survey instrument to measure the perceived SEC. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including standard multiple regression analyses, were used to test the hypotheses. Findings – The analysis highlighted specifically, individual competencies (e.g. conscientiousness) rather than competency domains. Striking differences were observed between the two data sets, e.g. the regression analysis revealed that among the UK students, “Self-Awareness” domain and “Service Orientation” competency contributed uniquely to academic performance. However, no significant results were found for the Malaysian students. Research limitations/implications – Using GPA scores for performance measurement is complex which might have the potential to affect the accuracy of the comparative results. Practical implications – The findings serve as a practical guide for education providers and employers which they could use to train young and inexperienced undergraduates and provides suggestions for education providers to “build in” specific intra- and interpersonal SEC in their assessment criteria and curriculum activities and modules. Originality/value – The transnational comparison helps to add a new dimension to support the paucity of the SEC effect on academic performance and suggests which specific individual competencies and which competency cluster to emphasise in two different institutions and countries.


Author(s):  
Mohamad M. Hileh ◽  
Abdel-Aziz Ahmad Sharabati ◽  
Tamara Yacoub Nasereddin ◽  
Suheir Mustafa Hussein

The purpose of the article is to investigate the impact of teaching and learning methods on Jordanian students' performance in primary schools. This study is of quasi-experimental design. Three tools are used in this study: an interactive board, a class PC and traditional tools. The data was collected by questionnaires, and then regressions were used to test the hypothesis. The results indicate that for creativity thinking, the highest difference between pre and post-test is related to class PC followed by traditional learning and finally interactive boards. Moreover, results indicate that the three tools affect fluency, flexibility and originality, while they have no significant effect on elaboration. The results also indicate that for the academic achievement class the PC reported the highest mean, followed by interactive boards and finally by traditional tools. Furthermore, results show that using class the PC and interactive boards affect students' creative thinking as compared to traditional teaching.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 184797901985520 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie KW Liu

The extensive adoption of Internet technology led to a second wave of change in many different industries: education being one of them. As we witnessed the explosion of free online e-learning platforms and videos, physical educational institutions also felt the pressure to enhance their classroom learning experience in order to stay competitive. Coupled with the popularity of mobile devices, physical educational institutions could also utilize a combination of technologies to enhance teaching and learning, increasing their competitive edge. Flipped classroom is the teaching pedagogy which is gaining growing popularity among educational institutions. Fundamentally, it is a way of teaching such that individual learning could be conducted online outside of class, while group interactive learning would be conducted during class time. Since this is a relatively new concept using mobile and Internet technology, literature is limited and there is yet a systematic approach to conduct flipped classroom-related research. Nevertheless, it is gaining much attention in the West. However, teaching style in Asia is different and its feasibility and performance outcome warrant much of our attention. Relatively little research has been conducted on its feasibility in Asian culture, acceptance, as well as the relationship between the pedagogy and learning outcome. Through building the proposed flipped classroom platform in this study, it could facilitate research on flipped classroom in different types of knowledge transfer. Thus, its feasibility and impact on performance outcome could be thoroughly studied across different fields and levels of education in a host of countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 142-152
Author(s):  
Sifat Ullah ◽  
Quazi Farzana

In this an era of technology, new technologies particularly computer, multimedia, mobile phone and the internet offer possibilities for overcoming geographical and cost barriers in teaching and learning. This study attempts to trace the use of technology in teaching English at the S.S.C. (Secondary School Certificate) level in Bangladesh. It also focuses on the impact of using technology in teaching and learning English. Eight teachers and 60 students from four private schools in Dhaka city were selected to survey the use of technology in teaching the English Language. The researchers employed the mixed methods research to carry out the study where two sets of questionnaires for the teachers and the students and a semi-structured interview only for the teachers were used to collect data. The findings showed that using technology in teaching has both the positive and the negative impacts. Teachers like to use technology in their classroom but limited time and lack of training and technical support from the authority hamper the mode of teaching. The students also feel comfortable in technology affiliated classroom, but sometimes they fail to catch the concept clearly as they become inattentive due to the lack of proper engagement of the teachers in the classroom.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-35
Author(s):  
Sofia Nida Khoerunnisa ◽  
Puji Lestari

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, face-to-face instruction in the field of education has been replaced by online learning. As a result, to meet the learning goals, teachers must be innovative and creative while delivering online learning. Student Achievement with Edmodo is one alternate online learning choice. This analysis aims to explain the effects of the introduction of Edmodo-supported Student Achievement, as well as student reactions to this learning, and to provide a single learning method that is successful and can aid teaching and learning experiences for high school mathematics content during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study employs qualitative analysis approaches. The subjects of this research were five students from Tasikmalaya City's State Senior High School. Based on the outcomes of a few experiments, it was determined that the learning experience was enjoyable and aided students' comprehension of the Trigonometry content. Students are pleased with the learning experience provided, and they believe they have made improvements as a result of their participation in the learning. According to the effects of the impact size estimation, the implementation of the Student Achievement learning model is very accurate. Then, for general student assessment, Student Achievement learning with Edmodo is beneficial to introduce in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, so that it can be used as a substitute in online learning.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelagh M. Ross ◽  
Agnes Kukulska-Hulme ◽  
Helen Chappel ◽  
Brian Joyce

This paper reports an analysis of computer conference structures set up for a distance education course in which major components of the teaching and learning involve group discussions and collaboration via asynchronous text-based conferencing. As well as adopting traditional e-moderator roles, tutors were required to design appropriate online spaces and navigation routes for students. Tutors’ views concerning conference structures focussed on tensions between enabling easy access to conference areas, facilitating the successful running of activities, and addressing students’ subsequent needs for retrieval of conference material for assessment tasks. The geographically dispersed course tutors initially explored these issues in reflective online conversations. Comparisons were made between structures that were set up differently but all used for essentially the same tasks and purposes. Evidence from conference messages, from student feedback given in questionnaire and interview responses, as well as from students’ written assignments, provided insights into the impact such structures may have on the student learning experience. Students found conference areas for their own group easy to navigate, but they had concerns about managing the large number of messages; these concerns centred on the volume, threading, linking, length, and language of messages.


Author(s):  
Cecilia Goria

It is widely believed that digitally-driven changes are not welcomed amongst academic staff in higher education. However, when in March 2020, the University of Nottingham went online in response to the UK government’s COVID-19 lockdown, a different picture started to emerge. This contribution reflects on the initial steps taken to respond to the COVID-19 emergency measures, including the support required to implement these steps and ensuing staff feedback. It also reflects on the process of moving forward from a state of emergency to a more thought-through digital pedagogical approach. In this scenario, the ultimate goal of this reflection is to argue that, as a consequence of the educational turbulence caused by COVID-19, the portrait of academics prone to resisting digitally-driven changes needs to be replaced by one that emphasises the significance of making the pedagogical values of these changes meaningful to the staff who eventually implement them.


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