Biographical Profiling of Nikola Tesla for the Creation of an Engaging Story

This paper focuses on the potential of storytelling as a means of influencing students to become engaged with science and to choose a career in a STEM field. Given the role that leaders can play in motivating and influencing people and considering Nikola Tesla a leader in the fields of electrical engineering and science, the paper identifies Tesla’s leadership traits, as these emerge from his life story, that is, actual historical events regarding his life and his scientific/technological work. These leadership traits refer to (a) imaginative thinking and innovation, (b) persistence/perseverance, and (c) vision, and point to the need for empirical studies to document the effectiveness of the Nikola Tesla story to motivate and influence students. The significance of the Nikola Tesla story for science education is also discussed.

Exploring sketches as conceptual data: a semiological experiment on moods visualisation among architectural students

PurposeSketching is a creative skill that most architects develop over their long period of study and is considered an effective medium for communicating imaginative thinking and conceptual ideas in architecture. As a concept, mood is generally associated with imagining specific ambiance and spatial experience during the schematic phase of the architectural design process. While most architectural research on mood revolves around post-occupancy evaluation, colour effect and lighting comfort, few studies have been conducted to systematically investigate conceptual issues related to mood imagination. Besides, there has been little attempt to appreciate sketches as a reliable conceptual data source for architectural research.Design/methodology/approachTo bridge this knowledge gap, this paper explores a semiological analysis of mood visualisation using architectural sketches. By framing the experiment within the architecture education context, the paper begins by discussing the relationship between sketching, mood and semiology in architecture. The discussion continues by highlighting methodological issues in the design of our experiment. The experiment comprised architecture students from undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Following the visual and textual data derived from the experiment, two semiological analyses, namely, mood sign analysis and mood signifier analysis, were conducted to understand their imaginative thinking.FindingsThe results revealed significant preferential differences between the students on the use of specific semiotic representation and design language to conceptualise their mood idea.Originality/valueAs a preliminary experiment, this study constitutes an early attempt to further explore potential research related to architectural sketches and the creative imagination that may be beneficial to designers, art psychologists, educators and researchers alike.

Hidden Ground: Exploring an Approach to Educational Music for Strings

This article presents the findings of a study that explored the composition of Canadian educational music. Particularly, the authors focus on the analyses of composers’ scores on creating new string compositions for young musicians within the New Sounds of Learning Project. On a macro level, the composers predominantly composed multiple movements (three to four), using single section (A), binary (AB), ternary, or variation forms (A, A’, A”, A”’, etc.), and they adopted simple meters throughout. At the micro-level, the majority of the compositions also included a technical element that was used to further skill development, that is, lack of meter to focus attention, syncopation to develop rhythmic fluency, interactive rhythms between parts to promote player coordination, modular structure to address varied skill levels, or free rhythm to promote imaginative thinking. The findings will be of interest to those members of the music profession who promote or would like to promote the dissemination of new music for strings within educational settings in Canadian music classrooms.

Teaching Creativity with Outside-the-Box Projects

The projects in this chapter are designed to teach musical originality. They strike a balance between regimented sequences and playful open-endedness. The goal of the projects is to foster students’ development of their own unique voices by leading them from executing teachers’ instructions to setting and attaining their own creative goals. The projects include unconventional musical forms: untimed abstract soundscapes, vaporwave tracks based on samples of commercial music and advertisements, turning finely edited video clips into a “beatboxed” drum pattern, creating music using samples of existing songs, and, finally, having students design their own projects. Throughout, the aim is to move beyond simply teaching technical skills and toward fostering imaginative thinking, the expression of emotions through sound, authenticity of voice, and irreverence. Another aim is to empower teachers to use tools and techniques unconventionally, and to adapt creative deviation methods to their own project planning and curriculum design.

The Role of Fine Arts Activity in the Development of Artistic Thinking of Schoolchildren

This article deals with the development of artistic and imaginative thinking, imagination and the creation of an artistic image in fine arts lessons using a graphic image. An example of a lesson for elementary school students on creating a mysterious tree image is given, which will help the teacher develop the ability of his students to see and creatively realize their ideas.

Moral and patriotic education of preschool children using innovative technologies and project activities

Наша действительность богата на яркие факты, события и производит на детей большое впечатление, поэтому необходимо умело рассматривать эти факты, руководствоваться процессом наблюдения и помогать детям осмысливать их впечатления, учитывая психофизиологические особенности, эмоциональность, образное мышление, способность активно реагировать на раздражители, поступающие из окружающей среды, способность детей подражать и постепенно осмысливать их. Особенностью детей дошкольного возраста является то, что ситуативная эмоция выполняет функцию оценки. Позже эмоциональные оценки дифференцируют в сознании ребенка предметы на приятные и неприятные, формируя избирательное отношение к ним. Таким образом, эти оценки служат для упорядочения влияния внешнего мира, они являются одномерной формы (хорошо – плохо), так ребенок быстрее способен уяснить «какой я», чем «кто я». Cтатья посвящена вопросам нравственно-патриотического воспитания детей дошкольного возраста средствами инновационных технологий, воспитанию у дошкольников чувства любви и уважения к родному краю с применением информационных и коммуникационных технологий и использованию исследовательских проектов в образовательной деятельности. In the new version of the Basic Component of Preschool Education, it is stated that the senior preschooler should be guided by the fact that the native country has its own territory, where Ukrainians live, having their own culture, customs, and language. Our reality is rich in vivid facts, events and makes a great impression on children, so it is necessary to skillfully select these facts, manage the process of observation and help children in understanding their impressions, taking into account the need to skillfully select these facts, be guided by the process of observation and help children comprehend their impressions, taking into account the psychophysiological characteristics of children, emotionality, specifically imaginative thinking, the ability to actively respond to stimuli coming from the environment, imitate and gradually comprehend them. The peculiarity of preschool children is that situational emotion performs the function of evaluation. Later, emotional assessments differentiate objects in the child's mind into pleasant and unpleasant, forming a selective attitude to them. Thus, these assessments serve to order the influence of the outside world, they are of a one-dimensional form (good – bad), so the child is faster able to understand «what I am» than «who I am». The article is devoted to the issues of moral and patriotic education of preschool children by means of innovative technologies, education of preschool children with a sense of love and respect for their native land with the use of ICT and the use of research projects in educational activities.

The Effectiveness of a Strategy Based on the Concepts of a Growth Mindset for Teaching Carpentry and Decoration in Developing Practical Vocational Skills and Imaginative Thinking

This study aimed to investigate the impact of a strategy based on the concepts of growth mindset for teaching carpentry and decoration on developing practical professional skills and imaginative thinking among ninth grade students in the State of Kuwait. The study followed the semi-experimental approach. To achieve the objectives of the study, an observational checklist for practical vocational skills was prepared, consisting of (18) skills, and a test was prepared to measure the imaginative thinking skills of the sample members consisting of (10) essay questions. The study was applied to a sample of (51) students and they were divided randomly into two groups. Experimental, with (26) students, a control, (25) students. The study found a statistically significant effect of teaching with a strategy based on the concepts of growth mindset in improving practical professional skills and developing imaginative thinking skills.

Using mnemonic techniques to memorize the tone of Chinese characters

This article is devoted to the use of mnemonic techniques for memorizing the tone of Chinese characters. At present, the ties with the East are strengthening, and more and more people becomeinterested in Chinese. It is difficult to study primarily because of the tones, the incorrect use of which can distort the meaning of a word and even a whole sentence. Therefore, from the first day of training, it is important to pay due attention to them, to practice this aspect. Students who study Chinese may face a number of problems, such as: the inability to distinguish the tone by hearing, the inability to reproduce the basic tones, the inability to remember the correct tone, the inability to reproduce the tones in context, ignorance of phonological rules, mixing tones and intonations. To solve these problems, one can learn the Chinese tones using different resources and techniques. The object of the study is the mnemonic techniques used in the study of Chinese characters. In the course of the study, the following task was set: to determine an effective way of memorizing Chinese characters using mnemonics. The effectiveness of the method was tested experimentally. We have considered examples of legends (stories) created by the authors of the article to remember the direction of the tone. It is important to say these stories-legends aloud, presenting a picture in your head, creating an associative series. The use of mnemonic techniques for memorizing the tone of Chinese characters contributes to the maximum development of imaginative thinking, the creation of stable associations, as well as increasing the time of concentration

Are Individual Differences in Information-Processing Styles Related to Transformational Leadership? A Test of the Cognitive Experiential Leadership Model

The recently proposed Cognitive Experiential Leadership Model (CELM) states that leaders’ preference for rational thinking and behavioral coping will be related to their level of transformational leadership. The CELM was based on research that principally used cross-sectional self-report methods. Study 1 compared both self-ratings and follower-ratings of leadership styles with leaders’ self-rated thinking styles in 160 leader-follower dyads. Study 2 compared both self-ratings and coworker-ratings of leadership styles with leaders’ self-rated thinking styles for 74 leaders rated by 607 coworkers. In both Studies, leaders’ rational thinking, imaginative thinking, and behavioral coping correlated positively with their self-rated transformational leadership. However, only behavioral coping, but not rational thinking, was correlated with follower-rated (FR) transformational leadership in Study 1, and thinking styles were unrelated to other-rated transformational leadership in Study 2. These results partly support and partly challenge the CELM. Practically, this study suggests that leadership may be improved by leaders developing their capacity for behavioral coping.