The Kids Need Hip-Hop: Reengaging Students through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

My thesis advocates for critically-conscious hip-hop in classrooms to promote student engagement and culturally relevant pedagogical practices. This proposed approach to educating youth offsets the harmful effects of a normalized curriculum that limits students’ creativity and discounts their experiences as lifelong learners. My thesis gathers data from research literature on hip-hop and education, critically-conscious hip-hop lyrics, and also includes my own hip-hop muse to illustrate the positive tenets of critically-conscious hip-hop. The research literature in my thesis is gathered from multiple studies within North American high schools. My hip-hop muse interrelates with critically-conscious hip-hop lyrics because they both address contemporary issues through social commentary and critical awareness. The element of social commentary in my hip-hop muse is displayed through short poems and verses that outline my experiences in a normalized schooling environment. Throughout my thesis, I uncover the causes of student disengagement in classrooms, the ways in which critically-conscious hip-hop music serves as a tool for reengaging youth, and the approaches that must be taken in order to adequately integrate hip-hop into today’s classrooms. My thesis is important within the context of Canadian classrooms because it acts as an agent for social change and cultural relevance through a critical lens. The purpose of this approach, then, is to demonstrate an understanding of the complexity of our society and schooling system through social critique and proposals for change. More importantly, my thesis is grounded in equity; in which critically-conscious hip-hop serves as a bridge for students’ experiences, interests, and independent identities.

Raising Creativity: Exploring How Creativity Can be Nurtured in Educational Contexts

The question of how we can encourage creative capacities in young people has never been more relevant than it is today (Pink, 2006; Robinson as cited in TEDtalksDirector, 2007; Eisner as cited in VanderbiltUniversity, 2009). While the world is rapidly evolving, education has the great challenge of adapting to keep up. Scholars say that to meet the needs of 21st century learners, pedagogy must focus on fostering creative skills to enable students to manage in a future we cannot yet envision (Robinson as cited in TEDtalksDirector, 2007). Further, research demonstrates that creativity thrives with autonomy, support, and without judgment (Amabile, 1996; Codack [Zak], 2010; Harrington, Block, & Block, 1987; Holt, 1989; Kohn, 1993). So how well are schools doing in this regard? How do alternative models of education nurture or neglect creativity, and how can this inform teaching practice all around? In other words, ultimately, how can we nurture creativity in education? This documentary explores these questions from a scholarly art-based perspective. Artist/researcher/teacher Rebecca Zak builds on her experience in the art studio, academia, and the art classroom to investigate the various philosophies and strategies that diverse educational models implement to illuminate the possibilities for educational and paradigmatic transformation. The Raising Creativity documentary project consists of multiple parts across multiple platforms. There are five videos in the series that answer the why, who, how, what, and now what about creativity in education respectively (i.e., why is this topic important, who has spoken/written on this topic already, how will this issue be investigated this time, what was observed during the inquiry, and now what will this mean going forward?). There is also a self-reflexive blog that addresses certain aspects of the topic in greater depth (located here, on this website) and in the context of Rebecca's lived experience to complement the video format. Together, all video and blog artifacts housed on this website function as a polyptych, wherein the pieces can stand alone individually yet are intended to work together and fulfill the dissertation requirements for Rebecca's doctorate degree in education in reimagined ways.

User Generated Content in Researching for Design: How the Internet Supports Creativity

Résumé Cette recherche a débuté avec l’idée que l’Internet est en train de changer la manière dont nous créons des connaissances et du contenu culturel. Notre point de départ était d’utiliser l’Internet afin de rassembler et amplifier plusieurs points de vue dans un processus de design. Une approche complexe a exposé l’Internet comme un système et conséquemment comme une plateforme pour l’innovation. La structure ouverte de l’Internet a soutenu le mouvement participatif des usagers qui ont choisi de partager leurs besoins, leurs désirs et leurs solutions. Notre recherche a pour but d’étudier ce contenu généré par les usagers en ligne et comprendre sa valeur pour les designers. Les usagers créatifs veulent s’exprimer et participer activement dans le processus de design. Notre recherche tente de démontrer que les designers ont beaucoup à apprendre du contenu généré par les usagers car ceux-ci soumettent des éléments qui ont attrait à toutes les étapes du processus de design et révèlent des relations présentes dans la situation de design à l’étude. Pour en apprendre plus sur ce contenu nous nous demandons : Quel type d’information offre le contenu généré par les usagers pour la phase de recherche dans le processus de design. Afin de centrer la portée de l’étude, nous nous sommes aussi questionné si cette information est plus pertinente au design de produits, au design de services ou au design de système de produits et de services. Aspirant aux idéaux du design participatif, notre méthodologie fut développée afin d’apprendre comment le contenu généré par les usagers pourrait influencer le processus de design. Pour ce faire, nous avons choisi de chercher sur l’Internet pour du contenu qui concerne la mobilité via l’usage d’une automobile. Les trois différents types de média considérés étaient les vidéos sur YouTube, les images sur Flickr et les textes sur Blogger. Afin de répondre à notre première question de recherche, nous nous sommes penchés sur deux éléments lorsque l’on recherche pour le design : les espaces de design et les relations de design. Premièrement, nous avons catégorisé le contenu récolté selon l’espace problème, créatif et solution. Deuxièmement, nous avons catégorisé le contenu dépendant de laquelle des relations de design elle démontrait soit une combinaison d’usagers, objets et contextes. Dans le but de répondre à la deuxième question de cette recherche, nous avons examiné trois types V de produits de design : les automobiles privées comme produit, le partage de voiture comme système de produit et de service, et le taxi comme service. Chaque élément pertinent généré par les usagés trouvé dans cette recherche fut catégorisé jusqu’à ce que l’on récolte 50 échantillons pour chaque combinaison de ces variables. Nous en sommes arrivés avec une matrice de 50 éléments de chaque produit de design, pour chacun des médias, puis catégorisé selon les espaces de design et les relations dans le design. Cette recherche démontre que l’Internet, comme médium, produit les conditions avantageuses pour que les usagers partagent de grandes quantités de contenu original et diversifié qui est pertinent aux situations de design. À partir de nos données de recherche, nous avons identifié des tendances dans le contenu généré par les usagers. Notamment, nous sommes en mesure d’affirmer que le contenu généré par les usagers offre de l’information pertinente à la recherche pour le design, et ce dans tous les espaces de design et toutes les relations de design. Il en fut de même pour les différentes issues du design car du contenu sur les produits, les systèmes de produits et de services et les services était présent et pertinent. Bref, nous avons démontré que l’Internet supporte la créativité et conséquemment il y abonde de contenu créatif produit par les usagers. Suivant dans les traces dessinées par d’autres chercheurs en design participatif, cette étude devrait être considérée comme un nouvel exemple des moyens qu’ont les designers pour percevoir les besoins tacites des usagers en leur permettant d’exprimer leurs idées. Alors que ceux-ci créent librement et intuitivement ainsi exposant leurs besoins, solutions et idées, les designers peuvent porter un regard de tierce partie sur les résultats. Jumelant des techniques comme le crowdsourcing et le brainstorming, nous avons créé une nouvelle activité et le néologisme : brainsourcing. En demeurant dans une forme de pratique réflexive, les designers peuvent réfléchir et ajouter au contenu généré par les usagers qui lui n’est pas biaisé par une éducation ou une culture du design. Ce processus est similaire au design participatif professionnel où le brainsourcing est une activité parallèle lorsque le designer fait des recherches pour le design. C’est cette perspective sur la somme des idées des participants qui peut contribuer à comprendre la complexité de la situation de design. VI Cette recherche a aussi soulevé des questions par rapport à l’effet de démocratisation de l’Internet. Bien que les usagers n’ont pas l’éducation, ni les habiletés des designers, ils aspirent à démocratiser le processus du design en voulant participer activement et en exposant leurs besoins, idées et solutions. Nous avons pu déterminer que les usagers n’étaient pas qualifiés pour entreprendre le processus complet du design comme les designers professionnels, mais nous avons observé directement la capacité des usagers à mettre de l’avant leur créativité. À propos de la relation entre les usagers créatifs et les designers, nous avons étudié des langages communs tels les scénarios et les prototypes. Tous deux sont présents dans le contenu généré par les usagers que nous avons récolté dans nos recherches sur Internet. Ceci nous a mené vers une nouvelle perspective sur l’activité du design où des opportunités créatives ressortent d’une conversation avec les usagers. Cette recherche a dévoilé de grandes tendances dans la manière dont les usagers communiquent naturellement dans un processus de design. Nous espérons avoir offert un aperçu de comment les designers peuvent prendre avantage de tous les types de contenu généré par les usagers en ligne. Dans le futur, nous souhaitons que les designers aient la possibilité d’interagir avec les participants en prenant le rôle de facilitateur de la conversation. La responsabilité du résultat ne tombe pas sur les épaules du designer car son mandat est d’assurer le bon fonctionnement du processus. Les designers rejoignent les usagers en ne demandant plus comment les choses peuvent être créées, mais pourquoi elles devraient exister. En tant que designers, nous aspirons à générer plus à partir de nouvelles connaissances, nous aspirons à créer plus de sens. Mots clés: Recherche en design, complexité, design participatif, contenu généré par les usagers, démocratisation, Internet, créativité, crowdsourcing, brainstorming, brainsourcing, réflexion-en-action.

Is choking under pressure a consequence of skill-focus or increased distractibility? Results from a tennis serve task

It has been repeatedly demonstrated that athletes often choke in high pressure situations because anxiety can affect attention regulation and in turn performance. There are two competing theoretical approaches to explain the negative anxiety-performance relationship. According to skillfocus theories, anxious athletes’ attention is directed at how to execute the sport-specific movements which interrupts execution of already automatized movements in expert performers. According to distraction theories, anxious athletes are distractible and focus less on the relevant stimuli. We tested these competing assumptions in a between-subject design, as semi-professional tennis players were either assigned to an anxiety group (n = 25) or a neutral group (n = 28), and performed a series of second tennis serves into predefined target areas. As expected, anxiety was negatively related to serve accuracy. However, mediation analyses with the bootstrapping method revealed that this relationship was fully mediated by self-reported distraction and not by skill-focus.

Do Classes in Cooperative Classrooms Have a Positive Influence on Creativity and Teamwork Skills for Engineering Students?

Contributing to the acquisition of professional creativity and teamwork skills has been a special challenge for some of the subjects taught at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), and this has been a starting point for the work described in this paper. Some professors have intuited that the use of cooperative classrooms could facilitate the acquisition of these skills. We describe the new methodologies applied within cooperative classrooms by some professors, and present the procedure for measuring students’ perception of their own learning outcomes, skill improvements, and overall satisfaction with the use of this kind of classroom. For this project, 250 students enrolled in several subjects answered a questionnaire. The featuresof thesubjectsinvolved intheproject arewidely disparate. We present the results of the statistical analysis with special emphasis on creativity and teamwork skills, and we conclude that the use of cooperative classroom has a positive influence on the acquisition of these skills. This work has the added value of being the first analysis of student perception of the use of cooperative classroom in the acquisition of creativity and teamwork skills.

Employee recognition as a management skill: Considering the effects of team efficacy

Recognising and rewarding good performance is an important managerial skill as it is vital for employee motivadon. To gain a better understanding on how recognidon exerts its infiuence, the purpose of the current study is twofold: firsdy, to invesdgate whether recognition (or the lack of it) is a relevant issue with the staff of a large Australian pharmacy. Secondly, to our best knowledge the present study is the first to shed light onto the nature and funcdon of recognidon by invesdgadng its underlying processes. Drawing from goal setdng, social cognidve and attribution theory, a model in which recognidon from the manger predicts employee outcomes is developed. It predicts that managerial recognidon will infiuence employee well-being direcdy and indirecdy by its impact on team efficacy. Data from the pharmacy staff is qualitadvely and quandtadvely analysed. Qualitadve analysis suggests that recognidon is a major modvator for the pharmacy staff. Addidonally it is found that employees who receive recognidon from their manager have posidve percepdons about their work groups, and in turn experience high levels of well-being. Implicadons and Hmitadons of the current study, as well as avenues for future research are discussed.

Sparkling fountains or stagnant ponds:An integrative model of creativity and innovation implementation in work groups

In this article I synthesise research and theory that advance our understanding of creativity and innovation implementation in groups at work. It is suggested that creativity occurs primarily at the early stages of innovation processes with innovation implementation later. The influences of task characteristics, group knowledge diversity and skill, external demands, integrating group processes and intragroup safety are explored. Creativity, it is proposed, is hindered whereas perceived threat, uncertainty or other high levels of demands aid the implementation of innovation. Diversity of knowledge and skills is a powerful predictor of innovation, but integrating group processes and competencies are needed to enable the fruits of this diversity to be harvested. The implications for theory and practice are also explored.

The development and operation of the effective interpersonal relationship skills relevant to career development problems from staff assessment at an industrial research laboratory

This study concerns the application of a model of effective interpersonal relationships to problems arising from staff assessment at I.C.I. Ltd. Corporate Laboratory between 1972 and 1974. In collaboration with academic and industrial supervision, the study commenced with a survey of management and supervisor opinions about the effectiveness of current staff (work) relationships, with particular reference to the problem of recognising and developing creative potential. This survey emphasised a need to improve the relationships between staff in the staff assessment context. A survey of research into creativity emphasised the importance of the interpersonal environment for obtaining creative behaviour in an organisation context. A further survey of theories of how inter­personal behaviour related to personal creativity (therapeutic psychology) provided a model of effective interpersonal behaviour (Carkhuff, 1969) that could be applied to the organisation context of staff assessment. The objective of the project was redefined as a need to improve the conditions of interpersonal behaviour in relation to certain (career development) problems arising from staff assessment practices. In order to demonstrate the application of the model of effective interpersonal behaviour, the research student recorded interviews between himself and members of staff designed to develop and operate the dimensions of the model. Different samples of staff were used to develop the 'facilitative' and the 'action oriented' dimensions of bahaviour, and then for the operation of a helping programme (based on vocational guidance tests). These interactions have been analysed, according to the scales of measurement in the model ana the results are presented in case study form in this thesis. At each stage of the project, results and conclusions were presented to the sponsoring organisation (e.g. industrial supervisor) in order to assess their (subjective) opinion of relevance to the organ­ isation. Finally, recommendations on further actions towards general improvement of the work relationships in the laboratory were presented in a brief report to the sponsor.

In My Opinion: Skill Development Key to Managerial Success

The professional success of future hospitality graduates will require that they have gone beyond the acquisition of contemporary industry knowledge and training in current best practices. Increasingly relevant hospitality education will emphasize skill development. Managerial thinking and renewal skills will be especially useful in an industry which is constantly changing.

Site-specific e vídeo-dança: a perceção espacial, corporal e sensorial evidenciada nas disciplinas de Composição Coreográfica e Projeto Coreográfico da ADCS

Relatório Final de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Dança, com vista à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de Dança.

Skill development for innovative procurement environments in construction

The construction industry should be a priority to all governments because it impacts economically and socially on all citizens. Sector turnover in industrialised economies typically averages 8-12% of GDP. Further, construction is critical to economic growth. Recent Australian studies estimate that a 10% gain in efficiency in construction translates to a 2.5% increase in GDP Inefficiencies in the Australian construction industry have been identified by a number of recent studies modelling the building process. They have identified potential savings in time of between 25% and 40% by reducing non-value added steps in the process. A culture of reform is now emerging in the industry – one in which alternate forms of project delivery are being trialed. Government and industry have identified Alliance Contracting as a means to increase efficiency in the construction industry as part of a new innovative procurement environment. Alliance contracting requires parties to form relationships and work cooperatively to provide a more complete service. This is a significant cultural change for the construction industry, with its well-known adversarial record in traditional contracting. Alliance contracts offer enormous potential benefits, but the Australian construction industry needs to develop new skills to effectively participate in the new relationship environment. This paper describes a collaborative project identifying skill needs for clients and construction professionals to more effectively participate in an increasingly sophisticated international procurement environment. The aim of identifying these skill needs is to assist industry, government, and skill developers to prepare the Australian construction workforce for the future. The collaborating Australian team has been fortunate to secure the Australian National Museum in Canberra as its live case study. The Acton Peninsula Development is the first major building development in the world awarded on the basis of a joint alliance contract.