The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Technology teachers’ knowledge in promoting learners’ higher order thinking skills. This aim was addressed by conducting the relevant literature survey and an empirical investigation. Four schools were selected in the Johannesburg West District. Here, twelve Grade 7 Technology teachers, three from each school, were interviewed and observations conducted. The data was analysed and findings presented ultimately. The findings reveal that Technology teachers who possess a greater depth of technological content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and assessment knowledge are more effective in as far as promoting learners’ higher order thinking. On the other hand, Technology teachers who possess a shallow technological content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and assessment knowledge struggle to promote learners’ higher order thinking. The main conclusions drawn from this study are that Technology teachers’ knowledge can play a role in learners’ acquisition of higher order thinking skills. Therefore, Technology teachers should acquire a sound technological knowledge in order to be able to promote learners’ acquisition of higher order thinking skills. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / Technology -- Study and teaching (Secondary) -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Case studies / Critical thinking -- South Africa -- Johannesburg -- Case studies

Fundação Araucária; CNPq / A gestão da inovação é difícil devido às constantes mudanças tecnológicas dos produtos. Porém, é uma condição de sobrevivência e de competitividade para as empresas que, conscientes disso, buscam ideias para inovar. A gestão de ideias tem a função de captar ideias para fomentar o processo. O objetivo desta pesquisa é propor uma estrutura de referência para a captação de ideias com ações deinovação aberta. O referêncial teórico foi construído por meio de uma pesquisa bibliométrica e sistêmica no tema. Elaborou-se uma estrutura de referência conceitual e empírica validada com gerentes de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) de 12 empresas industriais brasileiras de médio e grande porte que gerenciam ideias para inovação. O instrumento de pesquisa abordou quatro fases: captação, seleção, avaliação e pré-desenvolvimento das ideias. Os objetivos da pesquisa classificam-se como exploratórios e descritivos. A natureza é aplicada, com abordagem predominantemente qualitativa, utilizando como método, a pesquisa de campo. Os principais resultados mostram que as fontes de ideias mais utilizadas são os clientes, feiras de exposição e concorrentes. Os principais critérios utilizados para realizar o filtro inicial para agrupamento das ideias captadas no ambiente externo são: a qualidade da descrição, a similaridade e aderência das ideias ao escopo da empresa. As ideias são avaliadas quanto à capacidade técnica, econômica, humana, logística e mercadológica para o desenvolvimento. Os critérios de avaliação mais utilizados para aprovar as ideias são relativos ao aumento da competitividade, do benefício ao cliente e do potencial de retorno financeiro. Na fase de avaliação, as ideias são reconhecidas e recompensadas financeiramente ou com eventos comemorativos, divulgação externa ou site da empresa. Quanto ao pré- desenvolvimento, as empresas internalizam as novas ideias com o licenciamento de tecnologias de terceiros buscando capital externo para financiar o seu desenvolvimento. As empresas praticam muitas ações de inovação aberta, preconizadas pela literatura, no entanto, não elaboram um plano de ação para as ideias aprovadas para desenvolvimento. Destaca-se, assim, a importância de sistematizar o processo. A estrutura de referência para gestão de ideias na inovação aberta, elaborada nesta tese, permite identificar as novas oportunidades de inovação em cenários externos à empresa. / Innovation management is a difficult subject to be dealt with, regarding a constant technological product shifting. Nevertheless, it is a surviving and competitive edge condition for companies which, being aware of that, search for innovative ideas. Concept management works as to attract ideas to foment the process. The aim of this research is to propose a referential structure to attract ideas, employing open innovative actions. The theoretical reference is assembled through a bibliometric and systemic research on the subject. A conceptual and empiric structure is also assembled. The aforementioned structure is validated with P&D managers from 12 (twelve) midsize and large size Brazilian industrial companies which manage innovative ideas. The researching instrument addressed four stages: reception, selection, evaluation, and pre-development of the ideas. The aims of the research are tabulated as exploratory and descriptive. The nature of the research is applied, predominantly qualitative, employing field research as a method. The main results have demonstrated that the most employed ideas sources are clients, expo markets, and competition. The main criteria, employed to accomplish the initial filter to bracket[ the ideas gathered in the external environment, are the descriptive quality, similarities, and adhesiveness from the ideas to the company’s scope. The ideas are evaluated according to technical, economical, human, logistic and marketing capability for the development. The most employed evaluation criteria, to approve the ideas, are related to the augment of competitiveness, client benefits, and financial return potential. In the evaluation stage, the ideas are recognized and rewarded with money, commemorative events, external divulging, or in the company’s website. Regarding the pre-development, the companies internalize the new ideas, in tandem with the licensing of outsourced technologies, searching for external working capital to finance its development. The companies develop various open innovative actions professed by the specialized literature. However, the companies do not elaborate a plan of action to cope with the ideas approved for development. Thus, the importance of systematizing the process is highlighted. The referential structure for management of ideas in the open innovation, formulated in this Doctoral thesis, allows one to identify the new innovation opportunities present in scenarios external to the company.

Fundação Araucária; CNPq / A gestão da inovação é difícil devido às constantes mudanças tecnológicas dos produtos. Porém, é uma condição de sobrevivência e de competitividade para as empresas que, conscientes disso, buscam ideias para inovar. A gestão de ideias tem a função de captar ideias para fomentar o processo. O objetivo desta pesquisa é propor uma estrutura de referência para a captação de ideias com ações deinovação aberta. O referêncial teórico foi construído por meio de uma pesquisa bibliométrica e sistêmica no tema. Elaborou-se uma estrutura de referência conceitual e empírica validada com gerentes de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento (P&D) de 12 empresas industriais brasileiras de médio e grande porte que gerenciam ideias para inovação. O instrumento de pesquisa abordou quatro fases: captação, seleção, avaliação e pré-desenvolvimento das ideias. Os objetivos da pesquisa classificam-se como exploratórios e descritivos. A natureza é aplicada, com abordagem predominantemente qualitativa, utilizando como método, a pesquisa de campo. Os principais resultados mostram que as fontes de ideias mais utilizadas são os clientes, feiras de exposição e concorrentes. Os principais critérios utilizados para realizar o filtro inicial para agrupamento das ideias captadas no ambiente externo são: a qualidade da descrição, a similaridade e aderência das ideias ao escopo da empresa. As ideias são avaliadas quanto à capacidade técnica, econômica, humana, logística e mercadológica para o desenvolvimento. Os critérios de avaliação mais utilizados para aprovar as ideias são relativos ao aumento da competitividade, do benefício ao cliente e do potencial de retorno financeiro. Na fase de avaliação, as ideias são reconhecidas e recompensadas financeiramente ou com eventos comemorativos, divulgação externa ou site da empresa. Quanto ao pré- desenvolvimento, as empresas internalizam as novas ideias com o licenciamento de tecnologias de terceiros buscando capital externo para financiar o seu desenvolvimento. As empresas praticam muitas ações de inovação aberta, preconizadas pela literatura, no entanto, não elaboram um plano de ação para as ideias aprovadas para desenvolvimento. Destaca-se, assim, a importância de sistematizar o processo. A estrutura de referência para gestão de ideias na inovação aberta, elaborada nesta tese, permite identificar as novas oportunidades de inovação em cenários externos à empresa. / Innovation management is a difficult subject to be dealt with, regarding a constant technological product shifting. Nevertheless, it is a surviving and competitive edge condition for companies which, being aware of that, search for innovative ideas. Concept management works as to attract ideas to foment the process. The aim of this research is to propose a referential structure to attract ideas, employing open innovative actions. The theoretical reference is assembled through a bibliometric and systemic research on the subject. A conceptual and empiric structure is also assembled. The aforementioned structure is validated with P&D managers from 12 (twelve) midsize and large size Brazilian industrial companies which manage innovative ideas. The researching instrument addressed four stages: reception, selection, evaluation, and pre-development of the ideas. The aims of the research are tabulated as exploratory and descriptive. The nature of the research is applied, predominantly qualitative, employing field research as a method. The main results have demonstrated that the most employed ideas sources are clients, expo markets, and competition. The main criteria, employed to accomplish the initial filter to bracket[ the ideas gathered in the external environment, are the descriptive quality, similarities, and adhesiveness from the ideas to the company’s scope. The ideas are evaluated according to technical, economical, human, logistic and marketing capability for the development. The most employed evaluation criteria, to approve the ideas, are related to the augment of competitiveness, client benefits, and financial return potential. In the evaluation stage, the ideas are recognized and rewarded with money, commemorative events, external divulging, or in the company’s website. Regarding the pre-development, the companies internalize the new ideas, in tandem with the licensing of outsourced technologies, searching for external working capital to finance its development. The companies develop various open innovative actions professed by the specialized literature. However, the companies do not elaborate a plan of action to cope with the ideas approved for development. Thus, the importance of systematizing the process is highlighted. The referential structure for management of ideas in the open innovation, formulated in this Doctoral thesis, allows one to identify the new innovation opportunities present in scenarios external to the company.

The thesis deals with creativity of the older school age within the leisure time edu-cation. The theoretical part shows the different points of view to the phenomenon of creativity and basic methods of its developement. It describes the specifics of the older school age stage emphasising the way of spending their leisure time. The practical part puts the theoretical knowledge into practice through preparation and realization of the one-week project for the older school age children. The individual activities are linked with a compact game.

This thesis is devoted to the development of creative thinking. The main objectives of the work are to identify, define and justify the psychological factors, stages and qualitative characteristics of creative thinking. Show through practical experiments that specially organized cognitive activity leads to the development of creative thinking through the development of its qualitative properties. In my work I analyze in detail the concept of creativity, creative thinking, and cognitive activity in terms of different scientific approaches. One important aspect is the detailed functional analysis of the process of creative thinking and cognitive activity. Cognitive activity in the context of my work is discussed as a functional space for the development of creative thinking. During the practical part by experimental work we confirm the hypothesis that the development of individual qualitative characteristics of creative thinking during a specially organized cognitive activity leads to the overall development of creative thinking. Practical work includes preparation and adaptation of Torrance figural test of creative thinking to identify creative potential, preparation of exercises and tasks for the development of each property of creative thinking, preparing a presentation to familiarize students with concepts: creativity, creative thinking, cognitive activity and the capacity to distinguish psychical phenomena influencing the creative thinking. Creating an appropriate atmosphere for the development of emotionally-positive attitude of students to the process of creative thinking. Ensuring an impact of detected psychological factors through the implementation of certain conditions. Carrying out classes targeted to the development of individual qualitative characteristics of creative thinking in the 5th, 6th and 7th classes of elementary school Janského. By creating a control and experimental groups we provide the ability to track changes in the practical section. After comparing and analyzing the results we can make the conclusion that the specially organized cognitive activity leads to the development of creative thinking. Own contribution of the work lies in the fact that the effect of each identified, evidence-based psychological factor in the development of creative thinking of individual is guaranteed due to creation of certain conditions to initiate and activate this process, while developing each of the four qualitative characteristics of creative thinking takes place gradually. The research results can be used in the practice of educational institutions to create a comprehensive program targeted to develop creative thinking and the implementation of this framework program in the school education process. During writing this thesis we used the following methods: a theoretical analysis of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical literature, examined the practical experience on the subject. Developing creative thinking of individual during cognitive activity was studied using experimental tests of J. Guilford, E.P. Torrance and others. The work consists of two parts. First, more theoretically oriented part, is divided into two chapters. The first chapter deals with definitions of basic terms, describes the process of creative thinking and its stages. The second chapter deals with the revelation of psychological factors and phenomena influencing the process of creative thinking and functional analysis. Second, practically oriented part, deals with the preparation of tests and tasks targeted to the development of individual qualities of creative thinking, practical implementation of research among primary school pupils and analysis of the results.

No description available.

In order to enhance academic achievement it is necessary to implement a teaching strategy which provides students with tools needed to improve classroom performance. This study will produce data showing whether the implementation of "Indentifying Similarities and Differences" is an effective teaching strategy.

Syftet med studien var att studera sambandet mellan regelbunden fysisk aktivitet och kognitiv förmåga, i form av arbetsminne, kreativt tänkande och exekutiva funktioner. För att undersöka sambandet mellan fysisk aktivitet och kognitiv förmåga användes en tvärsnittsstudie som metod. Studien innehöll 50 deltagare (36 kvinnor, 14 män) i åldrarna 19–51. Datainsamlingen bestod av en enkät, Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, och sex kognitiva tester, Digit span forward, Digit span backward, Remote Associates Test (RAT), Guilford Alternate Uses test (GAU), Semantic fluency test och Phonemic fluency test. Enkäten efterfrågade deltagarnas träningsmängd, träningsduration och träningsintensitet. De två Digit span-testerna användes i syfte att undersöka arbetsminnet, RAT respektive GAU användes för att undersöka två former av kreativt tänkande (konvergent och divergent tänkande) och Fluency-testerna för att undersöka exekutiva funktioner. Alla deltagare fick genomföra de kognitiva testerna med samma instruktioner och under samma förutsättningar. Ett signifikant negativt samband uppvisades mellan RAT och variabler kopplat till total träningsmängd. Detta indikerade att ju högre total träningsmängd är relaterade till desto sämre prestation av konvergent tänkande. Inga signifikanta samband uppvisades mellan resterande fysiska aktivitetsvariabler och kognitiva förmågor. Resultatet från denna studie indikerade att fysisk aktivitet i termer av träningsmängd har ett negativt samband med konvergent tänkande och att fysisk aktivitet inte är relaterat till arbetsminne, divergent tänkande eller exekutiva funktioner. / The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between regular physical activity and cognitive ability. The cognitive abilities that were examined were working memory, creative thinking, and executive function. To explore the relationship between physical activity and cognitive ability, a cross-sectional study was used. The study consisted of 50 participants (36 women, 14 men) ages 19 to 51. The data collection consisted of a questionnaire, Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire, and six cognitive tests, Digit span forward, Digit span backward, Remote Associates Test (RAT), Guilford Alternate Uses test (GAU), Semantic fluency test and Phonemic fluency test. The questionnaire requested the participants’ amount of exercise, the duration of exercise and the intensity of exercise. The two Digit span tests were used to examine the working memory, RAT respectively GAU was used to examine creative thinking (convergent and divergent thinking) and the Fluency tests to examine executive functions. All participants were given the same instructions and performed the tests under the same conditions. A significant negative relationship was found between RAT and variables related to total amount of exercise. This indicated the higher total amount of exercise are related to the inferior performance of convergent thinking. No significant relationship was found between the remaining variables connected to physical activity and cognitive abilities. The result from this study indicated that physical activity in terms of amount of exercise has a negative relationship with convergent thinking and that physical activity is not related to working memory, divergent thinking, or executive functions.

The fundamentals of computer science are increasingly important to consider as critical educational and occupational competencies, as evidenced by the rapid growth of computing capabilities and the proliferation of the Internet in the 21st century, combined with reimagined national education standards. Despite this technological and social transformation, the general education environment has yet to embrace widespread incorporation of computational concepts within traditional curricular content and instruction. Researchers have posited that exercises in computational thinking can result in gains in other academic areas (Baytak & Land, 2011; Olive, 1991), but their studies aimed at identifying any measurable educational benefits of teaching computational concepts to school age children have often lacked both sufficient experimental control and inclusion of psychometrically sound measures of cognitive abilities and academic achievement (Calao, Moreno-León, Correa, & Robles, 2015). The current study attempted to shed new light on the question of whether using a graphically-based computer coding environment and semi-structured curriculum –the Creative Computing Course in the Scratch programming language –can lead to demonstrable and significant changes in problem solving, creative thinking, and knowledge of computer programming concepts. The study introduced 24 youth in a summer educational program in Philadelphia, PA to the Scratch programming environment through structured lessons and open-ended projects for approximately 25 hours over the course of two weeks. A delayed treatment, control trial design was utilized to measure problem solving ability with a modified version of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, Fourth Edition (WJ-IV), Concept Formation subtest, and the Kaufman Tests of Educational Achievement, Third Edition (KTEA-3) Math Concepts and Applications subtest. Creative problem solving was measured using a consensual assessment technique (Amabile, 1982). A pre-test and post-test of programming conceptual knowledge was used to understand how participants’ computational thinking skills influenced their learning. In addition, two questionnaires measuring computer use and the Type-T (Thrill) personality characteristic were given to participants to examine the relationship between risk-taking or differences in children’s usage of computing devices and their problem solving ability and creative thinking skills. There were no differences found among experimental and control groups on problem solving or creative thinking, although a substantial number of factors limited and qualified interpretation of the results. There was also no relationship between performance on a pre-test of computational thinking, and a post-test measuring specific computational thinking skills and curricular content. There were, however, significant, moderate to strong correlations among academic achievement as measured by state standardized test scores, the KTEA-3 Math Concepts and Applications subtest, and both the pre and post Creative Problem Solving test developed for the study. Also, higher levels of the Type T, or thrill-seeking, personality characteristic were associated with lower behavioral reinforcement token computer “chips," but there were no significant relationships among computer use and performance on assessments. The results of the current study supported retention of the null hypothesis, but were limited by small sample size, environmental and motivational issues, and problems with the implementation of the curriculum and selected measures. The results should, therefore, not be taken as conclusive evidence to support the notion that computer programming activities have no impact in other areas of cognitive functioning, mathematic conceptual knowledge, or creative thinking. Instead, the results may help future researchers to further refine their techniques to both deliver effective instruction in the Scratch programming environment, and also target assessments to more accurately measure learning. / Educational Psychology

Recent nursing literature has repeatedly proclaimed the need for creativity in nursing. The complexity of contemporary nursing practice as a result of the explosion of knowledge and technology, changing human values and diverse health care systems, requires an innovative and creative nurse who can adapt to change and provide holistic, individualised, context-specific patient care. Higher levels of cognitive thought, creative thinking and problem-solving skills have been stressed as desirable qualities of student nurses. It is suggested in the literature that the evolution of innovative strategies and the ways to implement them into nursing curricula be explored in order to assist and encourage students to develop these higher cognitive skills. From an analytical study of the literature which was undertaken with the aim of exploring the nature of creativity and the processes involved in creative thinking and learning, and of identifying innovative strategies particularly relevant to the teaching of nursing, it became apparent that the most significant determinants in teaching for creativity, are the learning enviromnent, the educator-student relationship, and the provision of a variety of teaching strategies, which are student-centred with a problem-solving focus. It was established that stimulation of both the left and right hemispheres of the brain is essential for the development of creative thinking skills. Based on the insights and knowledge gained in the study, a nursing education model for the fostering of creativity was developed. This model encompasses a wide variety of didactic considerations and is designed to stimulate whole brain learning. It is hoped that its use will be of value in the production of innovative and courageous nurse practitioners who will be better equipped to cope with the changes and challenges of their working environment and be able to provide context-specific nursing care. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Nursing Science)