Abstract

The Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT), Ireland, is a Higher Education (HE) provider of Initial Teacher Education (ITE).Graduates on its BSc (Hons) in Education (Design, Graphics and Construction) degree programme are qualified to teach technical subjects at second level. A defining element of delivery is the promotion of creativity and innovation in the classroom, by means of active, student-centred and design-led teaching and learning (T&L) strategies. This paper outlines a GMIT qualitative student-perspective pilot study, involving a total of 42 GMIT student teacher participants (n=42). The study aims to analyse the effectiveness of two selected platforms in the ITE programme: 1) presentation contributions by 14 student teachers at the GMIT ‘Creativity and Innovation in Teaching’ Conference (2016) (n=14), and 2) a textual analysis of student online forum critical reflection submissions (2016-2017) (n=28). The research confirms the effectiveness of both strategies in promoting a practice of innovation and creativity in the classroom, including evidence of the innovative educational technology classroom tools and increased student-centred, active learning and design-led strategies in T&L. Keywords: Creativity, Innovation, Educational Technology, Technical Education, Initial Teacher Education, Active teaching Strategies.

Highlights

  • The Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) is a Higher Education (HE) provider of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in the technical field, in Ireland

  • In the GMIT ITE programme, a culture of creativity and innovation, as well as active, student-centred and design-led T&L, is upheld, a challenge arising is the disjunction between a policy of student-centred active T&L in HE and a traditional, didactic approach, which is prevalent in many second level schools

  • Data collecting methods included: 1) the identification and tabulation of innovative practices employed by final year student teachers (n=14) while on SP, as recorded by the GMIT Creativity and Innovation in the Classroom Conference (2016) presentation slides, and 2) the identification of innovative or creative approaches by other students across the wider programme (n=28), identified within their SP online forum critical reflections (2016-2017)

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Summary

Introduction

In that same academic year student teachers engaged in online forum critical reflections (using the Moodle platform) relating to their practice of teaching while on School Placement (SP). These two platforms were used to collate research data for this study. The research question addressed in this paper is: “to what extent do GMIT student teachers demonstrate creativity and innovation in their T&L strategies, in the technical classroom, while on School Placement?”. The two main research aims addressed in this paper include: 1) to identify/tabulate evidence of creative and innovative practices while on SP, and 2) to explore the student teacher experience of engagement with creative and innovative teaching practices, using selected examples from the data. Regarding the structure of the paper, a brief literature review is followed by accounts of the research methodology, findings, analysis, and conclusions

Literature Review
Research Methodology
D Models in CS a SEN Strategy
Design Mood Boards Peer Board Drawings
Conclusions
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