Kay Gillespie: Moving to Publication

On April 7th, 2010, Kay Gillespie PhD (associate editor of the journal Innovative Higher Education aka "IHE") spoke at the UCF SoTL Showcase. Her topic was taking our research to publication.

Dr. Gillespie's presentation started by invoking Boyer's seminal text Scholarship Reconsidered (1990) which says that teachers must "...break out of the tired old teaching versus research debate and define, in more creative ways, what it means to be a scholar" (p. xii).

According to Boyer, a broad conception of scholarship includes four forms:

Scholarship of discovery is the traditional type of research (basic research) that involves the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and the discovery of new knowledge. Examples of this type of scholarship are typical and include publications in refereed journals, books, etc. that describe original research, presentations at professional meetings that do the same, grants obtained to conduct such research, etc.

Scholarship of integration involves interpreting and drawing insights from the facts and findings of original research, drawing them together, integrating and summarizing them, and creating new conclusions, implications, and interpretations from the integration. Examples of this type of scholarship included publications in refereed journals, books, etc., that describe the integration of professional knowledge, presentations at professional meetings that do the same the writing of textbooks and nonacademic writings which integrate the knowledge base, grants obtained to conduct such scholarship, etc.

Scholarship of application involves exploring the dynamic between theory and action in applying the professional knowledge base in solving practical problems in practical settings in rigorous ways. This form of scholarship attempts to relate the service role of faculty to scholarship. Examples of this type of scholarship include efforts to help solve practical problems in educational settings by applying professional theory, conceptions, methods, and findings, such as action research projects, grants obtained to conduct such scholarship, etc.

Scholarship of teaching involves the highly complex, dynamic activity of constructing, creating, sharing, and communicating the knowledge base to “students”. To do so effectively requires a deep knowledge and understanding of the topic as well as constant reflection and review of the topic and the teaching-learning experience. Of the four forms of scholarship, scholarship of teaching will probably be the most controversial.

Dr. Gillespie then spoke about the submission process and moving to publication of SoTL research.

Dr. Gillespie advised to pick a journal by reviewing these criteria:

Discipline-Specific or General
Examine Journal Goals (Dr. Gillespie provided a handout with IHE goals)
Review Editorial Board Membership
Acceptance Rate
Citation/Journal Statistics
Review Articles Published
Inquiries to Editor

Choosing the right journal requires analyzing all these factors and also a consideration of the impact on tenure. E.g., The National Teaching and Learning Forum is not as selective as the IHE.

Be attentive to Journal requirements.

As to likely Journals for our research, Lisa Mills and I noted (in the materials that were circulated at this presentation) that Kristin Congdon was published in Art Education and that Rudy McDaniel was published in the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching.

Also we should explore:
Innovative Higher Education
The Journal of Management Education
Studies in Graduate and Professional Student Development
The National Teaching and Learning Forum

Book of scales

Communication Research Measures by Rebecca Rubin

New Research Question(s) and Measure(s)

In the SOTL Workshop held on Dec. 4th, 2009 we learned the following:

1) Our survey should include measures of how important the subjects feel creativity is to their work, e.g.,:

Ask the subjects to Agree or Disagree with statements that elicit a measure of how these students feel about studying or engaging in exercises about creativity.

For example:

Agree or Disagree

Film students should take classes about meaning in film.

Film students should study how other filmmakers approach issues of creativity.


2) Additional measures of creativity and self-assessment of imagination etc. exist.

For example, Joe Khatena and E. Paul Torrance have created scales known as the Khatena-Torrance Creative Perception Inventory (KTCPI) for self report on measures of creativity which can be accessed in two sub-tests:

A) Something About Myself (SAM) which measures artistic inclination, intelligence, individuality, sensitivity, initiative, and self-strength

B) What Kind of Person Are You? (WKOPAY) which measures imagination, appeal to authority, self-confidence, inquisitiveness, and awareness of others.


3) Learning Styles

Anthony Gregorc's "Style Delineator Approach" (which is in dispute) is based on studies into the functions of the left and right brain hemispheres. Gregorc's system of learning claims to take into account the different ways of perceiving and ordering information. Gregorc argues students either perceive things in methods that are concrete-oriented (from our physical senses) or abstract-oriented (from logical, deductive reasoning). Per Gregorc, ordering is making sense out of what we perceive. Ordering can either be sequential (organized, systematic) or random (unorganized).

Scales

Here's a great link that so very clearly describes best practices for using scales in research: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/scallik.php

Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love, talks about the impossible things we expect from artists and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius.

UFVA Panel Presentation

Helping Students Discover the Central Organizing Principle for their Films: An Empirical Study to Determine Creative Self-Efficacy
Lisa Mills, Ph.D.
Randy Finch, J.D.
University of Central Florida

Research Problems
Too many students are making films that are at best, derivative and at worst, shallow or superficial.
Students do not work hard enough or long enough developing the premise or Central Organizing Principle of their films.
Students do not consider whether their films have something meaningful to say.

Research Questions
What are faculty doing to encourage meaning and creativity?
How can we teach students about film making while encouraging original insights?
Are we enhancing potential or simply providing tools for conformity?

More Research Questions
Is it even possible to teach students to be more creative?
Do exercises exist which give students real experience with the process of original thought?
If so, is it possible to design a study that measures the effectiveness of such creativity exercises?

Background for Our Study
UCF’s narrative and documentary BFA aims to guide students toward the indy film genre and away from the industrial model
This study is supported by UCF’s “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning” program
Lisa Mills teaches documentary film, Randy Finch teaches narrative film. (Both teach in the Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema MFA program as well).

Recent Studies in Film Pedagogy
Jon Stahl (2002) used the Hollywood model to develop his model for a Media Writing course but collected no data to determine its effectiveness
David Franklin (2001) explored the effects of “professor censorship” as creative limitation for student films but collected only anecdotal evidence in his classroom.
Frank Tomasulo (2008) quantified artistic learning outcomes for assessment purposes at FSU

Relevant Studies in Education and Social Psychology
Jean Piaget (educator) connected creativity to the process of discovery
Theresa Amabile (social psychologist) found evidence that intrinsic motivation brought a more creative outcome than extrinsic (reward)
Most educational and psychological studies have been conducted on small children
Creativity in the form of “problem solving” and “critical thinking” has been studied in adult workplaces.

Philosophical Foundations
Aristotle, Kant, Schiller, Jung
The ability to conceptualize the imaginary is the basis of the human creative experience
There is an “unconscious element” that must be harvested in the creative process
There is a psychological need to satisfy the Ego

Lajos Egri
Connected storytelling with “its basis in the creative interpretation of human motives”
A story’s premise can be written in one simple, declarative sentence (Central Organizing Principle)
“Something (main character trait) leads to something (a universal truth realized by the character through the dialectic)”

Methodological Concerns
Discomfort with evaluation of students’ creativity
SOtL requires approval by the Institutional Review Board, thus limiting the kind of data would could collect in small production classes
What could we really measure?

Our Study Design
Create exercises to help students develop their COP
Collect student responses to exercises (immediately following and 24 hours after)
Pretest/Post-test/Control design to test for a significant difference in creative self-efficacy at the beginning and end of the term

We invite you to join us
We need data from a variety of programs and students
We provide you the exercises and student response instruments (we also need control groups who do not receive exercises)
We support your efforts to get the data to us for analysis
We’ll do everything we can to make it easy for you!

Study Timeframe
Early Fall 2009 receive IRB approval
Mid-Late Fall 2009 pilot tests (are we measuring what we think we’re measuring?)
Spring 2010 first data collection series
Fall 2010 second data collection series
Spring 2011 data analysis
Summer 2011 report results at UFVA
Goal is to produce a publishable paper

Contact Information
Lisa Mills (407) 823-3606 lmills@mail.ucf.edu
Randy Finch (407) 823-6111 rfinch@mail.ucf.edu

Experimental Design, Draft 1

Group 1: Doc with exercises (Doc stimulus or DS)
Group 2: Narrative with exercises Narrative stimulus or NS)
Group 3: Doc without exercises (Doc control or DC)
Group 4: Narrative without exercises (Narrative control or NC)


Fall 09: Doc and Narrative control groups (DC1, NC1)
Spring 10: Doc and Narrative stimulus groups (DS1, NS1)
Fall 10: Doc and Narrative control groups (DC2, NC2)
Fall 11: Doc and Narrative stimulus groups (DS2, NS2)

Proposed Locations:
Orlando, Pittsburgh, Utah, North Carolina
We will need letters of support from these institutions for IRB approval


Fall 09 Spring 10 Fall 10 Spring 11
DC1, NC1 DS1, NS1 DC2, NC2 DS2, NS2
Pretest/Post-test Pretest/Post-test Pretest/Post-test Pretest/Post-