Natural landscaping and bringing schools and workplaces to a more holistic and natural element is a fast moving trend, "something deep within us responds to the three-dimensional geometry of nature" (Hutchinson, A., 2015). The traditional aspects of the workplace are becoming more so a thing of the past, being replaced by boarder-less work-spaces, that are filled with unique and inventive tools to foster creativity and production. The ability to de-stress and foster more quality and productive work from employees is something that is necessary for businesses to remain competitive. The regular 9 to 5 workday is slowly becoming outdated, and employees have more pull to have a non-fixed workday, even through the use of technology working remotely.
A new study found that an additional ten
trees on a given block corresponded to a one-per-cent increase in how
healthy nearby residents felt (Hutchinson, A., 2015)
At this school in Tokyo, five-year-olds cause traffic jams and windows
are for Santa to climb into. Meet: the world's cutest kindergarten,
designed by architect Takaharu Tezuka. In this charming talk, he walks
us through a design process that really lets kids be kids.
My daughter's daycare is one of the only centre's in Alberta with a fully functioning mud-pie kitchen. Moving back to nature even at the early childhood education level is something that will change the scope of learning today. I often find myself learning so much from my own children, as they are so full of live and imagination. It seems so tragic that they often lose the clarity and expression of childhood once they enter a very outdated and obsolete formalized learning environment. We force a learning environment on children that is unnatural and we continue this in the work environment as well. References: Hutchinson, A., 2015. How Trees Calm Us Down, New Yorker, Retrieved from: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-is-a-tree-worth?mbid=social_facebook Tesuka, T., 2014. The Best Kindergarten You've Ever Seen Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/takaharu_tezuka_the_best_kindergarten_you_ve_ever_seen
Learning how to ask research questions seems to be something that would be perceived as an easy task, but is often a crucial step that causes a great deal of trouble for students. Individuals coming from a more traditional rigid learning environment to that of post-secondary where a more collaborative learning approach, takes a major shift in thinking.
How does one shift thinking in order to ask the right questions, and take ownership for their own learning?
I believe this takes time and practice, "as students become comfortable sharing ideas, they move on to more reflective reading and writing assignments, which they discuss" (Musante, S., 2010). Instead of inquiring and testing students on specific subject matter a more progressive and collaborative approach is to have them "take the
knowledge they have and develop questions about what else they might
want to know, and how they might achieve that knowledge" (Musante, S., 2010). Quick, J., & Hall, S. (2015) give some basic objectives for research questions:
Appreciate the importance of a clear and focused research question
To be able to use criteria such as PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) to frame an answerable question
Understand the need for primary and secondary questions and the process of refinement
To understand what a hypothesis is and how it differs from the aims and objectives of a study
Be aware of over-interpreting the findings, post-hoc assumptions and spurious association
Understand the answer and appreciate negative results
References: Musante, S. (2010). Learning how to ask research questions. BioScience, 60(4), 266. doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.4.4. Quick, J., & Hall, S. (2015). Part one: An introduction to the research process. Journal of perioperative practice, 25(4), 78-82.
