Designing the Creative Photography Art Program for Vocational School Students National Taichung University in Taiwan Dr. Chia-Sen Jimmy Huang

Research Motivations Taiwan’s government(2000) issued the Developmental Program for Knowledge Economy. Among the many vocational school divisions, there are great demands on the application of creative knowledge.

Research Motivations The White Paper of Creativity Education(2001) proposed six preparatory programs in Taiwan. –the cultivation train of creative students – the growth project of creative teachers – the overall construction of creative schools – the whole national proposal of creative life – the on-line study on creative database – the continuous cultivation of creative attainments

Research Motivations Research and debate on technical creativity differences have focused on external or mechanism of extrinsic operation and there is little relevant research on what considering the internal function of mindset operations might be involved.

Purposes of the Study 1. to examine the characteristics of the cognitive processes revolving around technical know-how of those with highly creative photographers; 2. to establish an available model and teaching strategies of technical creativity from the interview results of highly creative photographers; 3. to examine the efficacy of teaching technical creativity model in photography art program.

Research Subjects I 6 highly creative photographers –Chen,S.C.(multi-media with environmental space) –Tsai, L.W.(gold medal winners in many contests) –Yu, B. (professor in the Advertising Department) –Chen, S. A.(famous Taiwanese early photographer) –She, M.S.(famous commercial and advertising photographer) –Liu, S.J.(architecture and folk activity photography)

Research Subjects II Vocational school students –71 Students who study the class of image technology in 2003 school year. They are from senior students in the division of Ad. Design, National Changhua Senior School of Commercial.

Research Design I 1. conduct a semi-constructive structure with 8 questions. 2. conduct in-depth interviews, which were held 2-3 times separately with the subjects. Each time has about 2-3 hours. 3. The mindset operation can be divided into 3 dimensions:(1)problem-solving;(2)creativity; and (3)information processing.

Research Design I 4. Interview records included full field record and tape-recording coding. 5. The use of triangulation for checking and commenting so that further interviews could be held to clear out ambiguities and misunderstanding from the researchers.

Research Design I Eight questions were as such: (P.6) –1. Please specify the essence of your creation and on what aspect has it applied fine art photography technology. –2. What are the sources that prompted your creativity concerning this creation or experience? –3. How do you proceed the study of this creation? –4. What are the obstacles or bottleneck while you were at the experimenting stage of creation? How did you solve them? –5. What are the most gratifying places to you regarding this creation? –6. What are the places you think need to put more works on? –7. What are the things you think influenced your creation concerning the academic training you received? –8. What do you think are the basic elements that should be quipped to be an original creator?

Research Design II GroupPre-test Experimental management Post-test Experimental group Y1X1Y3 Controlled group Y2 X2 Y4

Experimental Teaching Management The lesson plan of the creativity of photography arts and techniques focuses mainly on “integrative creation. The themes and contents of image technique creation, including design, photo-shooting, processing, picture arrangement and printing.

Experimental Teaching Management The curriculum aims to inspire the students, in the process of creativity development, to search for resources and to solve problems on their own. Students also have to use their analysis and integration abilities to create their works.

Experimental Teaching Management Through the reflection upon and implementation of creativity development plans, the students can follow the direction to creativity development which includes design cognition, problem-solving, cooperative learning, quality and time management.

The Findings-the 1 st year Establishing teaching model (7steps) ： (1) Motivation of Creative Thinking (7contents); (2) Selection of Themes or Materials (7contents); (3) Induction of Creation Ideas and Photo-Shooting Principles (7contents); (4) Skills Using and On-Site Photo-Shooting (5contents); (5) Discovery of Facts and Difficulties (6contents); (6) Pursuit of Problem-Solving Methods (6contents); (7) Self-Evaluation and Criticism from Others (3contents).

The Findings-the 1 st year Establishing 6 teaching strategies ： 1. Teachers introduce the curriculum and its teaching procedures through lectures and work display. 2. Students write plan sheets to clarify their themes and learning directions and review the issues of resource allocation and problem- solving. 3. Students operate the tasks themselves and discuss with their teachers the development and progress of their design based on their experiences. 4. Students keep the records of their creativity development and learn to manage their task plans. 5. Students discover problems and solve them through problem-solving practices. 6. Students appreciate others’ works and build their performance and communication abilities.

The Findings- the 2nd year Analysis of Students’Learning Response Survey out of 71 students considered that the project of creativity development of image techniques can help students accomplish their tasks step by step. 2. There is no obvious difference between the two groups in the 18 surveyed questions. This means that the seven steps of learning patterns have been favored by most students and are helpful to their creative thinking.

The Findings- the 2nd year Difference Analysis between 2 Groups Prior to Creativity Teaching of Photography Arts and Techniques: The creativity of the experiment group and the control has obvious difference prior to the teaching, while there is no difference in their color selection, sketching, skill, elaboration, problem- solving and feasibility abilities.

The Findings- the 2nd year Difference Analysis between Two Groups Before and After Creativity Teaching of Photography Arts and Techniques: there is a great difference in elaboration between the two groups. However, there is no obvious difference in their creativity, color selection, sketching, skill, problem-solving and feasibility abilities.

The Findings- the 2nd year Difference Analysis of Experiment Group Before and After Creativity Teaching of Photography Arts and Techniques: There are great differences in their creativity and problem-solving abilities after the teaching. However, there is no difference in their color selection, sketching, skill, elaboration and feasibility abilities.

The Findings- the 2nd year Difference Analysis of Control Group Before and After Creativity Teaching of Photography Arts and Techniques: There are great differences in their creativity, color selection, elaboration and problem-solving abilities after the teaching. However, there is no difference in their sketching, skill, and feasibility abilities.

Suggestions The two-year-long study, which has undergone interview, the transformation of teaching contents and the effects of experimental teaching, has explored the creation processes of highly creative photographers and has induced the possible directions of improving photography creation teaching. It also has tried to organize the creativity teaching patterns, contents and strategies of photography arts and techniques suitable for vocational school students.

Suggestions Also, It is worth noticing that the teaching patterns, contents and strategies of the creativity development project of image techniques are favored and considered helpful by most students. Therefore, it is suggested that future researchers can apply the seven steps of teaching patterns and teaching contents and the six teaching strategies to creative teaching subjects in related design departments of vocational schools.

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