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Resources for Students' Self-learning
學 生 自 學 資 源

Learning workflow 

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Learn Design knowledge

  • Curriculums Study

Textile design:

Scouring

The scouring process is to remove the sericin (silk glue) coating from the silk fiber.  The pattern is the result of tying, folding, stitching and clamping through shielding treatments. The fibres without sericin will present lighter colour after dyeing with acid dye. The scouring result may vary according to the fabric weave, weight...etc.

Textile design:

Chemical Melt-off

Aluminium film on surface of fabric can be dissolved employing an alkali solution.  New effects can be developed in the metallic fabric based on etching, dyeing and design methods.

Textile design:

Chemical Burn-out

Burn-out is a chemical etching process on a type of fabrics composed of protein/cellulose (such as silk/cotton and wool/cotton) or synthetic/cellulose such as polyester/cotton and nylon/cotton blended fabrics. A specific acid chemical paste is printed to the blended fabric and heated to activate the chemical reaction to carbonize the cellulose fiber to modify surface structure of the fabric.

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Textile design:

Digital Transfer Printing

The computer-generated design can be printed on a transfer paper employing disperse-dyes inks by an ink-jet printer. A color image will efficiently receive from transfer printing method with temperature and pressure by heat transfer machine on polyester fabric.

Textile design:

Laser Engraving

 

Laser engraving is the practice of using lasers to engrave an object.  The technique does not involve the use of inks, nor does it involve tool bits which contact the engraving surface and wear out, giving it an advantage over alternative engraving or marking technologies where inks or bit heads have to be replaced regularly.

Textile design:

Silk Screen Printing

 

Silk screen printing is a process where ink is forced through a mesh screen onto a surface.  Here, the design areas are unblocked leaving the blocked areas without any pattern. Print paste are pushed through the unblocked areas unto the fabric using a squeegee.

Textile design:

Puff Screen Printing

 

It is a form of printing process where the ink or print paste expands when it reacts to heat. The print paste contains a foaming agent that expand after contact with a high hot temperature. This gives a desired and special raised or 3D effects. Most cotton garments are suitable for puff screen printing.

Textile design:

Printing with Foil Film

 

Foil printing is the process of transferring foil from a paper roll onto a fabric using heat and adhesives.

Textile design:

Printing with Metallic Powder

 

It is the process of mixing metallic powders to a base paste and screen printing onto the surface of a fabric. The metallic powder should be very small to penetrate the mesh of the screen. It is a great way of adding shine and luster to a product.

Design Applications

Project ppt for home textile design and fashion design examples.

  • For Further Study

Trend forecasting and basic fashion design methods are important for practical design. 

BOOK   John. Hopkins ; ebrary, Inc. Fashion design the complete guide. Lausanne : Ava Publishing SA ; c2012

WEBSITE   WGSN

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Equip with Motivational Beliefs

  • Overview

Motivation is a central part of a student’s educational experience, but it is has received scant attention amid an education reform agenda focused mainly on accountability, standards and tests, teacher quality, and school management. Education reform could benefit from a robust conversation about the overlooked element of student motivation.

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

  1. Know what is motivation and why does it matter

  2. Know what influences your motivation and the reason why it so hard to get motivated in your studies

  3. Know some strategies for getting motivated in your studies

  • What is Motivation and Why does It Matter?

Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, and Norman (2010) define motivation as “the personal investment an individual has in reaching a desired state or outcome” (p. 68). As such, “students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn” (Ambrose et al., 2010, p. 5). Linda Nilson (2004) writes, “In the academy, the term ‘motivating’ means stimulating interest in a subject and, therefore, the desire to learn it” (p. 57). Figure 1. shows how motivation, success, and positive emotion contribute to a positive feedback loop that drives long-term achievement and goal fulfillment.

 

 



 

 

Figure 1. Motivation Cycle 

 

 

 

The positive relationship between motivation and academic achievement is well documented in previous studies (e.g., Pintrich, 2004; Rotgans & Schmidt, 2012). For example, students who exhibit high self-efficacy and task value show better academic achievement compared to their counterparts with low efficacy and value beliefs (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990). Still, motivational beliefs have to be complemented by adaptive learning strategies for a learner to perform better (Rotgans & Schmidt, 2012).

  • What Influences the Motivation?

Ambrose and colleagues (2010) define three important levers (Figure 2) that influence student motivation.  


 

Figure 2. Three Levers Influencing Student Motivation

  • Why It Hard to Get Motivation?

If an individual is unsure whether performing a task will lead to a positive outcome, that person tends to be unmotivated. There are some reasons (Figure 3, Figure 4) that influence students feel hard to get motivation:

 

 

 

Figure 3. Student-Related Obstacles to Motivation

Figure 4. Faculty-Related Obstacles to Student Motivation

Eric Hobson (2001) studied sources of positive and negative motivation among a population of students at a college of pharmacy. He found that if faculty held the attitude that everybody in the course could learn and excel, then students were highly motivated. 

  • Strategies for Boosting Motivation

   There are Five Strategies Students Can Use to Increase Motivation:

  1. Set achievable goals and use the learning strategies.

  2. Cultivate a mindset that your intelligence can grow.

  3. Engage in positive, healthy self-talk.

  4. Attribute positive and negative results to your behavior, not external circumstances. 

  5. Get adequate rest, nutrition, and exercise.

However it happens, you must be convinced that the most powerful influence on your grades is your behavior, not your innate intelligence or talent. When you believe success is possible, motivation increases. Self-talk constantly occupies our minds. If the majority of those thoughts are negative and self-destructive, they can negatively impact our learning efforts (Hirsch, 2001). Conversely, if our self-talk is compassionate and encouraging, it can make learning easier. 

For example, Suzanne studied very hard for the second exam in her Twentieth-Century Continental Philosophy course, but when the exam is returned to her, it is covered in red with “D” at the top. Suzanne might think, “No matter how hard I study, I’ll never be good at this stuff. I must be so stupid.” This response is extremely common. But a healthier, more robust response to failure is possible. Suzanne could say to herself, “Wow! Well, I guess the methods and strategies I used for that test didn’t work. My next assignment will be a great opportunity to try some new things that might work better.” Cultivating a growth mindset and developing healthy self-talk go hand in hand. Attribute both your successes and failures to your behavior, which you can control, then you will know what to do to maintain or increase your success and reverse your failures. Ask yourself why you did not do as well on an exam, a paper, or a project as you wanted to or thought you would. Encourage your-self to locate the answers in your own behavior and attitudes, rather than external circumstances. Consider the possibility that you hold the power to change your results by changing your behavior.

  • Reference Resources & Links

Resources were specifically mentioned in the unit

For further study

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If students aren’t motivated, it is difficult, if not impossible, to improve their academic achievement, no matter how good the teacher, curriculum or school is. 

Test Yourself:

Do I find it hard to get started with my studies?

Do I find studying a boring and monotonous task?

Can I put all my energy in my studies?

Do I know what I want to accomplish in my studies?

Do I give up easily when the task becomes more difficult?

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Cultivate Metacognition

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  • Overview

​​“Metacognition” is a concept that has been mentioned a lot for the academic field, which shows its importance on affecting our study process and result. Actually, this concept can be applied into different field of learning, which includes study of fashion design. 

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

  1. Know what is metacognition 

  2. Know the linkage between metacognition and cognition

  3. Know the relationship between metacognition and design

  4. Know some metacognitive strategies

  • Metacognitive Concept&Theory

Before applying on the study process, the definition and knowledge of metacognition should be grasped first through the literature review in order to assist further practical steps. The expression of “metacognition” is developed more by the American psychologist, John Flavell. According to Flavell (1979), “metacognition” refers to “thinking about thinking”. To explain further of this concept, metacognition is usually broadly defined as knowledge that related to cognitive process and result, or any cognitive activities of cognitive process adjustment; because of its core of “thinking of thinking”, it is called “metacognition”. (Flavell, 1985) In the initial concepts that raised by Flavell, metacognition is divided into two aspects, which are “metacognition knowledge” and “metacognition experience/regulation”. 

According to Alias and Sulaiman (2017), the concepts and elements of “metacognition” are organized into a chart in Figure 1 which can show the structure of metacognition clearly.

 

Figure 1. “Metacognition” elements structure (Alias & Sulaiman, 2017)

  • Metacognition vs. Cognition

Although the concepts of metacognition and cognition seems two individual terms, their relationship is inseparable. Alias and Sulaiman (2017) mention that metacognition is a sort of cognition and therefore metacognition is always with cognition. This shows the close linkage between these two concepts. According to Livingston (2003), she mentioned that Flavell admits that there may not have difference between metacognitive knowledge and cognitive knowledge, and it all depends on the way of the information used. In order to analyze their relationship, the comparison on the definition of these two terms can be done. Cognition refers to the utilization of conscious mental procedures, which includes memory, coding, information processing, creative thinking, critical thinking and decision making, etc. (Cambridge Dictionary; Pang & Lee, 2008) The relationship of cognition and metacognition may be progressive, as cognition is the basic conscious while the metacognition is the higher level conscious happening after the cognition, as well as the monitoring of it. Referring to Alias and Sulaiman (2017), they indicate “metacognition uses HOTS (high order thinking skills) to monitor both LOTS (low order thinking skills) and HOTS cognitive processes and the monitoring can only be efficient and effective with adequate understanding of metacognition. (p. 24)” This proves the progressive relationship between the two terms that metacognition is a higher-level ability to organize and monitor cognition of a person.

  • Metacognition on Design

Design is a process of creation and problem solving, which involves lots of cognitive activities in it. Fashion designer needs to understand the differences and the achievable of various fabrics, the garments construction techniques, as well as thinking who, what type and what season they are designing for. (Sorger & Udale, 2012) All these above activities involve the existence of cognition, such as decision making and critical thinking, etc. While there is the existence of cognitive activities, metacognition can be applied to attain a more effective result. In addition, during the fashion design learning process of the university students, metacognition can be used as a strategy to improve the study achievements.

There are some studies that mention the relationship between metacognition and design study which may explain the role of this concept in design field more. Beside the design nature of problem solving, the design process needs creativity of designers also. According to Sternberg and Williams (1996), they discovered that metacognitive strategies results in actual improve in intellectual performance as students must learn the monitoring and regulation skills of their creative process if they learn and improve during the study process of creation. This shows the metacognition has concrete assistance for students to nurture the creative thinking ability. Besides, metacognition can assist design students to overcome the problem that they feel frustrated and confused during learning because of the open-ended nature of design, as well as maintain their learning potential. (Kavousi, Miller & Alexander, 2019) All the above evidences prove the effectiveness and importance of metacognition in design study and even teaching area.

  • Metacognitive Strategies

Metacognition Strategies is the important element in metacognition concept, which has linkage with the metacognition knowledge and experience on improving one’s metacognition ability. Referring to Trigueros, Aguilar-Parra, Lopez-Liria, Cangas, González and Álvarez (2020), “metacognition strategies are those that allow students to observe their own learning process using various resources that serve to plan, monitor, and evaluate their own progress. ” Therefore, different specific strategies will be discussed at the following according to these three perspectives.

There is a simple version of regular checklist on all the three steps of planning, monitoring and evaluating. Referring to Figure 2, students can ask themselves on these basic questions to have an initial impression on metacognition.

Figure 2. Question for different Metacognition stages (Schraw,1999; Hargrove, 2007)

 

 

1. Planning Strategy 

In a simpler word, planning strategy can refer to the procedure of students on setting their goals. (Lee, 2009) With a systematic plan and clear goal before study, the study process will be achieved according to the targets more, which will contribute to a more effective learning result. According to Vrugt and Oort (2008), scheduling, planning and managing one’s study time are considered as preconditions of effective learning, which also have effect on the usage of cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

1.1 Planning 

The usage of planning will make people to clarify the purpose of solving a problem, which is also a kind of metacognitive activity. (Alias & Sulaiman, 2017) Therefore, planning before learning or designing may help students’ on grasping more about their objectives or aims on their action, which can contribute to a learning progess with strong sense of goal achieving. According to Brown, Chanpione and Day (1981), there are four points to be considered while designing a learning plan that are available strategies (general and specific) for learning activities, characteristics of the learner, nature of the materials and the aim and purpose of the learning activity. To be more detailed, Hargrove (2007) points out some specific steps on planning in the metacognition regulation:

  1. Stating a goal

  2. Selecting operations to perform

  3. Sequencing operations

  4. Identifying potential obstacles/errors

  5. Identifying ways to recover from obstacles/errors Predicting results desired and/or anticipated (p.63)

In addition, Duggan (2012) mentions the following steps on planning and setting goals:

  1. Design: Agreement on pathway and process for moving forward (Discuss & Amend)

  2. Problem: Agreement of what the problem is and why (Brainstorming)

  3. Vision: Agreement on image of the ideal future state (Brainstorming)

  4. Solution: Agreement on solutions(s) that everyone is willing to support (Brainstorming)

  5. Implementation: Agreement on an action plan for implementing the decision (Practical) (p.136)

These steps may suitable for group works or design team working as the word “agreement” shifts the focus of the steps on pursuing the agreement on creation strategies in a group of people. (Duggan, 2012) This may be the metacognitive strategies on monitoring the activities while in group working.

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3. Elements in reflective design journal "planning" part (Kurt & Kurt, 2017)

 

 

 

1.2 Managing Time & Scheduling

Time management is a method to arranging your time in order to work effectively, and there are various related theories on this concept. Referring to Britton and Glynn (1989), the concept of “mental time management” is performed by metacognitive system which includes the Goal Manager, the Task Planner and the Scheduler part. The detailed flows of the operation of this time management model can be referred to Figure. 4. This management concept is to set goals according to individual’s demand, then set up a to-do-list and act on it.

 

 

Figure 4. Mental time management operation (Britton & Glynn, 1989)

 In addition, Macan (1994) mentions that a person should clarify the needs and wants then ranks them according to their importance based on Lakein description of time management. Thus, he indicates more on the time management system based on the previous studies, which linking the concepts of time management behaviors and perception of time control. In Figure 5, relationship between different elements related to time management is shown.

 

 

Figure 5. Time management elements relationship (Macan, 1994)

Comparing the above two process figures of time management, the steps of planning time can actually be figured out. They both indicate that personal desires and need are important, and the afterward time controlling activities are existed based on this factor. Therefore, the above figures can become a reference of time management steps of students.

2. Monitoring Strategy 

Metacognitive monitoring is a monitoring to cognitive process, which includes self-evaluation, self-correction, change of strategies and planning again, etc. (Pang & Lee, 2008) Besides, monitoring includes the ability to perceive, acknowledge and measure process toward a person’s objectives. (Hargrove, 2012) While adopting this concept to design, it has vital effect on the design achievements. Referring to Hargrove (2012), students can be able to ensure themselves on track to achieve their project aims with the monitoring on usage of creative strategies. During the monitoring process, students can ask question such as “How do I make sure that I do not make mistakes?” (Alias & Sulaiman, 2017) At the following, some strategies on monitoring will be discussed. (Elaine Blakey & Sheila Spence, 1990)

2.1 Talking about thinking

Talking about thinking is important because students need a thinking vocabulary. During planning and problem-solving situations, teachers should think aloud so that students can follow demonstrated thinking processes. Modeling and discussion develop the vocabulary students need for thinking and talking about their own thinking. Labeling thinking processes when students use them is also important for student recognition of thinking skills.

Paired problem-solving is another useful strategy. One student talks through a problem, describing his thinking processes. His partner listens and asks questions to help clarify thinking. Similarly, in reciprocal teaching (Palinscar, Ogle, Jones, Carr, & Ransom, 1986), small groups of students take turns playing teacher, asking questions, and clarifying and summarizing the material being studied.

2.2 Keeping a thinking journal

Another means of developing metacognition is through the use of a journal or learning log. This is a diary in which students reflect upon their thinking, make note of their awareness of ambiguities and inconsistencies, and comment on how they have dealt with difficulties. This journal is a diary of process. In Figure 6, metacognition thinking in design is shown. Referring to Figure 7, There are some suggestions for students to write thinking journal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 6. Metacognition thinking in design (Kavousi, Miller & Alexander; 2019)

Figure 7. Suggestions to Reflective Design Journal (Kurt & Kurt, 2017)

 

3. Evaluating Strategy 

  • Reference Resources

Resources were specifically mentioned in the unit

Qingxin Peng : Fashion communication and visual merchandising designer,   Email: qingxxx.peng@polyu.edu.hk

Advisors

Sheng Qiu : Textile and fashion designer,    Email: shengqiu@polyu.edu.hk

Jing Liu : Textile and fashion designer,      Email: chuanfeng.liu@connect.polyu.hk

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