This study investigated the development of divergent thinking (DT) in early childhood. We followed 107 4-year-olds for 1.5 years. Children's DT was assessed with the Alternative Uses Task (AUT) every 6 months, four times in total. Within the AUT, children were asked to generate unusual uses of common objects while explaining how they came up with…

Article suggests methods of teaching so that the student not only learns how to think, but learns how to think about life itself, especially himself. (Author/MM)

Teachers should provide more real experiences for children rather than vicarious ones, in order to allow children's cognitive structuring processes to develop.

A group of children were presented with several tasks, including the invention of a sleep machine and a machine to weigh elephants. The tasks were chosen to involve the children in coping with problems of a distinct character. A study of the children's drawings and interpretations shows that children's thinking ability is not very different from…

Discusses the use and stimulation of lateral, or divergent, thinking to promote creativity. (SL)

Reviews cognitive processes, control mechanisms, and structures in creative thinking, and examines the way these aspects of cognition develop from childhood to adulthood. The cognitive definition of creativity, cognitive approaches to novelty production, creativity and cognitive development, and mechanisms guiding cognitive processes are explored.…

Fifty-four gifted adolescents performed a creative generation task in which they imagined and drew fruit that might exist on another planet. They developed fruit that was rated as more original than developed by college students, and did so regardless of whether they were explicitly instructed to be more creative. (CR)

Descries professional overspecialization and education's overemphasis on the acquisition of formalized information. Discusses the capabilities of the hemispheres of the brain and the problems caused by focusing on only the left hemisphere. Illustrates intuition and abstract patterns. Suggests that recognition of laterality will advance education…

Second article of a two-part series focuses on how results of research into learning, creativity, and thinking abilities can be applied to help the individual become more creative. (SL)

Discusses creativity, play, and nonconformity in children, including the illusion of thought disorder or abnormality, and aspects of everyday creativity, health, and survival. Describes creative divergence, chaotic amplification, the evolution of information, and primitive cognitive processes. Concludes with a discussion of cognitive styles,…

Creative thinking and problem solving processes were studied in 233 gifted elementary students. (Author/DLS)

THE EFFECTS OF TWO TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING CHILDREN'S LITERATURE TO SAMPLES OF FIRST-GRADE CHILDREN WERE INVESTIGATED. THE EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENT WAS BASED ON LAWRENCE KUBIE'S MODEL OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS. THE CONTROL GROUP RECEIVED THE CONVENTIONAL PRESENTATION OF CHILDREN'S LITERATURE WITHOUT KUBIE'S EMPHASIS ON METAPHORICAL AND PRECONSCIOUS…

Reanalysis of the data from a 1984 study on making and breaking problem-solving mental sets with 50 children found that gifted subjects who failed to initially form the set made the most errors of any group and were least likely to recognize their own errors. Results suggest that motivational reasons may underly this inferior performance by some…

The relationship between knowledge and effective and autonomous thoughts and actions is explored with special regard to implications for educational curriculums and teaching. An educational program that concentrates on rationality without reference to creative autonomy, it is stressed, will impoverish the thinking process. (DS)