As educators and business people consider what children need to be successful in this rapidly changing society, creative and critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and persistence are recognized as the most important skills for success in education and the workforce. Among these, creative thinking is referred to most…

Education at its best allows students to experience the fruitfulness and joy of the creative process. One complexity of applying research findings to education is that creative work unfolds in phases and the various phases engage distinctively different cognitive processes. Since Wallas first described four phases, psychologists have elaborated on…

In spite of views that children's writing development is in large part a linguistic complex process involved in their engagement within and across social activities in and out of school, the literature is scant on the wide range of semiotic resources that children may draw on to animate their poetry writing and performances. Drawing from a case…

The designers of our future built environment must possess intellectual tools which will allow them to be disciplined, flexible and analytical thinkers, able to address and resolve new and complex problems. In response, an experimental and collaborative design studio was designed to inspire and build on students' knowledge and their creative…

Classroom teachers can provide more creative opportunities in the classroom by providing an atmosphere of psychological safety and by presenting material that encourages divergent thinking. Examples of the bull's eye strategy, brainstorming, and checklisting activities to stimulate imaginative ideas are offered. (CL)

One of the major problems in advertising courses is that students are expected to generate original, exciting advertising ideas, but often are not taught how to go about the process. Idea generation techniques can help students generate quantities of creative ideas more quickly and fluently. By looking at ads and recreating the workings of the…

Twenty activities which develop gifted children's creativity; power of reasoning; and ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate are listed. (DB)

Describes a technique that demystifies the creative process and teaches advertising students to understand that creativity is nothing more than taking something ordinary (a product) and looking at it from an extraordinary point of view (an ad). (SR)

"Creating a superhero", a minicourse for gifted elementary children, is described. (CL)

Reading activities for gifted students are discussed. (CL)

The third of three reports on Project SEARCH (Search for Exceptional Abilities Reachable among Children with Handicaps) contains 28 lesson plans designed to develop the creative/productive thinking processes in handicapped children. It is explained that the activities are the products of cooperation between professional artists and special…

Impromptu storytelling techniques are creative and interesting ways to introduce children to the adventure and allure of storytelling, which in turn aids their cognitive and social development. Presents several activities designed to elicit impromptu storytelling, including sentence stories, name tales, "every day is special" stories,…

The article describes two one-hour sessions in image making, which serves as the foundation of the creative language arts program used by the author in teaching poetry and writing to children (grades K through 5). (SBH)

The intent of this article is to describe the basic processes used by the child in order to create and imagine; to explain the significance of objects for encouraging creativity, imagination, and intellectual growth; and to show how creative thinking is nurtured using the world of objects. Five reasons are advanced to support the claim that the…