The authors recently studied how well schools were teaching a a range of complex, higher-order skills. Their findings were grim. Out of 25 skills that researchers have found to be critical to success in life and work, just three were the focus of most instruction: recall, application, and (occasionally) analysis. Even when teachers explicitly made…

Leading education thinker Sir Ken Robinson says transformation is essential to bring creative thinking into schools and recommends three major changes: Dispense with subject hierarchy, focus on curricular disciplines instead of subjects, and elevate personalization. Change will come when students take ownership of their learning to fit their needs…

Implementation of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) into the Camelot Intermediate School curriculum in Brookings, South Dakota, has fostered the development of creative and critical thinking skills in 4th- and 5th-grade students. Making meaning together by observing carefully, deciphering patterns, speculating, clarifying, supporting opinions, and…

The maker movement consists of a growing culture of hands-on making, creating, designing, and innovating. A hallmark of the maker movement is its do-it-yourself (or do-it-with-others) mindset that brings individuals together around a range of activities, both high- and low-tech, all involving some form of creation or repair. The movement's…

Examines correlation between national test scores in mathematics from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Current Competitiveness Index (CCI). Finds, for example, that while the United States ranks 29th in TIMSS mathematics, it ranks second in competitiveness on the CCI. Korea ranks 3rd in mathematics, but 27th in…

The ability to take a playful outlook is important to creative thought, but too often schools recognize the legitimacy of structured games only, squelching creative play. Schools should cultivate natural playfulness so that children can adapt to our fast-changing world and learn to create new rules. (Author/WD)

A professor's one-time observation of gifted and low-achieving students at one school leads to a startling conclusion. The gifted students were excessively anxious and unable to think creatively in the face of new problems; the low-achievers demonstrated high levels of creative problem-solving. (Author/WD)

Advises teachers desiring to be more creative to ask "what else?" and "what if?" to trigger their students' imaginations. Two other useful techniques are "showing it" to introduce new concepts and "faking it" to invite participation and encourage involvement. Having fun won't hurt! (MLH)

Synectics is a creative problem-solving process carrying participants from problem analysis to the generation and development of new ideas. The system recognizes three types of thinkers: apposite, divergent, and generative. Effective thinking is often limited by maintaining inflexible criteria concerning thinking, insisting on literal meaning,…

The last few years have revealed a growing concern about U.S. global competitiveness, and American schools have been called to account for failing to produce enough engineers and math and science workers to compete in the new global economy. The author argues that the education solutions offered to tackle this problem are too simplistic. Instead…

Call for reforming mathematics teaching has been sounded loudly and strongly. Change from teaching standard algorithms to having children invent their own methods requires major pedagogical shift. Teachers must trust students' inventiveness and ability to make sense of numerical situations, be committed to thinking and reasoning as cornerstone of…

Training, not education, is a common outcome of Japanese education--even at the university level. Individual initiative and independent thought are savagely repressed, and students are harshly punished or bullied for nonconformist behavior. Children of executives transferred to foreign countries face great discrimination when reentering Japanese…

Reflects on educators' current preoccupation with assessment of higher order thinking skills. Easy-to-mark, forced-choice, pencil-and-paper tests with single numerical scores may trivialize the wonderful complexity of human capabilities. Includes 17 references. (MLH)

In postindustrial society, flexibility and creativity become more valuable in the work place. "Artists" of every stripe are people who share qualities such as imagination, capacity to work hard, and personal vision. Arts are a necessity in curriculum, not a frill. Cutting arts denies students a learning avenue that promotes the kind of…

A Public Broadcasting Service television series uses national and international current events to stimulate critical analysis in high school students. Among facets of critical analysis and supporting teaching strategies examined are determination of perspective, evaluation of logic, analysis of supplementary materials, projections into the future,…