In spite of the growing popularity of virtual worlds for gaming, recreation, and education, few studies have explored the efficacy of 3D immersive virtual worlds in post-secondary instruction; even fewer discuss the ability of virtual worlds to help young adults develop creative thinking. This study investigated the effect of virtual world…

How do we measure students inquiry, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities so that we know they are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century? John Barell explains how inquiry leads to problem-solving and provides specific steps for formative assessment that informs instruction of 21st century skills. Included are examples that…

The purpose of this study was to describe how an accomplished teacher taught second-grade students to design games that integrated movement and mathematics content. The participants were one physical education teacher, a classroom teacher, and an intact class of 20 second-grade students. Qualitative data were gathered through videotaping of all…

Dramatic Science is an approach to teaching science that purposely places the children in thought-provoking situations where they need to apply their scientific understanding to decide how to act. Teachers can then apply drama techniques to help children develop and communicate their ideas. In this article, the authors share how modelling through…

Widely thought to be something worth encouraging in young learners, creativity has popularly been associated more with music and art than with other areas of the curriculum. There have been many studies of creativity but few that focus explicitly on what counts as creative thinking in specific subject areas. The aim of the research reported here…

This paper will represent the pedagogy of Innovation Education in Iceland that is a new school policy within the Icelandic school system. In Innovation Education (IE) students are trained to identify needs and problems in their environment and to find solutions: this is referred to as the process of ideation. The main aim is to improve their…

The relationship between motivation and creativity has long been of interest and many studies have been conducted to demonstrate the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on creativity. The autonomous/controlled distinction of motivation suggested by self-determination theory (SDT) provides a new perspective on the motivation issue. Based on…

Problem Statement: Creativity has been addressed by many scientists and thinkers. Among them, Guilfort regards creativity as the ability to generate new ideas, and relates it to intelligence. According to Thurstone, creativity must develop and be implemented within a theoretical framework, and a solution must result. Torrance thinks of creativity…

In this article, findings are presented from a recently completed study conducted with teacher candidates from an educational foundations course in which films were used as part of the text to encourage critical discussion. The work explores teacher candidates' experiences with using films as means to develop critical and creative thinking about…

This strategy is to provide health education teacher candidates with critical and creative thinking tools to explore gardening as a vehicle to integrate health education content with other subjects. According to the Competency-Based Framework for the Health Education Specialist (2010a), entry-level health educators should have skills and…

The Bachelor of Enterprise Learning is a newly accredited undergraduate degree where connectivist principles have been used to guide design of active, student-centered learning activities. A key feature of the curriculum is that it incorporates technology as both a source of information and a tool. Examples from this course are provided in this…

Development of skills in bioscience undergraduates is seen as desirable by academic staff, students and employers, and this is reflected across most degree programmes. However, providing the opportunity for students to practise skills may alone be insufficient for their development. With an evident discrepancy between the skills expected of…

The immersive method is a new concept of visual education that is better suited to the needs of students in contemporary post-industrial society. The features of the immersive method are: (1) it emerges from interaction with visual culture; (2) it encourages understanding of contemporary art (as an integral part of visual culture); and (3) it…

This case study aims to verify the benefits of theme-based project learning for convergent science experiments. The study explores the possibilities of enhancing creative, integrated and collaborative teaching and learning abilities in science-gifted education. A convergent project-based science experiment program of physics, chemistry and biology…

The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Young Scholars model offers new language and ideas for thinking about giftedness that embrace expanded beliefs about the nature of intelligence and highlight the importance of nurturing intelligent behavior in children from diverse cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds as early as possible. These…