Courses designed to teach problem-solving and creativity, which are relatively new additions to college curricula, are discussed, along with their intellectual foundations and research on these two processes. The teaching of these processes involves the following course goals: teaching a specific subject, generally useful skills, and professional…

The teaching activities presented in this document focus on motivating students in the classroom. The paper describes (1) using stick figures to teach the use of adjectives, (2) using pen names in a covert letter writing project to teach writing skills, (3) increasing creativity in composition topics by brainstorming about ways to use bricks, and…

Author's summary of his book, "Schools Without Failure, released January 1969, Harper & Row.

Isolated examples of creative adaptation show that Jean Piaget's theories of childhood development provide the conscientious teacher with a veritable warehouse of innovative and thought-provoking principles with which to construct a meaningful foundation of language arts experimentation. The elementary Piagetian principles for evoking creativity…

A profile of the attitudes and environment of the child from an impoverished family is drawn, illustrating the factors that inhibit such a child in developing creative problem-solving skills. The attitudes and atmosphere of the poverty home and culture are outlined. It is pointed out that limited vocabulary and low motivation are typical of such…

This project developed as an effort to investigate how the school could become more actively involved in educational innovation. This final report highlights work conducted over the period 1972-75 in the nineteen Organization for Economic Cooperation and Innovation member countries that took part in the project. The first two chapters summarize…

This teaching guide suggesting specific art experiences for preschool and elementary children, is based on the assumption that visual perception is fundamental to learning in any field and that visual thinking (perception) in young children can be facilitated through teaching specific art concepts. More than 200 basic concepts identified,…

The new trend in writing instruction is toward "content area writing"--the rhetorical situations and composing problems that students will face in their non-English courses and in their professions. The focus of content writing instruction should be to prescribe the inventional techniques that are common to all forms of writing, and to…

Sound play is important to child language development in that it contributes to the phonetic substrate, it is a factor in phonological development, and it is something to be learned as part of the socially acceptable use of language. Sound play progresses in three stages: (1) babbling, in which a gradual acquisition of phonetic units is built up…

The effects of educational stimulation on creative thinking ability and the relationships among verbal and figural creativity, intelligence, and school readiness were investigated in a sample of 123 first grade children. The educational stimulation consisted of special advanced instruction in physical education, music, art, social studies, and…

A STUDY WHICH USED A VARIETY OF BEHAVIORAL TASKS TO STUDY POTENTIAL CREATIVITY IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IS PRESENTED. THE BEHAVIORAL TASKS, ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR MEASUREMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN, ARE DESCRIBED ON THE DIMENSIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FREEDOM, WILLINGNESS TO TRY DIFFICULT TAKS, FREEDOM IN USE OF CONFORMING AND NONCONFORMING BEHAVIOR,…

This paper argues that writing teachers' emphases on orderly and polished products from their students have inhibited the ability to invent ideas and think clearly. The teaching techniques of the poet William Stafford are described as a model for teaching students to be more thoughtful. It is concluded that teachers of writing should first…

Instructional materials designed to increase creative thinking abilities and language achievement were used in nine training conditions with children in grades 4, 5, and 6. Results indicated that treatment conditions were most effective at the 4th grade level, where at least one treatment was effective for all variables. At the 5th grade, two…

This study evaluated interrelationships among the scores of 51 high school seniors on the Remote Associates Test (RAT), verbal subtests of the Torrance Tests, the Alpha Biographical Inventory (ABI), and IQ. For all subjects, RAT scores, IQ, and the ABI Academic Success score comprised an interrelated "intelligence cluster." With males, none of the…