The authors are pleased with commentators' willingness to respond to their target article's challenge to identify observable reproducible phenomena that could be widely accepted as strong scientific evidence for innate talent. In this reply, the authors have organized the ideas in the commentaries into three general categories, namely the…

Art educators have acknowledged for a long time the importance of the study of images and visual elements in the lives of children and the field of art education. This is even more evident today as the discipline moves to embrace notions of "visual culture," which emphasize exploring and studying all the things that visibly shape lives. In spite…

History shows that education cannot be its own vehicle. It has to depend on the hinterland formed by its users--students, teachers and parents. Critical evaluation throughout history, however, has shown that it is these very users who are least consulted in the structuring of education. In this article, the authors describe an experiential…

The authors identified factors affecting problem finding depending on degree of structure of problem situation--either ill or moderately structured. Fifth-grade students (N = 115) were randomly assigned to 2 groups: Group 1 (n = 60) accomplished the ill-structured task; Group 2 (n = 55) performed the moderately structured task. Results indicated…

Teachers and students are continuously searching for fun and easy ways to help students organize and enhance their thoughts. This document uses interactive comics to describe the process of mind mapping to aid learners in developing new and creative ideas. The document also includes a brief overview of the functions of the brain's right and left…

This book presents information about 10 areas of design, with the main emphasis on graphic design. One section presents the creative problem solving process and provides practice in using this process to solve design problems. Students are given a glimpse of other areas of design, including fashion, industrial, architectural, decorative,…

A teacher reports that during the process of writing a novel, he saw the creative link connecting language, image, and detail. He generated details from the images and language that preceded them. The initial envisioning often flickered erratically until he had generated enough language to place himself in a detailed scene. He has found that in…

These learning activities are designed for use in the classroom or at home when activities for special moments are needed. They can be introduced with a minimum amount of preparation and materials and a maximum amount of success. They are intended to give children a learning experience that is fun while developing imagination and creative…

Author presented a selection of examples of the role of connective analogies in invention/discovery. (Author/RK)

What are creative people like? There is evidence that four personality traits appear to differentiate more creative from less creative people: devotion to work, independence, drive for originality, and flexibility. Creative people do not have higher intelligence quotients (IQs) or get better school grades than others--in fact, no cognitive…

The purpose of this study was to learn about teachers' thinking processes as they attempted to implement in their classrooms two recently acquired models of teaching. The first, the concept attainment strategy, focused on having students categorize people, places, or events into classes according to certain cues provided by positive or negative…

This report proposes a modification of Jean Piaget's concept of "creative abstraction," the mechanism of creative thought, which develops both intelligence and creative ideas. By reflecting on one's actions and the coordinations of actions, the individual constructs new relationships, links, rules, or correspondences between and among them.…

The material contained in this annotated resource list is intended to provide information upon which decisions about teaching thinking can be made, not to recommend or point to a particular path. The sources are organized around four groups of questions frequently asked by those responsible for making such decisions: (1) What are the components of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the Future Problem Solving Program on gifted students' ability to solve futuristic problems. Two specific research questions were asked. The first question dealt with the effects of the Future Problem Solving Program on subjects' total score on an ill-structured problem. Question two asked…

This review considers the question as to whether there are generic problem-solving skills that cut across fields or whether the skills are so embedded within specific fields that they can be identified only within the contexts of those fields. To answer this question, an attempt was made to define both "problems" and their "solutions." Then the…