Notes factors in traditional schooling that discourage constructive thinking (including both critical and creative intellectual processes). Describes a number of stand-alone creative-thinking activities for classrooms, and presents four steps to integrate constructive thinking into the standard school curriculum. (SR)

A study examined the relationship between the creative thinking of 114 13 to 14-year-old females and scientific problem-solving ability. The students did well in the "preliminary trialing" stage and were more proficient in "interpreting" and "performing" process skills. The other three components, "communication,""planning," and "reflecting,"…

A study investigated whether it would be possible to increase creative output of 43 eight-graders by teaching a portion of the Future Problem Solving (FPS) process, the identification of problems, as part of a middle school curriculum. Results indicated that fluency and flexibility could be taught utilizing the FPS process. (Author/CR)

Considers the definition of critical literacy as a subset of information literacy and discusses how schools can become information literate with the rise of communications technologies. Highlights include continuous learning; metacognitive processes; critical and creative thinking; and learning communities. (LRW)

Introduces an example project to describe a knowledge creation process and a practical mechanism for capturing and disseminating knowledge in a small working group. Describes the needs analysis, design process, and development process. (DDR)

As colleges, universities, and schools move to offer more classes in the popular online format, both teachers and students should be aware of what may be absent in class: the routine benefits of humor. For years, student surveys on the characteristics of the most effective teachers routinely have placed humor as one of the top five traits (Hart…

This article presents three studies chronicling the developing and preliminary psychometric evaluation of a multidimensional self-report measure of creativity -- the Scale of Creative Attributes and Behavior (SCAB). The results of these studies provide evidence that the SCAB is internally consistent, exhibits good initial construct validity…

Higher level thought involves both critical and creative thinking skills. Although the psychological literature is rich with research on teaching critical thinking, relatively little published work addresses ways of promoting creative thinking. In this article we describe the use of poetry writing in an abnormal psychology class to encourage…

This study explored the relationship between night-sky watching and self-reported cognitive variables: need for cognition and social problem-solving. University students (N = 140) completed the Noctcaelador Inventory, the Need for Cognition Scale, and the Social Problem Solving Inventory. The results indicated that an interest in the night-sky was…

In this article, we explore distinctions between creative practice and a practice which fosters creativity, drawing on case study data from an English nursery and a first school. We suggest that, in practice, these distinctions are very blurred.

Originality is a necessary part of creativity, but creative things are more than just original. They also solve a problem, or more generally are somehow fitting or appropriate. Yet previous research found an inverse relationship between ratings of originality and ratings of appropriateness. The present investigation employed a different…

Encouraging entrepreneurship has become an accepted wisdom in economic management and government policy. It could only be a matter of time before the world of education was invoked as a means of furthering this end. Business schools have not made the most incisive contribution possible, and there is a significant expectations gap. So as we cascade…

Opinion may be unnecessarily divided as to whether it is possible to teach skills such as critical and creative thinking as subjects in their own right or whether students would more usefully develop such skills within the context of their curriculum subjects. A study was undertaken into the effects of teaching a 25-lesson "thinking skills"…

In this article, the author discusses Robert J. Sternberg's theory of "successful intelligence," which theorizes that intelligence consists of three parts: analytic, creative and practical abilities. Sternberg argues that intelligence can be fostered in the right educational environment by encouraging students to develop and exercise their…

The author of this article takes the reader on an imaginative journey on which he has invented a device he calls, the wondermeter. He then asks readers to imagine that the meter is attached to the minds of every child in the classroom. As it turns out, every child in the classroom has 3 bold ideas or original insights each day. Assuming that there…