Discusses creativity, play, and nonconformity in children, including the illusion of thought disorder or abnormality, and aspects of everyday creativity, health, and survival. Describes creative divergence, chaotic amplification, the evolution of information, and primitive cognitive processes. Concludes with a discussion of cognitive styles,…

A study of 707 eighth-grade students investigated the influence of an instructional unit on the invention process and investigated the degree to which training influenced students' inventiveness. The students who received the instruction developed a significantly greater number of inventions, but the quality of the inventions was not significantly…

Four studies of undergraduates were conducted to assess the relative importance of quality and quantity as goals of brainstorming. Participants (n=65) believed it was more important to produce creative and high-quality ideas than to generate many ideas and believed brainstorming would enhance the quality of others' ideas (n=109). (Author/CR)

Offers a systematic approach to creative learning in music through an analysis of the components of complex learning and creative activity. Outlines goals for fostering creative learning in music education, and delineates person, process, and product objectives. Suggests methods of evaluating creativity. (RW)

Offers nine citations from the ERIC database which point to resources for developing students' critical thinking skills. (MG)

In this second article of a series, the first three stages of the CPS (Creative Problem Solving) process are described and several facilitation techniques that can be used in each stage are discussed. The three stages discussed (Mess-Finding, Data-Finding, and Problem-Finding) each involve a creative thought and a critical thought phase. (JDD)

Suggests current natural sciences model insufficient for rural sociology. Suggests reconceptualizing basic and applied social science to define non-natural phenomena with hierarchical characteristics including elements of agency or choice, social production and reproduction, learning, and creativity. Suggests using heuristic models and…

This article attempts to develop the Deweyan naturalistic existential metaphysics which underlies Maxine Greene's diverse dialectics. Also included are reflections on the implications of the dialectic of freedom and Dewey's metaphysics for education and the arts. (IAH)

The article describes four step-by-step methods to sharpen intuitive capacities for problem-solving and innovation. Visionary and transpersonal knowledge processes are tapped to gain access to relatively deep levels of intuition. The methods are considered useful for overcoming internal blockages or resistance, developing organizational mission…

Eleventh-graders (n=91) completed realistic and unrealistic divergent thinking problems and their loci of evaluation control were assessed. Internal males and external females were most fluent on the unrealistic task, but males asked to give common ideas and females asked to give unique instructions were the most original. (Author/PB)

Two experiments with a total of 37 college students showed that metacognitive training influenced strategic flexibility and metacognition of students. The studies also found it was much easier to enhance performance on closed problems than with open problems calling for creativity. (Author/DB)

This article explores the conditions necessary to facilitate the growth of creativity. These conditions include cultivation of such personality traits as independence, self-confidence, initiative, flexibility, courage to express divergent ideas, and persistence; encouragement of reception to new ideas; and use of classroom exercises to produce new…

A common theme of both internal and environmental school leadership is the expectation that principals justify permanently the specific decisions they make. This justification is a main requirement for creative leadership. Data from four Belgian primary school studies illustrate that teachers are confronted with different justification styles and…

Discusses the reciprocal, interactionist activity of creativity. Suggests an explanation of how specific characteristics of personality, cognitive style, and situation develop creativity. Notes that these factors are interrelated--none is sufficient for creativity by itself--and that creativity can be explained only by a model that encompasses all…

This paper discusses the dialectics of creativity, especially in group behavior; notes how stabilizing influences result in hard-programed behavior; outlines habits of thinking, learning, and behaving that help in developing creative potential; and presents exercises to encourage flexibility in the group creative process and counter inhibiting…