Introduces design, integrated with systems thinking, as a necessary if not sufficient means for meeting the challenge of how to create or recreate organizations and institutions. The limits of problem-solving strategies when applied to complex organizational change, the designer's role, and the creative process of design are discussed. (Contains…

Recounts a sequence of activities that occurred in a senior high school geometry class and helped students to engage in creative reasoning. All student suggestions were discussed by the class, and pursuing alternative solutions was not only encouraged but required. (MKR)

Orange Grove Middle School in Tucson, Arizona, is part of a movement to transform schools into learning organizations. Systems thinking, combined with the related disciplines of building a shared vision, working with mental models, team learning, and personal mastery, is the essential component. The key to effective leadership is harnessing the…

For 30 years, the "theory movement" in educational administration pursued a logical positivistic paradigm and a goal of developing a "science" of administration. Since Kuhn (1962), that model has been challenged but not widely recognized until Weick's 1977 study on loosely coupled systems. This article suggests possible…

Presents literature-based elementary mathematics activities for the primary and intermediate grades. The activites are adapted from "Math and Literature, K-3," by the author of this article. (SM)

This article reviews recent research on assessment techniques for divergent thinking and examines their predictive validity. Techniques include those using either lenient or stringent solution standards, those assessing total idea output, and those involving qualitative aspects of ideation. Special considerations for the creativity of gifted…

A model of critical thinking is developed, encompassing problem solving and creative thinking. The central role of critical thinking in adult education is explored, concluding that development of the concept and how to teach it need attention. (SK)

Researchers received 256 ideas from 141 Long Island, New York, school districts that had resulted in cost savings. From these, 75 were classified into 10 areas and printed in booklet form. Cites examples in financial management, transportation, risk management, personnel practices, facilities management, purchasing, support services, and food…

Explains how quality concepts such as customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, and defining the customer apply to education. Describes how creative problem solving can overcome such conceptual blocks as constancy, commitment to the past, compression of ideas, and complacency. (SK)

Reviews the perspective of Donald Campbell on creative thought and argues that the role of blind variation and selective retention in Darwinian evaluation and human invention is different. Proposes that a contrast can be drawn between "smart" and "not so smart" blind variation. (CR)

Argues that while blind variation and selective retention (BVSR) may not be involved in all forms of human behavior and thought, Donald Campbell has made a compelling case that human creativity and invention involve BVSR. The complementary nature of prior and current BVSR in creative human endeavor is discussed. (Author/CR)

Presents a model of the relationship between the presented problem parameters of art assignments and the creative processes of students. Parameter types of instructions include incomplete, overly and inadequately restrictive, and expanding/contracting parameters. Parameters of student responses are categorized as disregarded, self-imposed, and…

Reports the results of a study of active ingredients of creativity techniques, devices that promote idea generation, through an analysis of 172 idea-generation methods which identified three types of idea-generation devices--strategies, tactics, and enablers. These devices were organized into meaningful categories comprising a formulary of active…

Four studies were conducted to assess gender differences in the effects of extrinsic motivation on creativity. Results indicate expectations of evaluation and work for reward lowered the creativity of middle school girls, but not that of boys. Expecting ungraded feedback reduced the negative impact of expecting evaluation and the gender…

In a 1997 study, 245 safety professionals and educators identified and prioritized management competencies that are important for safety professionals. Results show that the most important competencies are communication, listening, motivating others, creative thinking, and flexibility. (JOW)