Promoting Student Creative Problem-Solving Skills

Abstract

Creative problem solving has emerged as one of the most sought skill sets by employers. The purpose of this chapter was to comparatively examine the relationships between principal instructional leadership, teacher creative practices, and students' creative problem-solving skills in public and private schools in the United States context. Special attention was given to the relationship patterns between variables for the higher (1st quartile) and lower performing (4th quartile) student populations. The data source was the PISA 2012 data sets. Findings showed that there were similarities and differences between the relationships of study variables in two schooling systems. Findings identified similar and different relationship patters between the study variables in these two distinct school settings. Findings also showed relationship patterns differed for lower and higher achieving student groups in each schooling system.