Thinking Skills and Creativity最新文献

Digital technologies are increasingly acknowledged for their potential to enrich early childhood learning experiences, particularly in the area of creativity. However, research has tended to focus upon end products and skill development, and little is known about creative development processes. This study sought to explore young children's creative processes as they engaged with three digital coding devices over an eight-week period as part of a Digital Discovery Program. It employed a microethnography to provide nuanced observations of five young children's (aged 4–5 years) interactions and behaviours. Data was collected through approximately 40 hours of video recordings, capturing the dynamic and multimodal aspects of the childrenʼs play and learning experiences. A multimodal interaction analysis was used to examine the multimodal design affordances of each device as mapped against Murcia et al.'s (2020) A-E of Creativity Framework. The findings revealed a clear interplay between digital technologies and various modes of communication, with children demonstrating creativity through their verbal expressions, manipulation of the devices, and spatial understanding of their physical environment. By understanding the multimodal affordances of digital devices aligned with educational frameworks and embracing child-specific definitions of creativity, educators, curriculum designers, policymakers, and researchers can collectively promote creativity and enrich digital learning and play for young children.

This paper investigates the intersection of media and design literacies in learners becoming more competent in developing complex ideas within a history classroom. Drawing from multiliteracies, design literacy, and media literacy, this paper conceptualizes media design rhetoric as a process. It utilizes a virtual exhibition as a facilitator to deepen the understanding of propaganda. We accumulate qualitative data from artifacts created by 10th and 11th graders (age range: 15–17) in a history classroom within a suburban high school in Western Canada, with written reflections on their artifacts. artefact analysis is followed by thematic and subject analysis in NVivo 12. Results show that media design rhetoric supports learners in deepening their understanding of propaganda, critically reading media, and creatively communicating messages. Results suggest that virtual exhibitions can be pivotal in creating new artifacts with complex but interest-driven topics. This research introduces media design rhetoric as a bridging concept (between multiliteracies, design literacy, and media literacy) and situates virtual exhibitions as a facilitator for developing complex ideas. This research highlights the significance of critical thinking and creativity in the media design rhetoric, as students critically engaged with historical content and creatively adapted it to modern contexts.

Critical thinking has been recognised as a core skill in the latest English curriculum standards for secondary schools in China. However, the current state of critical thinking education in China remains underdeveloped. Although some Chinese secondary schools have reported success in infusing critical thinking into regular teaching, there is little evidence of its impact as no independent robust studies have been conducted. The aim of this study was to determine whether the infusion of critical thinking in the regular curriculum has any impact on improving Chinese secondary students’ critical thinking skills and academic attainment using a more robust research design that can establish causation. Twenty-one English language teachers and 2,011 Grade 8 students from four rural secondary schools in China participated. The intervention was delivered by 11 experimental English language teachers once a week for three months. The impact of the intervention was measured by differences in modified standardised critical thinking skill tests. A process evaluation, including class observations and interviews, was also conducted to determine fidelity to the treatment. The results indicate a small positive impact of the infusion teaching on students’ critical thinking skills. Therefore, it is feasible and promising to infuse critical thinking into the English curriculum in China's secondary schools. However, the positive impact was not observed in academic attainment outcomes. The trial provides policy and educational practice recommendations to support the development of critical thinking skills among Chinese students.

With a set of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 test items as the assessment tool, this study constructed a mathematics competency assessment framework composed of eight attributes, and formed a Q matrix using data of 4,733 students in the four provinces (cities) of mainland China. Through model comparisons, this study selected the mixed model and made in-depth analyses of attribute mastery from four aspects: international comparative analysis, learning path analysis, learning progression construction, and personalized report development. The study found obvious advantages in most attributes of Chinese students’ basic mathematics competencies. The learning path was rich with large knowledge status distributed in the second, third, and fourth level of learning progression. It provided a basis for a detailed understanding of the basic mathematics competencies of Chinese students and their current situation in international education. It also provided a methodological basis for the cognitive diagnosis assessment of students’ mathematics competencies.

This study aims to determine how mathematical thinking skills are exhibited in educational robotics activities. In the study, activities with Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot kits were designed and implemented. An exploratory case study is adopted with secondary school students. The data obtained from open-ended questions, observations, and interviews were analyzed by content analysis. The results demonstrated various strategies in specializations and generalizations in terms of mathematical thinking skills while solving robotics problems. In this framework, "noticing symmetry", "finding a relationship between angle and direction of rotation", "noticing obtuse angles, acute angles”, and “noticing the change of sign when changing the direction of angles” were found prominent strategies in the specialization dimension. The strategies of "finding solutions compatible with the problem", "using algebraic operations", and "making calculations" were found prominent in the generalization. We hope that the findings of this study will assist in the future design and implementation of the applications of educational robotics activities for mathematical thinking.

Fostering creativity is vital for tackling 21st-century challenges, and education plays a key role in nurturing this skill. According to the associative theory, creativity involves connecting distant concepts in semantic memory. Here, we explore how semantic memory changes following an educational intervention intended to promote creativity. Specifically, we examine how a scientific education curriculum—Scientific Creativity in Practice (SCIP) program—impacts the semantic memory networks of 10–18-year-old students in a chemistry class (n = 176). Students in an Intervention group who received the SCIP intervention, and a Control group who did not, completed creative thinking tests, as well as verbal fluency tasks to estimate semantic networks in science-specific (chemistry) and domain-general (animal) categories. Results showed that the SCIP intervention enhanced performance on one test of scientific creative thinking but showed no significant difference on another. Using network science methods, we observed increased interconnectedness in both science-specific and domain-general categories, with lower path distances between concepts and reduced modularity. These traits define a ‘small-world’ network, balancing connections between closely related and remote concepts. Notably, the chemistry semantic network showed substantially more reorganization, consistent with the chemistry contents of the SCIP intervention. The findings suggest that semantic memory reorganization may be a cognitive mechanism underlying successful creativity interventions in science education.

With the increasing application of technology in education, exploring the value of technology-aided teaching modes in promoting students' development of critical thinking (CT) skills has become more prominent. This study targets English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Higher Vocational Colleges (HVCs) to empirically investigate the effects of technology-aided teaching on their development of CT skills. Utilizing the method of equal-group comparative teaching experiment, this study divided students into control and experimental groups and implemented various technology-aided teaching interventions in the experimental group. The results reveal that the application of technology has a positive impact on the development of CT skills and improvement in English argumentative writing among EFL students. Based upon these findings, this study proposes a teaching mode “problem-based learning context creating - viewpoints expressing - viewpoint questioning - collaborative resolution - reflective learning,” aiming to provide insights for effectively conducting CT teaching for EFL students under a technological environment.

This study focused on original mathematical problem solving among elementary students. The purpose of this study was to investigate originality in the solving of mathematical problems in K-6 students. Guided by this purpose, we investigated to what extent scores on accuracy, fluency, and application of concepts predict originality in producing solutions to mathematical problems. The participants included 520 K-6 students who attended a public elementary school which was located in a multicultural metropolitan area of New South Wales, Australia. The DISCOVER Mathematics Assessment was used to assess the students’ problem solving skills. To answer our research question, we conducted binary logistic regression analysis to predict the relationship between the independent variables (accuracy, fluency, and application of concepts) and the predicted binary variable (originality in solutions to mathematical problems). The logistic regression model was statistically significant and explained 11.6% of the variance in producing original solutions and classified 91.3 % of cases correctly. The results of the binary logistic regression analysis showed that increases in accuracy and application of concept scores were associated with an increase in the odds of being able to produce original solutions in mathematical problem solving. Unlike accuracy and application of concepts, a change in fluency scores was not significantly associated with a change in the odds of being able to produce original solutions in mathematical problem solving. The findings of this domain specific research on originality provided insights for the notion of creativity in mathematical problem solving among K-6 students. We discussed the implications of our findings as well as our recommendations for research, practice and policy to develop students’ creative potential.

While the evidence supporting cognitive-based creativity training as a means of enhancing creative thinking is increasing, its long-term effects and who can benefit from the training remain unclear. To address this gap, we developed a cognitive-based creativity training program for school-aged children and assessed its efficacy through pre-, post-, and follow-up tests, comparing the performance of two groups matched for working memory in the pre-test. One group (n = 33) underwent the training program, whereas the other group (n = 27) participated in the active control condition. The results showed that the training group exhibited significantly better creative thinking performance than the control group in the post-test. This difference was sustained over six months, and the improvement in creative thinking was independent of any changes in working memory, as determined using a subsample. In addition, individuals with lower levels of creative thinking performance before training gained more from training than those with higher levels.

Problem posing is increasingly being considered in the field of education, with many experts exploring its positive effects on student learning outcomes. In this case, different perspectives have emerged regarding the impact of the intervention, claiming the overall effect remains uncertain. Therefore, this study aims to explore the effects of a problem posing instructional intervention on student learning outcomes at the cognitive and non-cognitive levels from 2000 to 2023, using a three-level meta-analysis. 32 studies and 4,068 participants were included to compare the classrooms with and without problem posing instructional interventions in elementary to higher education. The results showed a moderate-positive and small positive effect on students cognitive (Hedges' g = 0.681, 95 % CI [0.552, 0.810], p < 0.001) and non-cognitive (Hedges' g = 0.367, 95 % CI [0.113, 0.620], p = 0.003) levels, respectively. Based on the moderator analysis, there were differences in the learning outcomes among students across various task formats. Notably, tasks that included specific information and involved problem posing in context demonstrated significantly better performance. In conclusion, these results indicate the importance of problem posing instructional interventions in promoting student's development and their impact on cognitive and non-cognitive dimensions.