Thinking Skills and Creativity最新文献

The emergence of social, technological, and other aspects of life leads to increasing complexity in EFL instruction, requiring teachers to modify their instructions and accommodate students' learning needs through differentiated instruction (DI). DI requires that teachers diversify their instruction to optimize it. However, many teachers regard DI as challenging, requiring advanced teaching skills and creative thinking. Thus, this qualitative study aimed to investigate how teachers express their creativity in DI education and which areas of creativity need to be addressed. The data was collected by observing teaching performances and interviews with six Indonesian EFL secondary school instructors. The DI-Quest instrument was used for observation, and the English Language Teaching Creativity Scale (ELT-CS) was used to build the interview guide. The findings revealed diverse types of creativity in five dimensions: motivation, originality and elaboration, brainstorming, fluency and flexibility, and press and materials. However, teachers experienced difficulties articulating the creative aspect of autonomy in DI classrooms. Some pedagogical implications are addressed, particularly in teacher professional development programs.

Since the development of open and low-cost generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), the higher education community has witnessed high use of AI-generated texts in scholarly research and academic assignments, attracting ongoing debate about whether such practices constitute cheating. While scholars argue that integrating GenAI tools can enhance productivity, critics raise concerns about the negative effect of such integration on critical thinking (CrT). This study therefore proposed a framework for enhancing students’ CrT skills in synthesizing AI-generated information. The proposed framework is underpinned by various theoretical foundations, encompassing five interconnected step-wise phases (familiarizing, conceptualizing, inquiring, evaluating, and synthesizing). The study was conducted under two separate experiments. The first experiment (Study 1) validated the effectiveness of the proposed framework, providing CrT training to 179 postgraduate students. In the second study (n = 125), additional experiments were undertaken to confirm the effectiveness of the framework in different contexts. An experimental procedure involving pretest and posttest design was implemented wherein participants were randomly allocated to one of three groups: experimental group 1 (exposed to our framework), experimental group 2 (exposed to an alternative self-regulated learning framework), and a control group (exposed to a non-structured framework). Results from Study 1 revealed that the framework enhances students’ CrT skills to synthesize AI-generated texts. However, these CrT skills manifested through various rigorous training aimed at reinforcing learning. While the proposed framework holds considerable value in cultivating CrT skills, significant differences arise across various personality traits. In Study 2, the framework proved to be effective in different contexts. However, it did not make a difference, particularly in its capacity to enhance students’ self-regulated learning compared to other frameworks. We discussed the implications of the findings and recommended it to educators seeking to prepare students for the challenges of the AI-driven knowledge economy.

This study aims to determine whether the combination of techniques such as gamification along with problem-based learning (PBL) can significantly enhance the problem-solving abilities of university students and their academic performance compared to those who do not receive this educational approach. An experimental design was employed, incorporating the administration of tests, data collection, non-participant observation directed at teachers, and a survey administered to students. The study was conducted with 42 students in the treatment group and 37 students in the control group. As a result of the analysis, it was identified that the combination of gamification and PBL significantly improves the problem-solving capabilities of the treatment group, as well as the average grades. This suggests that these techniques can increase the engagement, motivation, and academic performance of university students in the context of mathematics. This holds significant implications for the design of educational programs and underscores the importance of integrating innovative approaches in teaching to foster holistic student development. It is recommended that educational programs and teachers consider the implementation of techniques that promote active student participation and the integration of technological resources to enhance the teaching and learning process of mathematics in university students.

In art and design education, the roles of motivation and creative performance in design skills hold immense significance for design students. As such, the teachers’ instructional strategies are crucial. Among these strategies, design-based learning (DBL) is one of the important instructional processes that integrates design principles, problem-solving skills, and creative thinking to engage students in hands-on, authentic learning experiences. This study aimed to investigate the effects of DBL on the motivation, creativity, and design skills of students in art and design education. Pre- and post-test experimental research was conducted on 207 participants who specialize in art and design education at Kazan Federal University and the Kazan State Institute of Culture. Employing non-probability sampling, they were assigned to an experimental (treatment using DBL; 105 students) and a control (traditional instruction; 102 students) group. The findings demonstrated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group, while no significant interaction was observed between groups and sexes in the development of motivation, creativity, and design skills. Moreover, achievement motivation was found to significantly influence creative performance and design skills. This research serves as a valuable resource for educators and researchers, as it offers insights into fostering the creative performance of students within the field of art and design education.

The interplay between executive functions and divergent thinking remains a debated question in creativity research. To address this issue, two studies were conducted from different perspectives. The first study explored which of the executive functioning components—namely working memory, inhibition, and shifting—predicted divergent thinking. A sample of 203 college students performed a battery of tasks assessing divergent thinking, executive functions, and related cognitive variables (fluid intelligence, verbal fluency, and processing speed). After statistically controlling for these variables, only working memory emerged as a significant predictor of creativity scores in the Alternative Uses Task, while inhibition and shifting did not. In the second study, a cognitive training approach was employed to further elucidate the potential efficacy of working memory training in fostering divergent thinking. The results found that the experimental group, which received a 15-day dual n-back task training, demonstrated greater improvements in the creativity score of the Alternative Uses Task compared to the control group, suggesting a transfer effect from working memory training to divergent thinking. This research underscores the plasticity of divergent thinking and highlights a plausible avenue for enhancing creativity through targeted cognitive training.

This article presents a comprehensive validation study of a Critical Thinking Test (CTT) conducted among Czech adolescents in 2023. It offers valuable insights into the psychometric properties, correlations, and predictors associated with analytical, evaluative and inferential abilities of critical thinking. While there are tools available for measuring critical thinking, they tend to be lengthy and inaccessible in the Czech language. Our study seeks to address this gap by developing a concise and effective tool that students can complete within a single class period. Our study is based on a large sample of Czech adolescents in their first year of secondary school (N = 9,495), which allows us to apply Item Response Theory (IRT), which is the best method for validation. The results showed that the abbreviated 33-item version of the CTT is a reliable and valid instrument that measures three distinct abilities (analysis, evaluation, and inference) that are highly correlated. Limitations and implications for the use of the instrument are discussed.

Student-generated questions enhance deeper learning and empower active participation and critical thinking. Researchers have extensively explored teacher questions, but a notable gap persists in how to teach young children to ask questions effectively. This mixed-methods pilot study examined the impact of teaching questioning skills using the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) in an early childhood summer program for children from under-resourced areas. Pre-post oral language assessment scores from 33 children were analyzed to determine the impact of the QFT. Results reveal that using this method, teachers can effectively guide young students to ask more and better questions. Students involved in the research exhibited a substantial increase in the number of questions posed. They demonstrated a qualitative improvement in their approach to questioning, significantly increasing the number of wonderment questions (high-level questions). Conclusions indicate that using the QFT in early childhood classrooms can encourage young children to generate questions. Based on these findings, the authors conclude that teaching learners to ask meaningful questions can enhance their engagement, comprehension, and overall academic performance in diverse populations.

The present paper describes a new, theoretically grounded model for stance de-centring that advocates for enhancing foreign language learners’ intercultural awareness, sensitivity, and behaviours. This model embraces both three levels of stance de-centring: epistemic, emotional and effective, and three dimensions of intercultural competence: cognitive, affective and conative. Epistemic, emotional, and effective stance de-centring is carried out at the cognitive, affective and conative intercultural dimensions to raise foreign language learners’ intercultural awareness, develop their intercultural sensitivity, and activate their intercultural behaviours. Each intercultural dimension comprised within the model is rigorously examined, highlighting the importance of nurturing skills in critical thinking, empathy, and behavioural adaptability to counter ethnocentrism through stance de-centring. Practical examples illustrating the successful implementation of the stance de-centring model within the foreign language classroom are also presented. These examples elucidate the practical application and potential impact of the model, offering insights into fostering inclusive environments and preparing foreign language learners to navigate diverse cultural landscapes as future agents of change.

This study investigates the potential of using ChatGPT, a large language model, to assess students' critical thinking in online peer feedback. With the rapid development of technology, big language models, such as ChatGPT, have made significant progress in natural language processing in recent years and have good potential for application in teaching evaluation and feedback. However, can generative AI help educational practitioners in teaching and learning? How to accurately assess students' critical thinking using generative AI remains a challenging task. This study investigates whether ChatGPT can effectively evaluate critical thinking using established coding systems. By comparing the consistency and accuracy of manual coding with ChatGPT coding in online peer feedback texts, it clarifies how ChatGPT processes online peer feedback data and conducts assessments. Through a comprehensive analysis employing various metrics including precision, recall, F1 score, and a confusion matrix, we assess ChatGPT's performance. Additionally, we group students and analyze how ChatGPT's assessments relate to their critical thinking levels. Our findings suggest that the ChatGPT demonstrated some ability to assess higher dimensions of critical thinking, but showed limitations in assessing the more granular secondary dimensions under the higher dimensions of critical thinking. However for this kind of granular assessment will more accurately capture the level of learning critical thinking. Surprisingly, ChatGPT's evaluations are not influenced by students' critical thinking levels. This study underscores ChatGPT's potential in automating critical thinking assessment at scale, alleviating the burden on educators and enhancing understanding of critical thinking in peer feedback.

Question-asking, an underexplored aspect of creativity, is integral to creative problem-solving and information-seeking. Previous research reveals that lower creativity correlates with asking simpler, closed questions, while higher creativity correlates with complex, open-ended inquiries. The present study explores the relation between question asking complexity and problem-solving tasks involving open- and close-ended thinking and how these abilities generalize and compare to AI. In Study 1, participants (N = 89) completed the alternative questions task (AQT), a close-ended riddles task (Stumpers), and the alternate uses task (AUT), a creativity measure. Our results show AQT question complexity wasn't correlated with stumpers performance, although it correlated with AUT originality (r = .3). In Study 2, participants (N = 100) completed the AQT, AUT, and open-ended creative problem-solving (CPS) task. CPS responses were evaluated for originality and quality. A positive correlation was observed between CPS quality and AQT complexity (r = .29) and originality (r = .34). In study 3, AI agents (N = 100) completed the AQT, AUT, stumpers, and CPS tasks. Like humans, AI's AQT originality and complexity were related with open, but not closed problem-solving. AI questions were also significantly more creative and complex, it solved more stumpers and gave higher quality CPS solutions. Surprisingly, human and AI CPS originality didn't differ. We find significant links between question complexity and open—but not closed-ended—problem-solving in humans, which generalize to AI. Our results highlight the significance of complex and creative question-asking in everyday life and as an integral part of our problem-solving toolkit.