Integrating Creative Thinking Skills Pedagogies into a Higher Education Visual Arts Course

Although there has been increasing international emphasis on creativity in education, many creativity training programmes have focused on enhancing students' creative thinking skills with few studies on how these skills can be integrated into the teaching of subject disciplines. As a member of a Community of Practice project that ran from spring 2021 to summer 2022 at my university, I worked with ten university teachers from multiple disciplines to develop and implement instructional strategies to foster students' creative thinking skills. The paper documented the development, implementation and evaluation of creative thinking skills teaching strategies for a higher education course in visual arts. Both the development of the teaching strategies and the measurement of the impact on student learning have undergone vigorous research procedures and made reference to the existing literature. The effectiveness of the activities was assessed using multiple methods including the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, a self-report inventory, and a focus group interview. The results indicated the new learning activities enhanced students' creative thinking skills. They also showed that creativity can be developed through teaching while revealing that playfulness, freedom and structure, group interactions, and problem-solving activities are beneficial for the development of creative thinking skills. Readers may better understand the different ways in which creative thinking skills instruction materials can be developed and incorporated into teaching of visual arts by making reference to the strategies suggested and the process of development in the paper.     

Creativity in the training and practice of instructional designers: the Design/Creativity Loops model

This article presents a discussion of research and theoretical perspectives on creativity and instructional design, offering a conceptual model of the connection between these two constructs that was originally proposed in the dissertation work of the first author (Clinton, Creativity and design: A study of the learning experience of instructional design and development graduate students, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, Athens, 2007) and that we call the Design/Creativity Loops (DCL) model. Central to the model is a representation of the iterative, looping problem-solving cycle that can include established stages of creative thinking. As an instructional designer is routinely confronted with the next task or design problem in a project, these tasks or problems spawn iterative mental excursions that are opportunities for creative thinking. This article also explores ways that the design and development process can benefit from an emphasis on creativity and offers suggested directions for future research.     

The Impact of a Technology Coordinator's Belief System upon Using Technology to Create a Community's History

As it has been shown that teachers of social studies content are less likely than teachers of other content areas to utilize technology in their classroom, this study focuses on one instructional technology coordinators’ beliefs towards technology, instruction, and students and how these beliefs impacted how technology was utilized during a technology-enriched community history project with a group of fourth-grade students. It was determined that the instructional technology coordinators’ beliefs included the following: (a) technology should serve as a tool and should be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum; (b) the teacher should construct meaningful experiences that allow students to become engaged in the learning process; however, before guiding student discovery, the teacher needs to explicitly teach basic technological skills; (c) and all students are able to learn and are capable of engaging in independent problem solving and critical thinking at some level. Her beliefs manifested themselves daily, particularly in the way that she approached instruction and integrated technology seamlessly into the curriculum. Through this study, it was found that the technology coordinator's beliefs toward technology, instruction, and her students directly impacted how technology was used in her classroom.     

Reification of instructional materials as part of the process of developing problem‐based practices in mathematics education

This teacher development study closely examined a teacher's practice for the purpose of understanding how she selected and implemented instructional materials, and correspondingly how these processes changed as she developed her problem‐based practice throughout a school year. Data sources included over 20 hours of planning and analysis meetings with the teacher and 27 video‐taped lessons with discussions before and after each lesson. Through qualitative analysis we examined the data for: students' cognitive demand for curricular materials the teacher selected and implemented; teacher's beliefs and practices for students' engagement in mathematical thinking; and teacher's and students' communication about mathematics during instruction. We found that the teacher shifted her views and use of instructional materials as she changed her practice towards more problem‐based approaches. The teacher moved from closely following her traditional, district‐adopted textbook to selecting problem‐based tasks from outside resources to build a curriculum. Simultaneously, she changed her practice to focus more on students' engagement in mathematical thinking and their communication about mathematics as part of learning. During this shift in practice, the teacher began to reify instructional materials, viewing them as instruments of her practice to meet students' needs. The process of shifting her views was gradual over the school year and involved substantial analysis and reflection on practice from the teacher. Implications include that teachers and teacher educators may need to devote more attention and support for teachers to use instructional materials to support instruction, rather than materials to prescribe instruction. This use of instructional materials may be an important part of transforming practice overall.     

Designing Learning Environments for Critical Thinking: Examining Effective Instructional Approaches

Fostering the development of students’ critical thinking (CT) is regarded as an essential outcome of higher education. However, despite the large body of research on this topic, there has been little consensus on how educators best support the development of CT. In view of some of the controversies surrounding the teaching of CT skills in higher education, this study examined the effects of embedding CT instruction systematically in domain-specific courses (Immersion vs. Infusion) on the acquisition of domain-specific and domain-general CT skills and course achievement. First-year university students (N = 143) enrolled in an introductory physics course were assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Immersion, Infusion, and control. The Immersion and Infusion conditions followed lessons designed systematically based on the First Principles of Instruction model, whereas the control condition followed a regular instruction. Results showed that participants in the Immersion and Infusion conditions significantly outperformed those in the control condition on domain-specific CT proficiency and course achievement. However, neither the Immersion nor the Infusion condition was helpful in fostering the acquisition of domain-general CT skills. The findings generally demonstrated that embedding CT instruction systematically in domain-specific courses requires greater clarity about what set of CT skills could be targeted in domain-specific instruction, how specific subject-matter instruction could be designed considering CT as an integral part of domain-specific instruction, and how best CT outcomes be assessed. Some considerations for the design of CT-supportive learning environments are discussed.     

提升学习者思辨能力的综合英语课程教学设计--一种“四层学习身份模型”的视角

综合英语课程是英语专业基础阶段的主干课程,理应成为学习者提升思辨能力的主要渠道。学习者的“四层学习身份模型”较好地契合了思辨能力的层级结构特征,能有效促进学习者思辨能力的发展。运用该模型改革和设计英语专业综合英语课程教学,有机调整学习者四层学习身份能力训练,突出学习者文本使用者和文本分析者身份,有意识有目的地提升学生分析、推理和评价为核心的思辨能力。这种教学应尊重学生主体地位,发展学习者自主学习能力;贯穿学科内容主线,促进语言技能与思辨能力共同提高;在教学中注重启发诱导,突出学习者的批判性语言能力的运用。     

Using Technology to Assist in Realizing Effective Learning and Instruction: A Principled Approach to the Use of Computers in Collaborative Learning

This article describes a principled approach to the design of computer-based tools for use in collaborative instruction. We argue that a project should progress through four steps: (a) making explicit the instructional requirements that serve as design goals for the project; (b) performing a detailed study of current educational practice with regard to these goals; (c) developing a specification based on the identified requirements/limitations of the instructional setting and the known capabilities of the technology; and (d) producing an implementation that allows for local adaptation to instructional practice. We propose six principles of effective learning and instruction, which we view to be the critical features of learning in complex and ill-structured fields. Next, a detailed case study is presented based on the preclinical training given to medical students in the first 2 years of medical school. The problems of providing adequate instruction in the preclinical years are described, as is an instructional method known as problem-based learning (PBL) that has been introduced to redress some of these problems. The product of this design process is a set of specifications for technical augmentations that we believe will serve not only the needs of PBL but also those of other methods of instruction that depend on collaborative, case-based, or student-centered learning.     

Teaching Creativity and Inventive Problem Solving in Science

Engaging learners in the excitement of science, helping them discover the value of evidence-based reasoning and higher-order cognitive skills, and teaching them to become creative problem solvers have long been goals of science education reformers. But the means to achieve these goals, especially methods to promote creative thinking in scientific problem solving, have not become widely known or used. In this essay, I review the evidence that creativity is not a single hard-to-measure property. The creative process can be explained by reference to increasingly well-understood cognitive skills such as cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control that are widely distributed in the population. I explore the relationship between creativity and the higher-order cognitive skills, review assessment methods, and describe several instructional strategies for enhancing creative problem solving in the college classroom. Evidence suggests that instruction to support the development of creativity requires inquiry-based teaching that includes explicit strategies to promote cognitive flexibility. Students need to be repeatedly reminded and shown how to be creative, to integrate material across subject areas, to question their own assumptions, and to imagine other viewpoints and possibilities. Further research is required to determine whether college students'' learning will be enhanced by these measures.     

Cognitive task analysis for instructional design: Applications in distance education

The increasing complexity of the subjectmatters taught through distance education calls for a cognitive approach to instructional design. Cognitive task analysis‐based instructional design (CTA‐BID) is especially appropriate for distance education, which requires high‐fidelity instructional materials that teach cognitive content with little or no classroom instruction. CTA‐BID organises instructional materials around the results of a cognitive task analysis that identifies the optimal knowledge structures, mental models, strategies, and skills underlying expertise in the subject matter. CTA‐BID has produced innovative instructional programmes aimed at teaching cognitive skills, accelerating the development of expertise, and improving student performance and training efficiency. This article provides an overview of CTA‐BID and its applications in the design of instructional and testing materials for distance education. I also review recent developments in education, psychology, and instructional design that complement CTA‐BID.     

梅耶多媒体教学设计原理的生成与架构

多媒体学习理论是一个贯通了学习理论与教学理论的科学体系。作为学习理论的多媒体学习认知理论基于双重编码理论、工作记忆模型以及生成加工理论,解释了学习者通过加工语词与画面所呈现的材料来建构知识的学习机制,属于解释性理论;作为教学理论的多媒体教学设计理论发展出一系列教学设计应遵循的原则,为教育实践提供了具有处方性意义的行动指南,属于处方性理论。解释性的学习理论为处方性的教学理论提供了扎实可靠的科学基础。在多媒体学习研究从学习理论向教学理论转化的过程中,多媒体教学设计理论是实现跃迁的关键环节,而认知负荷理论则是理论跃迁成功的关键变量。基于认知负荷理论,梅耶提出多媒体学习认知负荷三元模型,包括必要认知加工、外来认知加工和生成性认知加工。围绕这三类认知加工,梅耶及其同事进行了大量的实验研究,最终确定了12项与多媒体学习认知理论及其前提假设保持高度逻辑一贯性的多媒体教学设计原则。这些原则都是经得起实践检验的,但教学设计人员在应用的过程中,应明确各项原则的问题情境、适用范围等边际条件。     

Developing Greek Primary School Students’ Critical Thinking through an Approach of Teaching Science which Incorporates Aspects of History of Science

In this paper, the development of sixth grade students’ critical thinking skills in science courses is discussed relatively to the contribution of the integration of aspects of History of Science into instruction. Towards this direction a project on electromagnetism was designed and implemented aiming to engage primary school students in a critical examination of knowledge (importance, complexity and human implications) by generating argumentation and discussion in their classrooms. The “Test of Everyday Reasoning (TER)”, which targets the core critical thinking skills identified in “The Delphi Report” consensus, was translated and standardized for the Greek population in order to be used for the project’s assessment. A pre-post analysis was conducted for the experimental group and the control group. The encouraging results regarding critical thinking skills development are supportive to the integration of aspects of History of Science in science courses.     

现代远程教育教学设计原则初探

现代远程教育的主要特点是师生空间分离，如何进行有效的教学设计已经成为目前远程教育发展中非常突出的问题。现代远程教育的教学设计，必须从教学设计的基本理论出发并结合现代远程教育的特点，在远程教育的教学内容、教学过程与教学评估三方面入手，求确定现代远程教育的教学设计原则。     

从教学内容视角看初中英语课堂的有效教学

只有关注学生的全面发展,才能降低英语课堂的恩格尔系数,教师善教,学生乐学,实现英语课堂的有效教学。文章从教学内容视角、教材的含义和地位、教材的有效使用以及三维目标的整合方面对初中英语课堂的有效教学进行论述。     

A Survey of the Instructional Practices of Grade 5 Teachers Nominated as Effective in Promoting Literacy

Grade 5 teachers, who were nominated by their supervisors as effective in educating their students to be readers and writers, responded to questionnaires about their practice. The teachers claimed commitments to (a) extensive reading at the heart of their reading instruction; (b) diverse instructional activities (e.g., whole-group instruction, small-group instruction, cooperative grouping, individual reading); (c) teaching of both word-level and higher order (e.g., comprehension, critical thinking) skills and processes; (d) development of student background knowledge; (e) student writing, including teaching of mechanics and higher order composition skills (e.g., planning, drafting, revising as a process); (f) extensive evaluation of literacy competencies using diverse assessments; (g) integration of literacy and content-area instruction; and (h) commitment to practices that promote student motivation for reading and writing. Excellent literacy instruction is a balanced articulation of many components, including whole language experiences and skills instruction.     

合作学习理论对英语专业学生口语思辨能力的影响

国内英语专业学生批判性思维能力较弱已经成了外语教育界的不争事实。大量研究都显示相比较其他非英语专业学生,英语专业学生更倾向于死记硬背,无条件接受教师讲授内容,缺乏独立思考能力。合作学习法(又称小组学习法)是在自主学习理论之上构建起来的,该学习理论能在一定程度上缓解外语类学生思辨能力弱的症状。本研究旨在说明该学习理论对学生思辨能力提高的影响力。通过口语测试、非结构化访谈等实证研究,研究者证实了合作学习能够提高英语专业学生思辨能力。     

Beyond critical thinking skills: Investigating the relationship between critical thinking skills and dispositions through different online instructional strategies

The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) the relationship between critical thinking skills (CTS) and critical thinking dispositions (CTD), and (2) the effectiveness of different levels of instructional strategy (asynchronous online discussions (AODs), CTS instruction via AODs, and CTS instruction with CTD cultivation via AODs) in improving students' CTS and CTD. A pretest and posttest quasi-experimental design was employed to achieve this purpose. The participants in this study were 220 students enrolled in a general education course at a large university in Taiwan. The findings of this study were as follows: (1) the overall relationship between CTS and CTD was positive. However, further analysis of the relationship between the different levels of CTS and CTD showed that only the students with high CTS and medium CTD showed a significant correlation; (2) the enhancement in CTS reinforced CTD, but the improvement in CTD did not increase the level of CTS. In addition, it is recommended that to improve the CTS and CTD of all students (including the students with a high level of CTS), the instructional strategy, CTS instruction with CTD cultivation, be employed.     

Critical thinking in distance education: Developing critical communities in an audio teleconference context

Distance education has long been associated with independent study and delivery of prepackaged learning materials. These characteristics effectively deny distance education students the opportunity to participate in communities of inquiry and, perhaps, opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills. This paper reviews the theoretical impact of socially situated learning, critical thinking and their implications for distance education. It then presents the results from a study of learners' perception while enrolled in two different models of audio teleconferenced, university courses. The study reports quantitative results from a mail survey of these students and the qualitative results from interviews and classroom observations. The impact of the instructional design used by the delivering institution resulted in two distinct models of audio teleconference delivery with significant qualitative and quantitative differences in student perception. The paper concludes that learning communities, which support the development of critical thinking skills, can be created at a distance and that they provide a mechanism for improving the quality of higher level distance education.     

Capacity building to bridge data use and instructional improvement through evidence on student thinking

While schools and systems across the globe promote data-driven decision making, teachers often struggle to use data, especially from external assessments, to inform daily instruction. In this paper, we examine teacher capacity building for a less typical form of data use - evidence on student thinking. We draw on data from a longitudinal, in-depth qualitative study involving middle school math teachers who were engaged in an instructional improvement project. Findings show that data use occurred when evidence from student thinking was introduced as part of the instructional planning process. This shift was facilitated by an instructional coach whose capacity building efforts with teachers focused on coherence, specifically planning high quality instruction and using data effectively, while also meeting district pacing and unit planning goals. When teachers put new strategies into practice, feedback from formative assessment data allowed teachers to identify and address misconceptions in student thinking. Learning how to use data as part of instruction helped teachers build capacity to reflect on their own practice. Implications for theory, practice, and research are discussed.