The future problem solving program international: an intervention to promote creative skills in portuguese adolescents

The Future Problem Solving Program International (FPSPI) is an internationally applied educational program that involves young people. Its theoretical foundation is both the Creative Problem Solving Model and the Futurist Thinking. It aims to promote creative and critical thinking through a futurist approach to problems. This study intended to analyze the effects of the program on creative skills evaluated by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Figural Version). The participants’ perceptions of the efficacy of the program were also assessed. This intervention was carried out with 131 adolescents over a period of 7 months in an extra-curricular context. The evaluation of the program takes into account periods both before and after interventions, using similar experimental and control groups. The results showed significant statistical differences for the all skills studied and very positive perceptions of the efficacy of FPSPI. Two significant gender differences in creative performance were also found. The results are described and discussed in order to promote awareness for future research concerning this program(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A review study about creativity in adolescence: Where is the social context?

Contains fulltext : 228306pub.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)Although adolescent creativity development is a promising area of research in the field, there is still much to be known with respect to the factors involved in adolescent creativity development and the role played by the social context . The purpose of this systematic review study was to identify and summarize factors associated with enhancing or inhibiting adolescent creativity in a sample of 65 published studies. We classified supportive and inhibiting factors into four categories: individual factors, parental factors, educational factors, and social contextual factors. Individual factors supportive of adolescent creativity development included: openness to experience, intrinsic motivation, creative self-efficacy, attributing adversity to external factors, and academic achievement. State and trait anxiety were associated with inhibitory factors. Supportive parental factors included parental support and autonomous motivation with maternal involvement. Educational factors supportive of adolescent creativity development included: balancing freedom and necessary guidance; flexible, open-ended activities with clear learning expectations; openness to and encouragement of student ideas; atmosphere of trust and respect; and varied learning resources. Finally, supportive social contextual factors included providing interactions that encourage expression or challenging of ideas; and encouraging adolescents to view issues from multiple global and temporal perspectives. Inhibitory social contextual factors included increased pressures placed on teachers to prepare students to perform well on assessments; and increased emphasis placed on standardized curricula and related assessments. We also noted that the vast majority of studies in our sample (n = 61, 94 %) did not take into account the role played by social contextual factors. We conclude by discussing implications for future research.02 augustus 202018 p

How is a fruit tree like you? Using artistic metaphors to explore and develop emotional competence in children

Counselling children often requires the use of supplementary strategies in order to interest and engage the child in the therapeutic process. One such strategy is the Metaphorical Fruit Tree (MFT); an art metaphor suited to exploring and developing self-concept. Quantitative and qualitative data was used to explore the relationships between children’s ability to use metaphor, age, gender, and level of emotional competence (N = 58). Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed a significant negative relationship between self-reported emotional competence and ability to use the MFT. It is proposed that children rely on different processes to understand self and as children’s ability to cognitively report on their emotional capabilities via the Emotional Competence Questionnaire (ECQ) increases, their ability to report creatively on those capabilities via the MFT is undermined. It is suggested that the MFT may be used, via creative processes and as an alternative to cognitive processes, to increase understanding and awareness of intrapersonal and interpersonal concepts of self in the child during counselling