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

An evidence-based review of creative problem solving tools: a practitioner’s resource

Creative problem solving (CPS) requires solutions to be useful and original. Typically, its operations span problem finding, idea generation and critical evaluation. The benefits of training CPS have been extolled in education, industry and government with evidence showing it can enhance performance. However, while such training schemes work, less is known about the specific tools used. Knowing whether a particular tool works or not would provide practitioners with a valuable resource, leading to more effective training schemes, and a better understanding of the processes involved. A comprehensive review was undertaken examining the empirical support of tools used within CPS. Despite the surprising lack of research focusing on the use and success of specific tools some evidence exists to support the effectiveness of a small set. Such findings present practitioners with a potential resource that could be used in a stand-alone setting or possibly combined to create more effective training programmes

Different Gain/Loss Sensitivity and Social Adaptation Ability in Gifted Adolescents during a Public Goods Game

Gifted adolescents are considered to have high IQs with advanced mathematical and logical performances, but are often thought to suffer from social isolation or emotional mal-adaptation to the social group. The underlying mechanisms that cause stereotypic portrayals of gifted adolescents are not well known. We aimed to investigate behavioral performance of gifted adolescents during social decision-making tasks to assess their affective and social/non-social cognitive abilities. We examined cooperation behaviors of 22 gifted and 26 average adolescents during an iterative binary public goods (PG) game, a multi-player social interaction game, and analyzed strategic decision processes that include cooperation and free-riding. We found that the gifted adolescents were more cooperative than average adolescents. Particularly, comparing the strategies for the PG game between the two groups, gifted adolescents were less sensitive to loss, yet were more sensitive to gain. Additionally, the behavioral characteristics of average adolescents, such as low trust of the group and herding behavior, were not found in gifted adolescents. These results imply that gifted adolescents have a high cognitive ability but a low ability to process affective information or to adapt in social groups compared with average adolescents. We conclude that gain/loss sensitivity and the ability to adapt in social groups develop to different degrees in average and gifted adolescents

A Five-Dimensional Model of Creativity and its Assessment in Schools.

Creativity is increasingly valued as an important outcome of schooling,\ud frequently as part of so-called “21st century skills.” This article offers a\ud model of creativity based on five Creative Habits of Mind (CHoM) and\ud trialed with teachers in England by the Centre for Real-World Learning\ud (CRL) at the University of Winchester. It explores the defining and tracking\ud of creativity’s development in school students from a perspective of formative\ud assessment. Two benefits are identified: (a) When teachers understand\ud creativity they are, consequently, more effective in cultivating it in\ud learners; (b) When students have a better understanding of what creativity\ud is, they are better able to develop and to track the development of their\ud own CHoM. Consequently, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and\ud Development has initiated a multicountry study stimulated by CRL’s\ud approach. In Australia work to apply CRL’s thinking on the educational\ud assessment of creative and critical thinking is underway

Human factors and ergonomics design principles and guidelines : helping designers to be more creative

This is a pre-copyedited version of a contribution published in: Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018). IEA 2018. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 824, edited by Bagnara S., Tartaglia R., Albolino S., Alexander T., Fujita Y., published by Springer, Cham. The definitive authenticated version is available online via https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_17.The knowledge and application of Human Factors/Ergonomics (HFE) principles and guidelines can help designers to develop better products and services. However, they may also include design constraints that may affect designers’ creativity. Although both HFE principles and guidelines and creativity are considered essential in the design of products and services, the link between them is little researched. In this article a discussion is presented on the influence that HFE principles and guidelines can exert on the creativity of designers. It also presents case studies of HFE principles and guidelines and discusses how they can influence designers’ creativity. In addition, a set of recommendations is suggested to help designers apply ergonomic design principles and guidelines to stimulate creativity. It is concluded that HFE principles and guidelines can assist designers in creating safer and more efficient products and services and can also broaden their creative process and therefore the originality and appropriateness of products and services