This paper reports on a systematic review of 210 pieces of educational research, policy and professional literature relating to creative environments for learning in schools, commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). Despite the volume of academic literature in this field, the team of six reviewers found comparatively few empirical…

This article reports research that is contextualised within reforms of secondary education in Hong Kong and the reintroduction of Liberal Studies, which jointly emphasise the need for a learning environment that facilitates the practice of group work and the development of critical thinking. A study is described that explores the relevance of…

Over the past decade there has been a major move to position "thinking" (however thinking is defined and enacted) as a more explicit outcome within the curriculum of many nations, with implications for teachers' professional development, assessment, and examination requirements. This paper analyses approaches to this challenge taken by Israel, New…

The study reported was part of a large thinking skills intervention for 11-12-year-old children. This paper focuses on the impact of a thinking skills intervention on children's understandings of intelligence. A total of 178 children (n = 86 girls and n= 92 boys) across six schools participated in the study. Children were individually pre-tested…

The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between the creative abilities and the school grades of high school students in Poland. Almost six hundred (N = 589) students from 34 high schools from all over Poland participated in the study. Their creative abilities were measured by using the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production…

The aim of this work was to gather different perspectives on the "key ingredients" involved in creative writing by children--from experts of diverse disciplines, including teachers, linguists, psychologists, writers and art educators. Ultimately, we sought in the experts' convergence or divergence insights on the relative importance of the…

This paper develops a dialogic theory of thinking and of learning to think that has implications for education. The theory is offered as a contrast to theories that are based on both Piaget and Vygotsky. The paper proceeds by unpacking and interweaving three key concepts: dialogue, thinking and learning in order to argue that learning to think can…

The term "critical thinking" (CT) is frequently found in educational policy documents in sections outlining curriculum goals. Despite this frequency, however, precise understandings among teachers of what CT really means are lacking. In this study, 72 high school teachers in Hong Kong were surveyed and interviewed on their beliefs about the…

It has been argued that a creative and cultural education is central to developing a creative workforce and promoting social inclusion. Despite the expanded involvement of creative practitioners in English education toward these aims, their pedagogies remain unclear and under-researched. The purpose of this exploratory case study is to examine…

Although the development and transfer of critical thinking skills are recognized as primary goals for education, there is little empirical evidence to help educators decide how to teach in ways that enhance critical thinking. In two studies, we compared explicit and imbedded instructional modes and assessed critical thinking with the Halpern…

This commentary looks at the contributions and future research implications of the four articles in this Special Issue of "Thinking Skills and Creativity" to the fields of creativity and creativity education, both in culture-specific and culture-general terms. The articles included in this Special Issue draw attention to issues of development,…

With a sample of Grade 4 Chinese students, the present study examined whether the electronic version was comparable to the paper-and-pencil version of the Wallach-Kogan Creativity Tests (WKCT). It was found that the two versions generated similar patterns of reliability coefficients and inter-correlation coefficients for the eight creativity…

The aim of the study was to examine how drama fosters children's everyday creativity, its relationship with creative pedagogy, and what teachers can provide for children's development in creativity in an Asian context. A series of drama lessons were designed and taught to two six-grade (11-12 years old) classes by involving pedagogical strategies…

This study aimed at revealing the problems experienced by primary teachers of Hong Kong SAR, China, in their initial school-based creativity teaching, through reviewing the teacher reflections in 75 action research reports. A number of teacher tensions and dilemmas emerged. Lack of teaching time and undesirable student performance in creative…

The strengths and weaknesses of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) are described with reference to its origins, previous research and comments from critics and supporters. A case is made for this allegedly theoretical approach to provide the kind of outcomes focused intervention that psychology and psychologists can offer to schools. In…