Extra credit assignments are often viewed with disdain by educators as opportunities to earn points for students that lack the study skills to do well on exams and quizzes. However, these assignments can serve as a platform for students to apply the course material to their own lives, optimizing their strengths and creativity, and encouraging them…

This theoretical paper is driven by the question, "What does creativity look like in classroom settings?" It is motivated by my past experiences as a teacher: my stories and my students' stories as we struggled together within a restricted classroom environment to create enough space for our creativity to emerge and flourish. I suggest…

This virtual conference was the tenth in a series of moderated discussions on the UNEVOC e-Forum--a global online community of over 4000 members. Guided by an expert in the field, these discussions provide a platform for sharing of experiences, expertise and feedback and wish to inspire people to take further action. Between 29 September and 10…

An attempt is made to define the meaning of invention and innovation in mathematics education in order to help develop guidelines for policies of research and development in this area. Spectrums of invention in the realms of geometry and group theory are proposed as models of ordering understanding of creative activity within mathematics. This…

This paper explores the phenomenon of mathematical understanding, and offers a response to the question raised by Martin (2001) at PME-NA about the possibility for and nature of collective mathematical understanding. In referring to collective mathematical understanding we point to the kinds of learning and understanding we may see occurring when…

Reviews the problems and strengths of an English for Science and Technology teacher-training course at the University of Chile (Santiago). Since most students come to the course with a humanities background, coupled with a "traditional" or "general" English background, they have the following types of problems: attitudinal,…

Although many students simply do not visualize or draw very well, most students have capabilities and potentials that they, and perhaps their professors, are overlooking. Once elementary representations are mastered, it may be that drawing becomes progressively less of a learning tool as one moves through the educational system. But there is…

The new medium of computer-aided design requires changes to the creative problem-solving methodologies typically employed in the development of new visual designs. Most theoretical models of creative problem-solving suggest a linear progression from preparation and incubation to some type of evaluative study of the "inspiration." These…

To provide a differentiated language arts program to meet the needs of highly able and gifted readers and to encourage interest in reading and the development of state reading goals, students in the sixth grade of a middle school in Maryland were grouped by ability for their language arts/reading classes. Students were exposed to a wide variety of…