Today, creativity is considered a success factor in many occupational fields and a core competence of the 21st century. In vocational education and training (VET), creativity is defined as problem-solving ability and ascribed to the transversal competences. Creativity is always context-dependent in terms of the work environment and specific…

This experimental research investigates the creativity of anonymous video-based groups through a series of collaborative divergent and convergent thinking stages of innovation. A sample of 113 undergraduate students participated in small groups of three or four to complete a creative problem-solving task in either anonymous or identified…

Background: Creativity requires both divergent and convergent thinking. Previous research established that "divergent" thinking relates to mathematics performance, but generally ignored the role of "convergent" thinking and, hence, leaves it unclear how both might interact when children work on mathematical tasks. This study…

This study examined Cho's dynamic system model of creative problem-solving ability in a sample of 112 gifted and non-gifted students. The cluster analysis and t-test results indicated that students should be categorized into high and low performance groups. Students who scored three points or more across all attributes also had a higher likelihood…

Creativity is an original cognitive ability and problem solving process which enables individuals to use their intelligence in a way that is unique and directed toward coming up with a product. Architectural education is one of the fields in which human creativity has been exhibited; because, it can be defined as a design study that correlates…

The central Florida region, faced with record tourism, a large service population, and significant population growth over the next few decades, must rely on a community-based institution of higher education with lifelong learning offerings, a local community college, to create world class public safety education and training for the region.…

People often use spatial metaphors (e.g., think "laterally," "outside the box") to describe exploration of the problem space during creative problem solving. In this paper, we probe the potential cognitive underpinnings of these spatial metaphors. Drawing on theories of situative cognition, semantic foraging theory, and…

Arthur Cropley (2006) emphasized the critical place that convergent thinking has in creativity. Although he briefly refers to the blind variation and selective retention (BVSR) theory of creativity, his discussion could not reflect the most recent theoretical and empirical developments in BVSR, especially the resulting combinatorial models.…

In this article, the authors explore the corpus of literature on creative thinking and applied creativity in higher education to help composition teacher-scholars and writing center practitioners improve the application of creativity in written, visual, and multimodal composing practices. From studies of creative thinking investigated across…

Several studies were conducted where subjects were not instructed to imitate models. Subjects viewing models exhibiting complex, flexible, divergent, or creative behavior tended to increase this behavior, while subjects watching rigid or convergent thinking models were less consistent. (Author/BJG)

Eighty preschoolers participated in a study of the usefulness of the lure-retrieval paradigm. Four treatment conditions were compared: In addition to play and training conditions, a questions condition and an alternative-materials control group were employed. Results prompted discussion of theoretical and methodological issues surrounding the…

Creativity, intelligence, and problem-solving tasks that varied in the explicitness of problem definition and in the format for an acceptable solution were administered to 100 college students. Two hypotheses that distinguished between concepts of creative and intelligent problem-solving were presented, and syntactical and strategic distinctions…

The article provides practical information and techniques for effectively using creative problem-solving. Six stages of problem solving, with both convergent and divergent thinking phases, are discussed. Also discussed are equipment, time frames, and environmental requirements for creative problem-solving sessions. Sample exercises are offered.…

Museum objects can be the springboard for exercising critical thinking. There are four main thought processes associated with critical thinking: (1) fluent thinking, the ability to produce many ideas; (2) flexible thinking, the ability to view something in different ways; (3) original thinking, the ability to produce unique ideas; and (4)…