This description of the teaching approach of Henry Schaefer-Simmern emphasizes his use of questioning to evoke student self-evaluation and to develop clarity of vision and interfunctional unity in students' art products and their mental, artistic conceiving. Two case reports of his work with elementary students are included. (Author/SJL)

An attempt was made to determine whether the traits known as cognitive styles should be recognized as intellectual abilities or intellectual controls, or both. It was suggested that the structure of intellect model could serve as a frame of reference for future research in this area. (Author/RL)

Defines and examines the creative process and discusses the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. (RK)

If a school's goal is to improve the quality of the educational environment that it provides for its students--one that encourages creative thinking and problem solving, cooperative learning, and higher levels of thinking--then a principal must create the same type of atmosphere for those individuals most directly responsible for the success of…

The Commission initiated a funding to review national funding models for higher education led by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS). Each institution contributed to the cost of the study and participated in the effort. NCHEMS' key recommendation is to move the funding discussions for higher education away from a…

In a review of the challenges to progress in providing social research evidence that might usefully inform policy, Oakley (2004) argues strongly that the "paradigm divide" between qualitative and quantitative research communities continues to constitute a major problem. Oakley refers to a number of recent critiques of what is seen as "misplaced…

Individual differences in performance on figural analogy tests are usually attributed to quantitative differences in processing parameters rather than to qualitative differences in the formation and use of representations. Yet aptitude-related differences in categorizing standardized figural analogy problems between high and low scorers have been…

J. P. Guilford's "structure of the intellect" provides a system that explains the intellectual abilities of students and identifies major types of productive thinking. A study was conducted to examine whether one of these types--divergent production, which focuses on responses of an individual's own creations--could be enhanced through…

Although it is commonly assumed that increases in mathematical knowledge and problem-solving skill alter one's understanding of mathematical problems, little research exists to support this assumption. The present study investigated the relationship between mathematical background and problem perception in two experiments. Experiment 1 employed…

This study was undertaken to explore the problem solving processes of secondary-school students. Geometry students were given an experimenter-constructed test of convergent and divergent thinking and classified as high on both, high convergent, high divergent, or low on both. Of these 105 students, 49 were selected for individual observation as…

This research studies both students' and teachers' divergent and convergent abilities and their interaction within the normal classroom. Divergence and convergence were operationally defined and measured by paper and pencil tests. After reviewing the literature on divergence and convergence and on divergence and classroom achievement, the authors…

SYNCON is a tool to examine future options; it is a process that begins with small groups, merges to larger composite groups, and finally one total group so that all members of a group can contribute towards the solution of a complex problem. (Author)

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…

A comparison was made of the effects of a topic-centered lecture and a skill-centered practice session on creativity, as measured by two tests of divergent thinking. Results were interpreted as supporting De Bono's claim that thinking skills are best taught by focusing on techniques which, with practice, can be deliberately applied to a number of…