AIM Academy of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania is a K-12 school modeled after the Lab School of Washington. AIM promises its 200 students and their parents a unique and innovative learning environment. Applying the latest techniques proven to help children who learn differently, AIM Academy taps into students' talents in ways that are both fully…

Gifted education is leading an interdisciplinary paradigm shift moving education out of its historic role of entrenching systemic inequities. It is a crucible for pioneering investigations of optimal human development and provides a vehicle for increasing social equity. We review changing conceptions of intelligence, motivation and creativity, and…

The phenomenon of creativity is so prevalent and yet so ill-defined. After examining several definitions, this author posits that creativity is a natural process in which humans use their physical, intellectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual resources to produce something new. Creativity seems to satisfy a deep fundamental yearning to go beyond…

The purpose of this paper was to present and update the evaluation of the ideas of Vicktor Lowenfeld and his place in the history of art education. This task was undertaken in light of developments that have taken place in the decades since his death. Among those developments are: (1) efforts to educate all individuals in the least retrictive…

The essay examines trends in attitudes toward creativity in education and business, problems in studying creativity in natural situations, creativity programing for school-age children, current efforts to encourage innovation in business, and the need to nurture creativity in every individual. (DB)

Intended for teachers and others interested in exploring and cultivating the processes of mental imagery, this annotated bibliography includes citations from scholarly journals, popular magazines, doctoral dissertations, works on learning disabilities, and how-to books. The following topics are included among the entries listed in the paper: (1)…

Education is experiencing a loss of meaning and respect and a fading sense of connection. Education for the whole, individual person will result in the practical, creative, and moral growth necessary in today's society. (CJ)

Considers the way people create knowledge, the way personal knowledge grows, and the types of educative environments that are supportive to students' efforts to improve their knowledge. (GT)

The 1994 Kurt Hahn Award recipient and president of the American Youth Foundation discusses essential elements for personal and systemic change, including creativity (which provides energy and direction), character (which defines who we are), and commitment (which requires accountability), all of which enable individuals and organizations to…

Presents the autonomous-learner model developed by George Betts and the Renzulli model as possible ways to facilitate creative thinking and personal development in Japanese students, whose culture typically emphasizes memorization. Concludes that developing the mindset to critically question learning will increase students' learning abilities and…

Discusses the life and artwork of Jack Barker who became a folk artist after running a local gas station in Essex, Illinois. Explains that art educators view student interactions with folk artists like Barker as valuable because these artists embody a creative spirit and a thirst for knowledge about materials and processes. (CMK)

Our culture enforces compliance and obedience in all its institutions and at every level. These institutions systematically discourage independent thought or unconventional action. Schools can play an important role in educating strong, independent thinkers. Teachers should act to reward creative disobedience and to discourage conformity. (JN)

This anthology consists of 7 presentations given by invited speakers and 15 essays that show how crafts form both a theoretical and practical discourse that deals with the most varied individual, cultural, and behavioral phenomena. They involve the concept of sloyd, derived from a Swedish word, an umbrella term for making or crafting things by…

This curriculum framework presents a philosophy of arts education, synthesizes current research, and sets learning standards for students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The curriculum framework's core concept is that experience in the creative process is essential for all learners, and that, in the…

These nine articles deal with basic philosophical questions concerned with the general nature of sloyd or with the educational aspect of sloyd. (Sloyd, derived from a Swedish word, is an umbrella term for making or crafting things by hand.) They report research on cultural questions related to goals and contents, ranging from sociocultural…