The disconnect between the need for music composition instruction at the precollege levels and the content of music education curricula across North America has been a concern for over two decades. To be able to effectively teach their students how to compose, music educators need to have both experience and comfort in the creative process of…

Historically, music programs in K-12 schools have emphasized performance opportunities for children and young people. Until the release of the 1994 National Standards in Music, targeted instruction in composition was frequently overlooked due to the emphasis on performance as well as the expectations of what a school music program ought to produce…

In elementary school, the use of repetitive songs to help children remember concepts is commonplace and is usually very effective. Unfortunately for many students, this strategy is generally not used in later grades. A group of mathematics teachers at Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio, have taken this approach to a new creative…

The visual arts and media historically employed by teachers as a corollary to "traditional" social education can play a more vital role in promoting critical inquiry among students. The use of short films like "The Flying Man" (2013), a 2013 motion picture which depicts an almost mythic vigilante in a realistic world, can help…

This mixed-methods study examined reading instructional practices at Smalltowne Elementary, as almost 30% of their third grade students were not scoring proficient in the area of English Language Arts (ELA) on the state assessment. Smalltowne is a rural elementary school located in a southeast Georgia town with a population of just under 10,000. A…

Based on many years' work designing introductory, immersive, aesthetic experiences that lead to problem-based learning (PBL) tasks for student teachers (called "INTRO"), we problematize the concept of creativity and playfulness in Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE). The article reports on our analysis of students' experiences of…

In his first teaching assignment, as a fifth-grade English teacher, Edgar Manaran had only 20 desks for 48 students. Yet he was able to apply productive classroom strategies throughout his 25-hour teaching week. Some of his students sat on plastic chairs due to the shortage of desks, but that did not change the dynamic of Mr. Manaran's classes. He…

The aim of this research is to explore Turkish high school teachers' conceptions of creativity in mathematics. The research was carried out using qualitative research methods. The sample consisted of seven mathematics teachers, and semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool. Analysis of the responses indicated that mathematics…

What motivates human creativity? Sometimes creativity emerges because people need to solve a problem or communicate an idea. The desire for novel amusement or complex entertainment also inspires creative thought. Environmental factors are also influential in motivating a student's creativity. An instructor's personal enthusiasm for the…

Information lies at the center of information studies, the information professions, and information education. Yet there are few agreed upon pedagogical strategies for engaging students in our central concept. In many educational programs the nature of information is assumed to be obvious and therefore left uninterrogated. Alternatively, students…

Katie Ridley, science coordinator at St. Gregory's Catholic Primary School, Liverpool, UK, states that the inspiration for "science ambassadors" came after embarking on the Primary Science Quality Mark programme at their school. Ridley realized that science was just not recognised as such by the children, they talked about scientific…

Stories are a place where magical things happen, where ideas are challenged, where the imagination runs free and questions are asked. They are a safe place, where the reader can walk about with new identities, try new ideas, process life's ups and downs and make new meanings. This makes stories the perfect place for creative learning. In this…

This article advocates an approach to outdoor exploration that begins by welcoming the unknown and quite possibly disorientating aspects of wild places. It proposes that one of the major ways in which young children make lasting connections with landscape is through imagination and the power of invention, and argues for the rights of children to…

Creativity has been conceptualized as involving 2 distinct components; divergent thinking, the search for multiple solutions to a single problem, and convergent thinking, the quest for a single solution either through an analytical process or the experience of insight. Studies have demonstrated that these abilities can be improved by cognitive…

In this article Matthew Jellick describes an introductory lesson he has used on the first day of class with students around the globe. The activity touches on each of the skill sets associated with English language acquisition, with special attention paid to cultural issues that can be applied on a country-by-country basis. No matter what country…