This paper discusses the pedagogical responses of the Wits University Cultural Policy and Management Department to the needs of our students in the postcolonial context of South Africa. It reviews the challenges experienced by our postgraduate students and the resultant innovations in both curriculum design and learning and teaching practice.…

Although Critical Thinking (CT) has been a desirable aim expressed both by higher education institutions and labour market professionals, studies on what CT means and what it looks like in the workplace are scarce. The current study intends to tackle this gap by sharing findings about the importance of CT and its practical manifestation in…

The Creative Learning Initiative (CLI) is a community-wide effort to bring creative learning and the arts to each and every student in Austin. Lead by MINDPOP, the City of Austin, and Austin Independent School District (AISD), CLI designs systematic and sustainable programs that integrate creativity, creative teaching strategies, and the arts with…

This paper explores the demanding and complex nature of English language teaching with young learners. The paper begins with the challenges of the young learner classroom, then goes on to argue that the low estimation of teaching languages in primary education can seriously impact the confidence and efficacy of primary-school teachers. The popular…

The "Learn to Think" (LTT) Intervention Program was developed for raising thinking abilities of primary and secondary school students. It has been implemented in more than 300 schools, and more than 200,000 students took part in the experiment over a 10"year span. Several longitudinal intervention studies showed that LTT could…

According to construal level theory, psychological distance promotes more abstract thought. Theories of creativity, in turn, suggest that abstract thought promotes creativity. Based on these lines of theorizing, we predicted that spatial distancing would enhance creative performance in elementary school children. To test this prediction, we primed…

The workload of most academics involves two main activities: research and teaching. Despite the dual nature of the work, career advancement usually chiefly depends on research performance. Since academics are rational actors, warnings are beginning to emerge that current predominantly research-based performance evaluation systems may be…

This paper explores the use of a constructivist 21st-century learning model to implement a week-long workshop, delivered as a "hackathon," to encourage preuniversity teenagers to pursue careers in STEM, with a particular emphasis on computer science. For Irish preuniversity students, their experience of computing can vary from word…

Drawing on assets-oriented, sociocultural theories of imagination and learning, the authors argue that the improvisational qualities and expanded resources of dramatic approaches to teaching make a positive difference in the quality of and persistence in students' story writing. The authors describe findings from a controlled quasi-experimental…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of creative drama as a teaching method on academic achievement and retention in social studies, students' attitude towards social studies of 4th grade. The research is designed according to quasiexperimental model. The research was conducted with 4th year students in a public school in Adana…

For a structural engineer, effective communication and interaction with architects cannot be underestimated as a key skill to success throughout their professional career. Structural engineers and architects have to share a common language and understanding of each other in order to achieve the most desirable architectural and structural designs.…

Creativity is one of the important skills of the twenty-first century and central to higher education (HE). When we look closer into research on creativity in HE, however, it is not clear how university teachers conceptualise student creativity. How do teachers grasp, observe and express student creativity? Different methods such as interviews and…

A series of dance activities were introduced to preservice teachers (n = 76) to help them understand how mathematics concepts could be associated with dance performance and choreography processes. A total of 468 pieces of qualitative data were collected, including 147 online discussion entries with 248 follow-up comments, and 73 individual…

This paper addresses an important task teachers face in class: the identification and support of creative and high-achieving students. In particular, we examine whether primary teachers (1) have acquired professional knowledge during teacher education that is necessary to foster creativity and to teach high-achieving students, and whether they (2)…

The purpose of this article is to challenge the notion of small studio format delivery expectations in art and design education. Our research reports on an introductory Digital Photography course design that produced equivalent learning outcomes in a large enrollment lecture format. The objective of the project was to introduce (1) a case-based…