The adoption of a behavioralist stance in education--namely, that of the "specificationist" who attempts to strengthen the humanist position by examining the behaviors which educators are trying to shape and by finding the most effective methods of instruction for accomplishing these ultimate goals--can help rid the schools of their worst evils…

A creative-aesthetic approach to school readiness and beginning reading and arithmetic, as formulated by Fortson, was used with 24 kindergarten children. Two control groups included 39 children. Two replications of the study were made, each having two experimental groups. Experimentals scored signifcantly higher on tests of creative thinking,…

Articles included in the collection of convention papers discuss a creativity score from the Stanford Binet and its applications, performance based instruction, methods for maximizing the development of talent among the urban disadvantaged, and talent potential among the disadvantaged. Abstracts of papers are provided on the following topics:…

To gather data on the implications of the proposition that intellectual ability should be conceived as multidimensional, 19 different measures, all of which have been employed as selection criteria for programs for the gifted, were used as a basis for selecting 5 students from 2 fifth-grade classes (N=49) for inclusion in a hypothetical program…

Designed to examine the cultural influences on creative development, the study analyzed imaginative stories by students from a segregated Negro school in Georgia and from a middle class white school in Minnesota. The stories were evaluated in terms of originality, interest, style, and pressures of divergency and conformity. The students were…

Participative education could provide impetus and direction to the educational revolution that has been brewing for some time. This approach, based on student involvement and participation, would meet the needs of students and teachers, both of whom are searching for alternatives to traditional education. Emphasizing self-responsibility,…

The Picture Interpretation Test (Torrance and Grossman, 1967) was used in a battery of creative tests as part of a construct validity test. The test was administered to 46 boys and 37 girls in five first grade classrooms in a Clayton County, Georgia, elementary school. The purpose of the test was to measure the child's ability to "read a…

The primary concern of the English teacher should be to develop the unique potential every student has for imaginative thinking and creative expression. The ability to think creatively stimulates the student's intellectual curiosity, frees him from the rigidity of social class values, religious dogma, and historical precedent, and enables him to…

One hundred and thirty-eight undergraudate college males were administered individual and group measures of perceptual field-independence. Most of these subjects were also administered two measures of intelligence and a battery of tests of creativity. Comparisons were made of the creative test performance of three groups of 15 subjects each,…

In teaching students how to write, the utilitarian aspect does not need to be ignored, but--more important--the imaginative, expressive aspect should be emphasized. Since all writing depends on the full resources of the imagination, students need to be taught how to recreate or vivify people, objects, scenes, and feelings. A process which helps…

After an Open Admissions (OA) policy was established at Baruch college in New York City, heavy emphasis was placed on remedial English. This emphasis was unfortunate for creative students since it reduced all writing courses to a "utilitarian," pre-college level. OA students also need to develop their perceptions, imaginations, and…

This study explored the relationship of two distinctive types of divergent cognitive styles, "cold" creativity and "hot" creativity, to academic overachievement. The "cold" divergent cognitive style was found to be a controlled, problem-solving approach to stimuli, whereas the "hot" divergent cognitive style was a freer, more impulsive response to…

Presented is the curriculum theory designed for 400 gifted boys and girls, from rising junior and senior classes in high school, who attend the 8-week summer Governor's School (GS) of North Carolina. The main aim of the GS is given to be inspiring and guiding future leaders by providing opportunities for special aptitude, general conceptual, and…

To analyze the use of metaphor in inducing innovative thinking in fourth grade children, two series of metaphorical activities were developed--the first asking children to compare given stimuli to a variety of other things, the second asking children to become other things (e.g., doorknobs). Oral and written responses were elicited from five…

External reinforcement paradigms are useful and necessary in a complete instructional system and external reinforcement is not antithetical to a belief in an intrinsic motivation hypothesis. Teacher training, parent education, and classroom management, as well as complex learning sequences, can be improved by the use of principles emerging from…