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Developed as one of the resources within the context of the OECD /Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI)ERI project entitled "Fostering and assessing students' creative and critical thinking skills in higher education", this paper focuses on ways in which students' creativity and critical thinking can be fostered in higher education by contextualising such efforts within the broader framework of academics' professional learning. Intended for system or institution-level stakeholders, the paper draws on the empirical literature, review articles, and meta-analyses, reports, institutional websites, and input from project participants to: (a) highlight models and best practices of academics' professional learning as well as institutional and individual factors which render professional learning desirable, valued, and effective, and (b) elaborate key elements in professional learning which institutions can introduce and/or strengthen to promote instruction that fosters cognitive, social and emotional processes associated with students' creativity and critical thinking.

While learning agility has become a hot topic in recent decades, there's not yet widespread understanding of its underlying nature, nor the best way for organizations and talent development leaders to leverage it, especially because it isn't a skill that's necessarily concentrated at the top of an organization. Instead, it's likely dispersed among leaders at all levels. This white paper offers the Center for Creative Leadership's (CCL's) perspective on three of the most fundamental and frequent questions about learning agility: (1) What is learning agility, and who possesses it?; (2) How do I identify learning agility in my organization's leaders?; and (3) How do I develop learning agility in myself and my organization's leaders? The goal of this report is to help maximize workforces, put people in the right roles, and help better design and implement leadership strategies.

Computer programming and associated Computational Thinking (CT) skills are essential to thriving in today's academic and professional world. There has been a growing focus globally on fostering CT skills as well as on introducing computer programming concepts and languages beginning as early as kindergarten and pre-primary school. Tools, curriculum, and frameworks to promote CT in the early years must be designed and implemented in ways that engage children who cannot yet read and write, who learn through play, and who have a short attention span and limited working memory but also strong natural curiosity. This review summarises empirical and theoretical literature on the state of the field of CT as it relates to early learning and development, a time when young children are being introduced to foundational skills, such as literacy and numeracy, which can carefully be complemented by an exploration of CT.

In the book "Redesigning America's Community Colleges" (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2015), the authors briefly noted the role that librarians might play in informing and supporting guided pathways reform. In this short essay, one of the book's authors joins with a librarian to provide updated and revised thoughts on the role of librarians in guided pathways. First we discuss the importance of embedding critical thinking into guided pathways curricula and librarians' unique position to support that goal; then we discuss various models by which colleges might leverage librarians' expertise and which models seem more or less compatible with the guided pathways framework.

Contemporary society is changing and evolving at a fast pace; children in our society are exposed to a plethora of information, which is both overwhelming and confusing to young minds. It has never been more crucial to help children navigate around the complexities of our world and support them in attaining the essential tools to help them on this learning journey - a toolbox of values, skills and knowledge. Global learning supports children to navigate this complexity. In this research I look at the relationship between reading books and global learning. There is limited research in this field. The paper responds to four key questions: (1) Which frameworks can be used to help select (and deliver) picture books to support global learning?; (2) What common global learning themes are found in picture books?; (3) How are picture books used to encourage children to think about global issues?; and (4) What factors support pupil engagement with global learning using picture books? [This paper was published by Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning in collaboration with the Development Education Research Centre (DERC). The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme is funded by the British Council and UK aid.]

This research project aims to evaluate the impact that a British Council Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning project had on the children and parents' stereotypical views and images of the Middle East. This study focuses on a largely monocultural school in rural Lincolnshire and a large, diverse school in the centre of Beirut, Lebanon. It begins by identifying the children and parents' initial perceptions and views of the Middle East. After a series of small-scale projects to widen children's knowledge of the area, pupils and parents' perceptions are collected again, using the same method. These results are then analysed and compared to see if the project can impact on the stereotypical views of the parents and pupils. [This paper was published by Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning in collaboration with the Development Education Research Centre (DERC). The Connecting Classrooms through Global Learning (CCGL) programme is funded by the British Council and UK aid.]

This paper was written in 2018 by NCWD/Youth [National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth] to inform the development of the Guideposts for Success 2.0, an update to the original Guideposts for Success published in 2005. Since it was created in 2005, the Guideposts for Success has become nationally recognized as a valuable research-based framework to inform policies and practices designed to prepare and support youth in transition to adulthood. In 2012, NCWD/Youth began an in-depth process aimed at updating the Guideposts for Success to reflect the latest research studies and current professional standards of practice for supporting youth in transition to adulthood across multiple service systems and sectors. The process included reviewing literature related to youth transition from multiple disciplines.

With school budgets at their tightest and a wealth of choices for teacher Continuing Professional Development (CPD), how do senior leaders make the right decisions on training which will deliver real change to classroom practice? CPD must go beyond adding content and resources to an already overwhelmed curriculum but also consider how teachers teach, what that looks like in the classroom and the impact on pupil outcomes beyond tests. Approaches to global learning are closely linked to critical pedagogies and engaging with the world. The question for this research concerns the impact of certain types of pedagogy, specifically those which engage in critical thinking to produce critical understanding in global learning, and asks what conditions are required within teacher CPD in England to support teachers to achieve their full potential in the classroom.

Questions form the core of both the learning experience and the teaching experience. Because of their importance in the educational enterprise, questions (i.e., their structure and use) should receive more attention from educators. The authors construct what they call productive questions (those questions that produce meaningful responses) and describe effective approaches for using them. They provide examples of productive questions from multiple disciplines and offer standard question formats, so that educators can create their own productive questions to use in their classrooms. The best practices and question formats that they present are applicable to any learning environment, be it small, discussion-focused classrooms; online courses; or large lecture-style classes. The authors conclude by outlining next steps for educators to increase and assess the impact of questions in their classrooms.

Students need to develop a variety of critical thinking and interpersonal skills in order to contribute successfully to today's increasingly globalized world. The Office of the Provost at the University of Michigan has implemented a plan known as Transforming Learning for a Third Century (TLTC) as part of its broader Third Century Initiative. This plan aims to foster development of such skills, with special emphasis on five distinct learning goals: (1) creativity; (2) intercultural engagement; (3) social/civic responsibility and ethical reasoning; (4) communication, collaboration and teamwork; and (5) self-agency, and the ability to innovate and take risks. The TLTC learning goal, Creativity, focuses on developing educational opportunities to foster students' creative processes and capacities to create new works and ideas. This goal also seeks to promote an understanding that creativity is not a rare gift to the few, but a fundamental human trait that can be developed and expanded. This paper begins with a review of the various ways in which creativity has been conceptualized and a discussion of the importance of creativity. It then goes on to briefly summarize different approaches to fostering creativity among students and ends with a discussion on how to assess creativity, with an emphasis on choosing appropriate measures.

Recent studies continue to shine light on high-performing charter schools. While Boston-area charter schools--a concentrated group of high-performers--garner more attention than others, many excellent schools outside of Boston have been quietly chipping away at the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. One of these schools is the SABIS International Charter School (SICS) in Springfield, MA, a school that has been named a "top high school". What makes SICS a "top school?" It prepares students to persist in college and enables it students, the vast majority of whom are economically disadvantaged, to "perform better than statistical expectations." That is, students at SICS not only outperform their peers in similar schools on standardized tests of achievement, they also embody the idea that "demography is not destiny." Founded in 1995, SICS was among the first charter schools established in Massachusetts. It serves students in grades K-12 and has a clear, two-pronged mission. The first part of the mission is academic: to prepare students for success in college and to be critical thinkers who are intellectually engaged and excited about life-long learning. The second part of the SICS mission is to produce ethical, responsible "citizens of the world"; people who care about their community and are engaged with social issues. To understand how SICS students defy "statistical expectations," it is necessary to understand the SABIS approach to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This report provides their best practices by data-driven instruction, answers how they meet the demand for better school options, and offers recommendations for struggling schools.

Active learning encompasses a broad range of pedagogical approaches involving the learner in every step of the educational process, with the objective of stimulating ownership and critical thinking skills, among others. This paper is the result of the work carried out by the European University Association (EUA) Learning & Teaching Thematic Peer Group on "Promoting active learning in universities". It presents the group's conclusions concerning the potential of active learning to foster skilled professionals, critical and creative thinkers, and engaged citizens. It also points to the need for a cultural shift in the academic environment, in which teachers would become facilitators of learning and students their active partners, and how such a shift can be implemented in an encompassing way.

A naturalistic study of 21 college students (at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania) writing research papers provides detailed analyses of the roles that notetaking, planning, goal-setting, and revising play in students' approaches and examines whether these "high investment" reading and writing processes lead to higher quality papers. Findings suggest that in order to help students use reading and writing as tools for critical inquiry, teachers need to structure research paper assignments in particular ways and to help students to examine and revise their interpretations of common academic writing assignments such as the research paper. (Three tables of data are included; 36 references are attached.) (Author/SG)

The rapid proliferation of technology can have profound effects on the evolution of teaching, learning, scholarship, and governance in higher education (Katz, 2008). However, instructors report that simply "keeping up" with new instructional technologies, let alone integrating them productively into one's teaching, can be a significant challenge (Sorcinelli, Austin, Eddy, & Beach, 2006; Zhu, Kaplan, & Dershimer, 2011). This Occasional Paper describes how instructors at the University of Michigan are currently using online collaboration tools (hereafter OCTs) in a variety of disciplines and teaching contexts to enhance student engagement and course management. Based on these cases and faculty interviews, the authors also outline recommendations for implementing OCTs effectively and efficiently in teaching.

Using data from the 2008 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, we show that study time and academic conscientiousness were lower among students in humanities and social science majors than among students in science and engineering majors. Analytical and critical thinking experiences were no more evident among humanities and social sciences majors than among science and engineering majors. All three academically beneficial experiences were, however, strongly related to participation in class and interaction with instructors, and participation was more common among humanities and social sciences students than among science and engineering students. Bok's (2006) influential discussion of "underachievement" in undergraduate education focused on institutional performance. Our findings indicate that future discussions should take into account differences among disciplinary categories and majors as well. (Contains 4 tables and 13 footnotes.)

Learning communities are a popular strategy that community colleges nationwide have embraced in support of developmental students. In a learning community, a cohort of students takes two or more courses linked by integrated themes and assignments that are developed through ongoing faculty collaboration. While the number of learning community programs continues to grow, rigorous studies measuring their effectiveness are limited. To address this need for evidence, the Learning Communities demonstration, launched in 2007, uses random assignment to test models of learning communities at six community colleges: Kingsborough Community College, Queensborough Community College, Hillsborough Community College, Merced College, Houston Community College System, and Community College of Baltimore County. The study is designed to determine: (1) how learning communities can be designed to address the needs of academically underprepared students; (2) the effects of learning communities on student achievement, as measured by test scores, credits earned, and grades; (3) the effects of learning communities on students' persistence in higher education; and (4) what learning communities cost and how these costs compare with the costs of standard college programs for students with low basic skills. Preliminary findings will be available in 2009. This working paper describes the study's design, including a summary of the theoretical and empirical research relevant to learning communities, descriptions of the sites and their learning community models, the random assignment procedures, and plans for data analysis. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure, and 67 notes.) [This paper was produced by the National Center for Postsecondary Research. It was written with the assistance of Oscar Cerna, Christine Sansone, and Michelle Ware.]

In this paper the authors identified the size of America's home market as a crucial component of its historical comparative advantage. The authors showed that over the last four decades nearly 60 percent of per capita U.S. growth has been dependent upon growth in the domestic consumption. Thus, a comprehensive demand side strategy also must target the domestic consumers U.S. businesses know best. On the supply side, they asked themselves what education and skills matter for individual and national economic success in the global economy? The authors' research demonstrated that education matters for growth and college matters the most. Boosting college completion rates by just 10 percent would inject $125 billion into the economy over the long run. Education credentials often serve as a signaling devise that employers use to gauge what potential hires might know and be able to do on the job. Employers are really interested in the knowledge, skills and abilities people bring to the workplace, not just their education credentials. The authors examined a new data set to test this hypothesis and found preliminary evidence to support it. The authors showed that the greater the level of skill required of occupations, the higher the education levels of job incumbents. Secondly, they found that the greater the level of skill required of occupations, the greater the average earnings for workers in those occupations, after holding constant the level of education. Consequently, not only is there a clear payoff to education, there also is an independent payoff to higher skills. And that appears true not only for competencies like innovation, critical thinking, and complex problem solving, but also for basic skills and social skills that are important in interacting with colleagues and customers. They also found that these competencies were useful in estimating which jobs are most vulnerable to being offshored overseas. In conclusion, they recognize that globalization is neither automatically beneficial nor universally destructive. Neither their analysis nor history offer assurances, though their work does suggest some ways forward. Therefore, they should identify strategies that will enable America to seize opportunities presented by globalization while minimizing its negative effects on communities, workers, and their families. Average Earnings by Education of Workers and the Competency Level Occupations Require are appended. (Contains 14 figures, 8 tables and 57 endnotes.) [This paper was written with Zamira Simkins.]

This paper draws on current research and analyzes participant interactions in a 12-week leadership online training course with students from 14 Latin American countries. The paper systematizes the experience of the Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES) and constitutes a case study of an experience in a regional, non-academic online training course. The research concentrates specifically on the effects of and influences on different types of interaction, particularly taking into consideration the intricacies and interrelations of participation, critical thinking, achievement and their relationship to gender. The paper quantifies student-to-student postings in the different online discussion conferences, relates the postings to activity types as well as learning outcomes, and gauges the levels of critical thinking in the postings. The analysis is carried out by gender in order to highlight similarities and differences between male and female participants. Finally, other forms of interaction (student-to-content, interface and, instructor) are briefly analyzed using student reports and surveys. Our results suggest positive influences of interaction for an online course, illustrated by positive correlations between grades for written course work and number of postings in the activity conferences as well as total number of postings in all conferences. Additionally, results also point to certain gender preferences for particular discussion forums, but due to the small sample size, no definitive conclusions could be made. Appended are: (1) Learning activity examples; and (2) Evaluation survey results. (Contains 5 footnotes, 9 tables, and 3 figures.) [This paper was produced by the Integration and Regional Programs Department, Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES).]

Since, its early development in our nation's capital, the Power Teaching Prototype (PTP) has evolved to connect three factors likely to characterize 21st Century teaching and learning. Teaching for understanding requires a clear method of designing instruction and a simple, yet powerful, way of delivering. For the design of instruction, Harvard University Project Zero Research Center's teaching for understanding (TfU) framework stands out for its collaboration between top teachers and selected researchers. Howard Gardner's MI approached (based on his multiple intelligences theory) provides a way of delivering student centered instruction. Thus, the first factor of PTP combines design and delivery. In turn, the second factor is information literacy. The core definition of information literacy draws on a 1989 Presidential report which said that information literate people can locate, evaluate, and create information. Information literacy extends teaching for understanding with the use of appropriate technology. Lastly, the third factor is Howard Gardner's five minds for the future. Gardner asserts that five minds are likely to need full development in schools and workplaces: his quintet of minds are the disciplined mind, synthesizing mind, creating mind, respectful mind, and ethical mind. Developing this set of capacities provides ample opportunities for assessing performances of understanding over time. The interaction of the three factors equals leverage for learning in a "flat world." From a systems perspective, Asa Hilliard's "Sba" (deep thought) may be one emergent property. On the one hand, power teaching becomes a way of creating scenarios about the future of Edward Waters College. On the other hand, PTP becomes a way of designing "Theories of Learning," a psychology seminar, one allowing students to experience new paradigm practices even as they study multiple views of human learning.

Educators must work together to ensure that every American young person has access to the skills and experiences needed to become a full participant, can articulate their understanding of how media shapes perceptions, and has been socialized into the emerging ethical standards that should shape their practices as media makers and participants in online communities. A central goal of this report is to shift the focus of the conversation about the digital divide from questions of technological access to those of opportunities to participate and to develop the cultural competencies and social skills needed for full involvement. Schools as institutions have been slow to react to the emergence of this new participatory culture; the greatest opportunity for change is currently found in afterschool programs and informal learning communities. Schools and afterschool programs must devote more attention to fostering what we call the new media literacies: a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement. The new literacies almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom. The new skills include: (1) Play; (2) Performance; (3) Simulation; (4) Appropriation; (5) Multitasking; (6) Distributed Cognition; (7) Collective Intelligence; (8) Judgment; (9) Transmedia Navigation; (10) Networking; and (11) Negotiation. (Contains 81 sources.) [This paper was written with Katie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice J. Robison, and Margaret Weigel.]

This paper's charge is to lay out the central ideas about learning and teaching that run throughout contemporary educational discourse. It details nine concepts of learning, knowledge, and teaching that have formed the basis for recent education reform. Specifically, this report explores the nine concepts that emphasize "active construction of meaning," individual and collaborative work, use of student diversity as a resource for learning, and emphasis on both basic and advanced knowledge and skills. These learning goals make teaching more challenging, as teachers must assume increasingly varied roles, share responsibility with students, and work continually to improve their practice. Tools for instructional improvement are appended. (Contains 1 table.)

The focus of this research paper is on the role of teachers and the teaching strategies used in classrooms. The premise is that teachers are now realizing that they need to reach beyond traditional ways of teaching in order to assist their students in acquiring a deeper understanding of the topics being studied while developing critical thinking abilities. Strategies examined in the article are Social Interaction, Problem Based Learning, Inductive and Deductive (Eggen, 2001). By familiarizing themselves with the aforementioned strategies, teachers will be able to clearly define learning objectives and appreciate the value of these strategies in enhancing students learning. Included in the strategies are examples that teachers can implement into their instructional modes to ensure differentiated instructional and an equal learning opportunity for all students.

This research set out to explore the connections between the use of global data in primary mathematics lessons as a way of engaging and inspiring teachers and pupils and raising levels of participation from more reluctant mathematicians. The study explores to what extent teachers are keen to use this approach to teaching and learning in mathematics and how much it provides an opportunity to connect learning across the curriculum. It reveals the current levels of desire and confidence of teachers to use global data in maths lessons, examining to what extent they feel that global data provides a real, relevant and purposeful context for learning, which can in turn motivate pupils to engage further in mathematics. It also investigates how using global data can further motivate and inspire teachers. The study employed qualitative data collection methods with teachers and pupils across six schools.

This study examined differences in personality type for college freshmen and the effects of participation in undergraduate research on critical thinking and reflective judgment scores. Participants were 266 undergraduate students. While correlations between personality and the thinking measures were low and of little practical significance, a repeated measures analysis revealed a two-way interaction between research participation and major for change in critical thinking score. A second repeated measures analysis with simple contrasts revealed a two-way interaction between research participation and gender for change in reflective judgment score. Findings thus indicate that participation in undergraduate research affects critical thinking and reflective judgment for some students. The paper also discuses implications and limitations of the study. (Contains 5 figures, 4 tables, and 39 references.) (SLD)

This document contains nine papers from a systematic, classroom-based study of multiple intelligences (MI) theory in different adult learning contexts during which adult educators from rural and urban areas throughout the United States conducted independent inquiries into the question of how MI theory can support instruction and assessment in adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education, and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The following papers are included: "Will Awareness of Their Own Intelligence Profiles Help My Students Become More Independent Learners?" (Betsy Cornwell); "How Can Teacher and Student, Working Collaboratively, a. Identify the Student's Strongest Intelligences through MI-Based Assessment and Classroom Activities? [and] b. Use the Understanding of These Intelligences To Guide the Learning Process?" (Meg Costanzo); "1. What Impact Do ESOL Activities Informed by the MI Theory Have on Student Engagement and Learning Strategies? [and] 2. How Do Prior Cultural Learning and Experiences Shape Students' Reaction to and Participation in ESOL Activities Informed by the MI Theory?" (Terri D. Coustan); "What Kind of MI-Informed Instruction and Assessment Can Be Developed That Will Help Adult Learners Deal with Math Anxiety, So They May Reach Their Stated Goals?" (Bonnie Fortini); "Can MI-Informed Lessons Help the Progress and Attendance of LD (Learning Disabilities) and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Students Preparing for a GED?" (Martha Jean); "How Will Adult Diploma Students' Awareness of Their Own Intelligences and Their Participation in Activities Informed by MI Theory Affect Their Career Decision-Making Process?" (Jean A. Mantzaris); "What Effect Does Metacognitive Awareness of Their Own Multiple Intelligences Have on the Perceptions of Effective ESOL Teaching and Learning by Students With Limited Native Language Literacy? What Happens When I Try To Integrate MI into an ESOL Class?" (Diane Paxton); "Will the Use of a Multiple Intelligences Framework Support the Goals and Practices of Popular Education in an ABE Classroom?" (Wendy Quinones); and "How Does Knowledge of Multiple Intelligence Theory Broaden a Multi-Sensory Approach to the Teaching of Writing? How Does the Application of Multiple Intelligence Theory Enhance a Multi-Sensory Approach to the Teaching of Reading?" (Lezlie Rocka). Concluding the document is a 72-item reference list. (MN)