Discovering innovative methods to improve students’ Creativity and Critical thinking for their future

​When we want to prepare students for real-world careers and challenges and train them with 21st-century skills, we often forget to value creativity. As educators, we have to create a safe space where everyone has the chance to express their creativity and develop the ability to think outside the box.

The new edition of the course “Promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving in the classroom​” took place in Palermo from 04/02/2024 to 10/02/2024. The participants Bożena, Joanna Beata, Joanna Elżbieta, Mateusz, Wictoria, Marian, Ewa and Magdalena came from Szkoła Podstawowa nr 1 im. Świętego Józefa w Kaszowie in Poland

The course started talking about key competencies for living in the 21st century and with participants we examined the topic of learning and innovation skills, digital skills and career and life skills, focusing their attention on the 4Cs: critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. We also learned through practical activities how our brain and thinking skills function in various ways when there is a problem to solve. 

​Participants have faced a series of challenges to reflect on how they can overcome ordinary obstacles to thinking outside the box by using specific methods. For example, using the 6 Thinking Hats method, participants practised “lateral thinking” and developed its application to some current content they were teaching. They realised, through individual exercises and peer reviews, that this method can be useful for any subject and issue, but also as a productive assessment tool to encourage students to have new perspectives.

During the course we also analysed visual strategies: participants experienced new activities which could be shared with students to unleash their creativity and could also be a basis for brainstorming or discussing their ideas. We proposed an innovative and digital perspective through interactive, animated and gamified content that could improve the perception of the characteristics of “visual thinking”.

Another important topic of this course was critical thinking because students need to develop their thoughts in a world where we are used to receiving passively a lot of (dis)information. So participants joined in reasoning, questioning and debating activities that could be adaptable to different issues to help students become more active and aware agents of their learning.

However, sometimes we also must search for new solutions in traditional tools to improve creative expression and critical thinking in the classroom. For this reason, our participants enjoyed playing both innovative and traditional games and could adapt them to their subjects, strengthening creativity and critical thinking.

It was a week full of fun, creativity and new experiences, where everyone could create a personalized collection of their training. We are sure that our participants will apply everything they learned during the course in their classroom with excitement!

Discover more about this course here.