The concept of the art of building teacher’s skills and tools is seen as a potential for proficiency in didactic and educational activities. Individual predispositions conducive to teachers’ predictable and/or creative activities are demonstrated. R. J. Sternberg’s investment theory of creativity, which fits into the phases of teachers’ professional development, turns out to be helpful in forming their skills and tools. In each phase, both methodological models and creative solutions are sought, and as such, they are discussed by means of theoretical divagations and selected research findings.

This article aims to offer a broad view of the term creativity and to attempt to understand new ways of teaching and learning in early childhood education. It is necessary for educational administrations and schools to be aware so that it is committed to the design and development of didactic-pedagogical proposals that promote the improvement of the quality of teaching.

A language is a tool that helps human beings to discover the world. It enables naming things, objects, phenomena, as well as describing observed and experienced states and activities. With a use of language, everybody can express their feelings and attitude to others. A child naturally maneuvers a language and plays with it, disclosing its verbal creativity. Verbal creativity may be described as an ability of transforming previously heard sentences into new ones, original in terms of content, form and method of expression. The aim of this article is to explain the importance of verbal creativity in the process of growth of every human being. The article starts with an explanation of the creativity issue and one of its forms, verbal creativity. In the further part of the article, Howard Gardner’s linguistic intelligence is discussed, along with determinants of children’s verbal activity. Several examples of tasks, helping to develop children’s linguistic creativity close the article.

Creativity is an important element of adaptation to the constantly changing world. Family environment is a natural place for creative development of young children. There are differences in the creativity of children and adults both in terms of its form and content. They result from mental differences related to the developmental period. The creative potential of the family is influenced by the psychological diversity of family members. The article presents some activities of everyday life with family environment, which can be used to develop creativity in pre-school children. These include: observing adults, joint household chores performed by children with their parents, solving everyday problems together and playing together. The text also discusses some issues related to conditions conducive to successful support of children’s creativity.

Nowadays, creativity is a growing value due to its close relationship with problem solving and entrepreneurship. In this paper, we present the actions that are being carried out in the Children’s Education Workshop of the University of Cadiz in relation to the promotion of creativity with 3D technology. The actions are being carried out in both Higher Education and Early Childhood Education (ECE). On the one hand, we are working with the design and creation of didactic material with 3D technology with our students in initial training and future pre-school teachers, and on the other hand, with children from pre-school stage through the theory of Gardner’s multiple intelligences and 3D technology.

The world is facing tremendous trials that imply new strategies. To foster creativity and innovation in education is a must today, but many challenges dwell between theory and practice. This article provides a perspective of Portuguese researchers and educators, by reflecting on current global problems as well as on how creativity is being applied in schools. It emphasises the problems that we still face, but it also highlights the positive work bringing new and exciting projects into educational settings. It also highlights the importance of multidisciplinary work and the need to optimize children’s inner resources, such as creativity and innovation as a way to prepare for present and future uncertainties.

The aim of the article is to indicate the need to develop the culture of creativity in schools in order to enable the participants of educational dialogue to fulfil their personal creativity that will help them reach their potential and improve the common good in their community. The article defines the culture of creativity, describes creativity as a personal quality and indicates its importance in the functioning of students and teachers, as well as in the work of school as an organisation. Emphasis is placed on the need to personalise the processes of education, i.e., to accept the innate abilities, creative potential and multiple intelligences of learners, and to enable them to pursue their interests and develop their strengths. The article indicates the need for creating the environment which supports learners’ natural ability to learn and building learning power, which is based on the notion of helping young people to become better learners, cultivating attitudes that enable them to cope with difficulties calmly, confidently and creatively, as well as helping them to build up the mental, emotional, social and strategic resources. Furthermore, the article presents the assumptions of everyday creativity theory, which constitute the fundament of author’s creative life orientations concept. The importance of creative life orientations of teachers and students is shown as necessary for building the culture of creativity in school. The range, character and generalised results of the study on preferences for creative life orientations among teachers are briefly presented, indicating a low level of acceptance for this type of orientation and the dominance of preference for conservative and ambivalent orientations. The role of the teacher’s pedagogical creativity is emphasised as necessary for creating conditions for learner’s creativity and building the culture of creativity in school. Additionally, the article puts emphasis on the need for social acceptance for everyday creativity and acknowledging personal creativity as a value, appreciating it in public sphere, demonstrating its emancipatory value and emphasising its axiological dimension.

Design thinking - a chance for innovation in higher education institutions

Design thinking as a way of reasoning is becoming more and more popular nowadays. Originated in business and transferred to other areas, it is now being implemented even in education and science. With its four or five steps in the whole process, interdisciplinary teams can solve every problem and find a solution which meets the needs and expectations of the end-users. This approach has also been successfully implemented in higher education institutions and it is through that HEIs are becoming more open and efficient in their cooperation with business, public administration, NGOs and other stakeholders.

The historical-comparative study presents research findings concerning the development of creativity measured by the KREATOS test in pupils of the 5th to 9th grades at the lower secondary education level (N = 386). The aim was to create the creativity development curve of contemporary pupils in the 5th to 9th grades of elementary school, where pupils achieved the highest level of creativity in the sixth (p ≤ 0.001) and then in the ninth grades. Our aim was to compare the current creativity development curve with elementary school pupils’ creativity development curves of 1979 and 1985, created by E. Sollarová (1979, 1985) using also the KREATOS test. Our findings indicated a significantly higher level of creativity (p ≤ 0.001) in pupils in the years 1979 and 1985 as compared to the creativity level in pupils in 2013.

An overview of the literature on gifted students suggests that students can be gifted by showing intelligence and/or creative abilities. Whether teachers are able to recognize intelligent and/or creative students is a matter of being skilled and can have a tremendous impact on students’ course of education. In out study, we included students of Slovenian primary schools who were either recognized as gifted or non-gifted by their teachers. To find out what differences occur in the creativity levels of gifted and non-gifted students, their creativity levels were recorded using the LV1Test, measuring their artistic-creative and artistic-appreciative abilities. Data analysis reveals that the gifted students were more successful in gaining a higher average score on the test, as well as the majority of individual items in the test.

Innovation of products is one of the most important factor of competition therefore supporting of creative actions of employers is one of the intentionally introduced changes in the organization. Historical analysis of development of management theories from one hand and projects of organization of work spaces form the other hand show co-evolution of them. That is main changes of management theories join with changes in design. In this paper we try to identify (using projects from web sites and specialist publication) a few trends relating to create work space supporting creativity. One of the important trends is imitation of the solutions implemented by companies that are considered innovative. Therefor you wonder if spatial solutions support changes in management practices or rather replace them. In other words, if in some cases the management is not replaced by the design.

Wybitna amerykańska artystka Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), poddając analizie własną twórczość, stwierdziła, iż całe dzieło artysty polega na tworzeniu autoportretu, a rozumiejąc jej słowa szerzej - każde dzieło artysty jest doświadczeniem autobiograficznym i co z tego dalej wynika - doświadczeniem arteterapeutycznym. Wychodząc od powyższego stwierdzenia, przedstawiam zapis refleksji dwojakiego rodzaju. Pierwsza z nich odnosi się do własnego doświadczenia twórczego i jednocześnie arteterapeutycznego podczas malowania serii obrazów pt. Otwarcie-wniknięcie. Dziewięć wybranych płócien z tego cyklu powstało w latach 1997-2005. Z okazji Jubileuszu 40-lecia Wydziału Pedagogiki i Psychologii Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku zostały one zaprezentowane w formie wystawy indywidualnej eksponowanej w uniwersyteckiej Galerii Nowe Skrzydło w 2017 roku. Druga z refleksji dotyczy autorskiego warsztatu atreterapeutycznego, który przeprowadziłam ze studentami kierunku pedagogika z Wydziału Pedagogiki i Psychologii Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku w 2017 roku. Warsztat pt. OBRAZY przygotowany w ramach przedmiotu nauczania arteterapia był działaniem, w którym studenci dosłownie „wykorzystali” wspomniane obrazy jako pretekst albo wręcz jako medium do autorefleksji, do budowania „autoportretu wewnętrznego”, czy też do sięgania (poprzez obcowanie z konkretnym obrazem) do własnej biografii. Wynikające stąd obserwacje przedstawiam w końcowej części tekstu. W artykule przytaczam wybrane fragmenty autobiograficznych wypowiedzi studentów zainspirowane moimi dziesięcioma sugestiami. Analiza pisemnych refleksji uczestników warsztatu wykazała, iż ujawnili w nim aktywną postawę wobec samych siebie, otwierając możliwości świadomego rozwoju emocjonalnego oraz intelektualnego, wnikliwej i dojrzałej obserwacji rzeczywistości oraz w efekcie optymalizacji jakości własnego życia. Nabyli też umiejętności rozwiązywania konfliktów wewnętrznych, zapobiegania trudnościom życiowym i przezwyciężania przeszkód stojących na drodze do samorealizacji.

Autorzy przedstawili kreatywność w nauczaniu i uczeniu się jako główną siłę napędową tworzenia wiedzy, awansu społecznego i gospodarczego. Ocenili opinie nauczycieli i studentów na temat praktyki kreatywnego nauczania w szkolnictwie wyższym w Rwandzie. Wszyscy respondenci podzielali wspólne poglądy na temat konieczności zwiększania kreatywności w szkolnictwie wyższym. W badaniu zasugerowano, że istnieje potrzeba dalszego doskonalenia różnych metod nauczania i uczenia się, aby skutecznie wdrażać kreatywność w nauczaniu i uczeniu się, co ma kluczowe znaczenie dla wykształcenia kompetentnych i wykwalifikowanych absolwentów, którzy mogą następnie pomóc w osiągnięciu krajowego celu, jakim jest zwiększenie innowacyjności.

The article reveals the importance of creativity in achieving psychological well-being in teachers of higher educational institutions and substantiates the feasibility of its study. Psychological well-being is considered as an important indicator in people’s lives, their desire for the development of personal potential, the formation of positive relationships, and productive creative activity for the benefit of society. The role of creativity in achieving the psychological well-being of a person as a unique creative ability, an important condition for human life, is substantiated. It affects self-acceptance, personal growth, creativity, among others. Creativity indicators (curiosity, creative opportunities, self-confidence, stability and persuasiveness, the desire to be an independent person, the ability to cope, etc.), affecting the psychological well-being of teachers of higher educational institutions, their satisfaction with life, work and themselves are investigated. It was established that the level of creativity is insufficient and that teachers for training specialists in social work have lower indicators than teachers of a foreign language. It is shown that creativity is a factor in psychological well-being and affects the formation of relationships with others, the purposefulness and meaningfulness of life, self-acceptance, personal growth, and the like. Statistically significant differences were found in terms of creativity and psychological well-being of the teachers who were studied depending on gender.

This article tries to examine the influence of using creative methods of teaching English on the language competency of Special Educational Needs (SEN) learners in mainstream Elementary Schools with integration classes in Poland. We questioned 64 English teachers working in such facilities throughout Poland. In the course of the research, we have proved the hypothesis that using creative techniques and approaches enhances growth of SEN learners’ language competency in an integration environment. Statistical tools are used to test answers to research questions. The first question measures the correlation between age, gender and seniority with the attitude towards implementing creative approaches, while the second concerns aspects of a creative teacher.

The presented text is the result of reflection on the issue of children’s artwork and the procedure of valuing the work of children at a younger school age in the process of art education. The article outlines considerations on creativity and children’s art creation in the context/conceptual context and attempts to present a procedure for the evaluation of children’s art creations in terms of the ways of imaging in the conceptual context. The study is addressed to researchers and teachers of early childhood education, it is also a voice in the discussion on evaluating student achievements and - according to the author - a stimulus for reflective educational activities.

The article presents the author’s integrated course, which is directly aimed at the parallel development of students’ soft- and hard-skills who master the profession in the automotive industry. Hard skills formation requires the acquisition of professional knowledge and implementation of instructions that can be tested through the exam. In contract, softskills include general, supra-professional skills (social, intellectual and volitional competencies, sociability, teamwork skills, leadership skills, creativity, punctuality , emotion management skills, etc.). In the coming years, significant changes are forecast in the automotive industry, in the design of heat engines, aimed not only at their improvement in particular, but also at the use of fundamentally new designs and types of engines. Under such conditions, a significant number of specialists will be forced to retrain, in the process of which fundamental training, the formation of softskills in particular, should be a significant help. It is covered a long time to quantify the effectiveness of the integrated special course, and three leading softskills (critical thinking, creativity and cognitive flexibility) are identified. It is concluded that the integration of softand hard skills is an effective means of developing knowledge, skills and thinking, which contributes to improving the professionalism of professionals. The study of the proposed author’s course gives positive changes in the professional competence of future automotive professionals.

Wartime memes as a coping strategy

Memes are a unit of information in the socio-cultural field. Ukrainian memes and their number increased until March 10-15, after which their number began to decrease. The aim of our study was to analyze memes for compliance with their coping strategies. The analysis and systematization of 370 units of memes created in Ukraine in the period from February 25, 2022 to March 31, 2022 was used. Of the memes considered, purely text memes accounted for 60%: meme words (rashists, Huylo, Chornobaivka, palyanytsia), meme phrases (Russian ship), meme expressions (Good evening, we are from Ukraine!). Creolized or mixed memes (picture and signature) accounted for 33%. Image only – 7% In the first days after the start of the war, memes appeared related to the desire to resist the enemy. When analyzing memes and comparing them with coping strategies, it was found that memes with constructive coping strategies predominate among Ukrainian wartime memes. The style of memes (semi-productive) is also widely used, which is aimed at finding support and restoring psycho-emotional balance. Memes of this type began to appear 2–3 weeks after the start of hostilities and are small (10-12%) of the total number of images. They reflect relationships between people, experiences related to separation from family members, attempts at complacency. According to a number of memes, the people of Ukraine are trying to overcome their anxiety not in a passive way, but by understanding the environment, which can also be perceived as a sufficiently adequate coping strategy. Attitude to such horrific events as shelling and bombing with a sufficient amount of humor allows you to master yourself in new military circumstances. The culture of memes has not escaped the problems of refugees and internally displaced persons. This issue is small and calls for understanding and compassion for refugees. Unlike typical memes, this image is not anonymous, but it has also spread widely on the Internet and has become a meme. Unproductive coping is either not represented in wartime meme culture at all, or it is ridiculed and perceived as clearly inappropriate behavior.

The take & make method in performative education. Case study

The article is a report on the research carried out in a group of pedagogy students on the use of the take&make performative method in the subject of comparative pedagogy. The aim of the research was to learn about the experiences of pedagogy students regarding the implementation of an optional performative task within the subject of comparative pedagogy. During the research the case study method was used. The technique used in the study was the technique of analyzing documents, in this case entries on a didactic forum on an e-learning platform – their content and available information on entries, such as the date of entry and the average grade of the student entering the registration. The main strategy for data analysis was qualitative analysis and the complementary strategy was quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis covers the nature of the responses to correctly completed tasks – the type of action undertaken by the students and its creative or imitative nature, as well as the strategies undertaken by students who failed the task. The quantitative analysis covered the number of submitted works, the number of passed works (performative solutions) and failed works (non-performative solutions), their correlation with the average grade for compulsory tasks and the time of submitting the work. The article points to the need to use performative methods in education that mobilize students to act, not only to plan their own actions.

Innovation is one of the key factors for growth and development in any society. However, there are many factors that can potentially impede innovation capacity. One of them is culture; this study has investigated how some African cultural practices can affect innovation potential. The author has taking into consideration such practices like prostrating, kneeling, bowing to show respect when greeting, and the perception that asking questions / been curious is impolite and disrespectful. Innovation can be triggered by curiosity and the desire to try new things; hence this research is an attempt to understand how intellectual curiosity and creativity can be stifled as a result of excessive adherence to certain cultural practices. The survey design used to collect primary data for the research featured 57 questions with total respondents of 502. Logistic regression was used to measure the predictive power and the degree to which the independent variables affected the target variable. 65% of respondents asserted that they grew up learning to be curious and had the cultural privilege to ask questions around older people. The study shows a positive relationship between growing up curious, asking questions around older people, and being potentially innovative while other cultural practices like showing respect by prostrating, kneeling, bowing, curiosity and not challenging traditional practices shows a negative relationship with innovation potential with the highest negative correlation value. However, this does not suggest that the continuous observance of these practices suppresses people’s innovation potential because correlation does not imply causation. The findings in this study implies that for Africa and Nigeria to become more competitive with respect to innovation potential, it must embrace and prioritize an open culture that eliminates subjugation in any form, one that values curiosity, out of the box thinking and creativity.