creative thinking in school education

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PISA in Focus

How are education systems integrating creative thinking in schools.

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• ISSN: 22260919 (online)
• https://doi.org/10.1787/22260919
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Creative thinking matters. It is consistently ranked among the top skills employers value and, when students think creatively, their motivation to learn increases and their learning becomes deeper and more transferable. As more education systems formally recognise the key role that education can play in nurturing creative thinking skills, the question is: what policies are needed to ensure that, systematically, all young people have the opportunity to develop these skills as part of their formal education? To what extent are education systems supporting their students and teachers in promoting the kinds of learning environments where creative thinking can flourish? This brief addresses these questions by reporting and analysing responses to an online policy survey from 90 national and sub-national education jurisdictions participating in PISA 2022.

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Author(s) Marta Cignetti and Marc Fuster Rabella

16 Jun 2023

What creativity really is - and why schools need it

Associate Professor of Psychology and Creative Studies, University of British Columbia

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Liane Gabora's research is supported by a grant (62R06523) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

University of British Columbia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation CA.

University of British Columbia provides funding as a member of The Conversation CA-FR.

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Although educators claim to value creativity , they don’t always prioritize it.

Teachers often have biases against creative students , fearing that creativity in the classroom will be disruptive. They devalue creative personality attributes such as risk taking, impulsivity and independence. They inhibit creativity by focusing on the reproduction of knowledge and obedience in class.

Why the disconnect between educators’ official stance toward creativity, and what actually happens in school?

How can teachers nurture creativity in the classroom in an era of rapid technological change, when human innovation is needed more than ever and children are more distracted and hyper-stimulated ?

These are some of the questions we ask in my research lab at the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia. We study the creative process , as well as how ideas evolve over time and across societies. I’ve written almost 200 scholarly papers and book chapters on creativity, and lectured on it worldwide. My research involves both computational models and studies with human participants. I also write fiction, compose music for the piano and do freestyle dance.

What is creativity?

Although creativity is often defined in terms of new and useful products, I believe it makes more sense to define it in terms of processes. Specifically, creativity involves cognitive processes that transform one’s understanding of, or relationship to, the world.

There may be adaptive value to the seemingly mixed messages that teachers send about creativity. Creativity is the novelty-generating component of cultural evolution. As in any kind of evolutionary process, novelty must be balanced by preservation.

In biological evolution, the novelty-generating components are genetic mutation and recombination, and the novelty-preserving components include the survival and reproduction of “fit” individuals. In cultural evolution , the novelty-generating component is creativity, and the novelty-preserving components include imitation and other forms of social learning.

It isn’t actually necessary for everyone to be creative for the benefits of creativity to be felt by all. We can reap the rewards of the creative person’s ideas by copying them, buying from them or simply admiring them. Few of us can build a computer or write a symphony, but they are ours to use and enjoy nevertheless.

Inventor or imitator?

There are also drawbacks to creativity . Sure, creative people solve problems, crack jokes, invent stuff; they make the world pretty and interesting and fun. But generating creative ideas is time-consuming. A creative solution to one problem often generates other problems, or has unexpected negative side effects.

Creativity is correlated with rule bending, law breaking, social unrest, aggression, group conflict and dishonesty. Creative people often direct their nurturing energy towards ideas rather than relationships, and may be viewed as aloof, arrogant, competitive, hostile, independent or unfriendly.

Also, if I’m wrapped up in my own creative reverie, I may fail to notice that someone else has already solved the problem I’m working on. In an agent-based computational model of cultural evolution , in which artificial neural network-based agents invent and imitate ideas, the society’s ideas evolve most quickly when there is a good mix of creative “inventors” and conforming “imitators.” Too many creative agents and the collective suffers. They are like holes in the fabric of society, fixated on their own (potentially inferior) ideas, rather than propagating proven effective ideas.

Of course, a computational model of this sort is highly artificial. The results of such simulations must be taken with a grain of salt. However, they suggest an adaptive value to the mixed signals teachers send about creativity. A society thrives when some individuals create and others preserve their best ideas.

This also makes sense given how creative people encode and process information. Creative people tend to encode episodes of experience in much more detail than is actually needed. This has drawbacks: Each episode takes up more memory space and has a richer network of associations. Some of these associations will be spurious. On the bright side, some may lead to new ideas that are useful or aesthetically pleasing.

So, there’s a trade-off to peppering the world with creative minds. They may fail to see the forest for the trees but they may produce the next Mona Lisa.

Innovation might keep us afloat

So will society naturally self-organize into creators and conformers? Should we avoid trying to enhance creativity in the classroom?

The answer is: No! The pace of cultural change is accelerating more quickly than ever before. In some biological systems, when the environment is changing quickly, the mutation rate goes up. Similarly, in times of change we need to bump up creativity levels — to generate the innovative ideas that will keep us afloat.

This is particularly important now. In our high-stimulation environment, children spend so much time processing new stimuli that there is less time to “go deep” with the stimuli they’ve already encountered. There is less time for thinking about ideas and situations from different perspectives, such that their ideas become more interconnected and their mental models of understanding become more integrated.

This “going deep” process has been modeled computationally using a program called Deep Dream , a variation on the machine learning technique “Deep Learning” and used to generate images such as the ones in the figure below.

The images show how an input is subjected to different kinds of processing at different levels, in the same way that our minds gain a deeper understanding of something by looking at it from different perspectives. It is this kind of deep processing and the resulting integrated webs of understanding that make the crucial connections that lead to important advances and innovations.

Cultivating creativity in the classroom

So the obvious next question is: How can creativity be cultivated in the classroom? It turns out there are lots of ways ! Here are three key ways in which teachers can begin:

Focus less on the reproduction of information and more on critical thinking and problem solving .

Curate activities that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, such as by painting murals that depict biological food chains, or acting out plays about historical events, or writing poems about the cosmos. After all, the world doesn’t come carved up into different subject areas. Our culture tells us these disciplinary boundaries are real and our thinking becomes trapped in them.

Pose questions and challenges, and follow up with opportunities for solitude and reflection. This provides time and space to foster the forging of new connections that is so vital to creativity.

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Teaching Creative Thinking: Developing learners who generate ideas and can think critically

This book offers a model for creativity in schools along with guidance on the most effective pedagogies and suggestions for how creativity can be assessed..

Teaching Creative Thinking, by Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer, offers teachers a model of creativity, developed in two pilot trials in schools in England by the University of Winchester and now in use in schools in more than 35 countries across the world.

Five creative thinking habits

The model describes creativity as a set of five creative habits, each with three sub-habits:

1. Inquisitive

Creative individuals are good at uncovering and pursuing interesting and worthwhile questions in their creative domain. They enjoy wondering and questioning, exploring and investigating and challenging assumptions.

2. Imaginative

The ability to come up with imaginative solutions and possibilities is important. Creative pupils enjoy playing with possibilities, making connections and using their intuition.

3. Persistent

Creative students do not give up easily. They see the value of sticking with difficulty, daring to be different and tolerating uncertainty.

4. Collaborative

In today’s world complex challenges require creative collaboration. This requires learners to become confident in sharing whatever product they are developing, giving and receiving feedback and cooperating appropriately.

5. Disciplined

The careful development of expertise is key; creativity is learnable. Pupils work at developing techniques, reflecting critically and crafting and improving whatever they are creating.

Five signature pedagogies

For each of the five creative habits of mind, the book shows how some teaching methods are more helpful than others in cultivating creativity in young people, what it refers to as signature pedagogies. So, for example, if teachers want to develop their pupils’ inquisitive habit of mind they might use problem-based learning approaches. Or if the focus was on developing imagination, then playful experimentation such as possibility thinking - the willingness to see possibilities everywhere instead of limitations - might work well.

Case studies of promising practices

The book has six in depth examples of different approaches being used in schools including possibly the most advanced examples of teaching for creativity anywhere in the world, Thomas Tallis School in London (also featured in the first Durham Commission report) and Rooty Hill High School (RHHS) in Sydney, both of which share the ways in which they use the model of creativity in practice.

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Creativity in the Classroom

Make creativity a part of your teaching toolbox.

Learn how to use creativity in your classroom. In this module, watch interviews with renowned scholars in the field to see practice-based strategies to help you employ creativity every day and enhance academic outcomes.

The full module is 47 minutes. Watch the whole video , or browse through these individual segments that will answer your questions about using creativity in your classroom.

Segments of the module

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Welcome to Creativity in the Classroom

The introductory segment defines creativity, emphasizing that creativity involves newness and appropriateness that fits a particular situation.

(00:00–12:22)

What can creativity add to your classroom?

Review the research behind using creativity to enhance classroom/student outcomes.

(12:23–16:13)

What blocks creativity?

Understand the impact of stereotypes and misconceptions, as well as personal creativity perspective, use and growth.

(16:14–22:14)

Developing creative potential of your students

Protect and support your students’ intrinsic motivation. Establish supportive relationships—particularly with students who are sensitive to cultural and economic differences.

(22:15–32:13)

Becoming creative teachers

Showcase the creative passion in your teaching and use creative instructional strategies, methods, and models.

(32:14–40: 50)

Where can we go from here?

Follow the next steps to foster creativity in your classroom. Creativity needs encouragement and support by all (teachers, researchers, parents, policymakers).

(40:51–45:49)

The final segment provides concluding notes on the module.

(45:50–47:16)

• Additional module resources and references (PDF, 325KB)

Psychology in Schools

APA’s Center for Psychology in Schools and Education has more great resources for pre-K to 12 teaching and learning.

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4 Ways to Develop Creativity in Students

Creativity is a valuable skill, and there are common strategies teachers can use to help students develop it.

Creativity is the most difficult thinking skill to acquire, and also the most sought-after. We value it in our music, entertainment, technology, and other aspects of our existence. We appreciate and yearn for it because it enriches our understanding and can make life easier.

Creativity always starts with imagination, and history shows that many things we imagine are later actually created. Gene Roddenberry imagined the Star Trek flip communicators in 1966, and Motorola produced them in 1996. In the mid 1800s, Augusta Ada King envisioned a language for computing machines that didn’t even exist; today she is honored as the founder of modern programing languages.

When Benjamin Bloom identified what he called the taxonomy of the cognitive domain, he ranked synthesis (creativity) as one of the most difficult skills to master because a person has to use all of the other cognitive skills in the creative process. Since, according to Bloom, creating is the highest order of thinking, it should be in the forefront of all learning environments and an end goal. When students create what they imagine, they’re in the driver’s seat.

Creativity in the Classroom

When designing learning experiences, teachers can plan and frame curriculum and provide tools that give students options, voice, and choice in order to enable them to be creative. In my work in schools, I’ve found four things that successful teachers do to develop creativity in their students.

1. Set up learning activities that allow students to explore their creativity in relevant, interesting, and worthwhile ways. Classroom example: Fourth-grade students are presented with a sample of rocks. They are to devise tests to determine what kind of rocks they have based on the definitions they’ve studied. Students find their own ways to determine differences in hardness, color, and shapes.

Another classroom example: A kindergarten class creates a new illustrated book each week that celebrates a different member of the class or an adult at the school. Each book is full of pages drawn by each student. They have the full liberty of depicting what the person likes and how they perceive him or her.

2. Value creativity and celebrate and reward it. Classroom example: Third-grade students are learning about polygons and to see if they know the concept, the teacher takes them outside and gives each student a sidewalk chalk. Each student is given the task of drawing several examples of polygons on the driveway.

Once the students have accomplished this, the teacher tells the students to transform those shapes into something they love. The students want to show everyone their geometric-based kittens, robots, and dragons and then have an opportunity to explain to the whole class why they liked them.

3. Teach students the other skills they need to be creative. Classroom example: A second-grade class is learning about the concept of freezing. The teacher asks one question to get them started, “Does only water freeze?” The students then design an experiment to determine what other things freeze. The limit is that they can only use what they have in the classroom at the time.

The students come up with a list of things that they will leave outside to see if they freeze: water, juice, vinegar, glue, glass cleaner, toothpaste, and paper. Some suggestions they decide are already solids and shouldn’t go outside: pencils, erasers, and books (but somehow paper stays on the test list). The next day, they discuss their findings and have engaging conversations about why the paper is stiff and the vinegar has not frozen.

The initial discussion among students about what might freeze fosters skills such as advocating for one’s ideas and compromising. The follow-up discussion encourages deductive reasoning and active listening.

4. Remove constraints for creativity and give the students space and a framework in which they can be creative. Classroom example: A sixth-grade class produces Halloween costume plays. In order to wear costumes to school, the students have to write a play that incorporates each of their characters into a plot and then present the play. For instance, they have to come up with how a giant soda can and the superhero Wonder Woman will interact. The students love the challenge.

We Learn by Doing

Imagination and creativity are the traits that fuel the future. Both serve to inspire students and should be integrated into every part of learning. In planning and designing learning for students, this we know: Teaching students how to think is more important than teaching students what to think.

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7 Methods to Develop Creative Thinking Skills for Students

Aida Elbanna Teaching Strategies Comments Off on 7 Methods to Develop Creative Thinking Skills for Students 15,937 Views

Creative thinking skills for students are what every teacher knows to be crucial in the learning process. Giving students the chance and space to think creatively will definitely be fruitful in the long run.

Creative-based activities, games, and questions are endless.  Consider trying to implement any of these exercises at least once a week for your class, and you’ll notice a huge improvement in engagement as well as creativity. 

What Is Creative Thinking in Education?

According to Kampylis and Berki (2014) , 

“Creative thinking is defined as the thinking that enables students to apply their imagination to generating ideas, questions and hypotheses, experimenting with alternatives and to evaluating their own and their peers’ ideas, final products and processes.”

Importance of Creative Thinking for Students

Developing creative thinking in learners has long been considered an essential aspect of education and brain development. Harold Bloom (1956), the American Literary critic and educator, devised his Bloom’s Taxonomy which categorises learning into 6 categories—the final stage is to “create.” 

Bloom asserts that creation is an indispensable part of learning in which students are allowed to produce their own unique work, investigate solutions to problems, design a product, or develop a theory. 

Therefore, it can be said that creative thinking for students forms the culmination of students’ knowledge and education. 

The Importance of Bloom’s Taxonomy : The Teacher’s Guide to an Exceptional Classroom

In an article entitled “Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in Problem-based Learning Environments,” Bengi Birgili asserts that critical thinking skills entail analysing sources for credibility, making connections and drawing conclusions. 

He talks about how critical thinking involves several processes and cognitive actions. 

He believes that people, or rather students, who practice critical thinking on a regular basis can never behave without thinking, can think independently and can identify problems in detail.

Here are some of Birgili’s characteristics that go into the process of critical thinking: 

• Being analytical 
• Thinking without prejudice
• Paying attention to details
• Being open to changes

As Edward de Bono , author of Six Thinking Hats puts it:

“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”

Creative Thinking Examples for Students

Below are some methods, exercises and activities that teachers and schools can make use of for developing students’ creative thinking skills in the classroom or even beyond the school. 

a) Creative Thinking Games For Students

Dictionary story.

This exercise can be quite beneficial for teachers who like to pique students’ interest in vocabulary and enrich their skills. So get yourself a dictionary, cit pick a random word, and try to make up a brief story using the word you chose, the word above it, and the word below it. 

This exercise will reveal your students’ potential to find connections between words and mix ideas that might not relate to each other at first glance.

Ultimately, your students would have crafted a narrative out of simple means. This can form the basis of your fiction writing lessons and help your students when they are stuck for ideas. 

Six-word story 

When teachers are at a loss for creative thinking exercises for students, they like to resort to the old-fashioned technique called “six-word story.” It basically tests the students’ ability to be creative using only six words to form a story. 

According to Doug Weller , three elements make up a good six-word story: it makes sense to the reader, it takes him/her on a journey, and it leaves the reader with emotion. A perfect example of this would be Hemingway’s famous “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”

Make sure to give this exercise to your students next lesson and watch their creative minds bloom!

Avoid the letter ‘e’

Henri Matisse, the French Visual Artist, says “Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working.”  Recent research has debunked the myth that creativity is inherent or genetic. On the contrary, scientists now believe that creativity is a skill that is acquired through regular practice and exercise.

An entertaining way to develop your students’ creative thinking skills is to play the game “avoid the letter e.” You can organize the class into pairs and allow them to have a conversation without using the letter ‘e’.

This will train their minds to be resourceful when it comes to language usage. 

b) Creative Thinking Activities For Students

Take a look at some of these creative thinking activities for students to use online or in the actual classroom.

-Look Away from What You Are Creating  

Working on drawing what you actually see rather than what you imagine you see is the aim of the exercise.

So basically you get a pencil and a piece of paper and allow yourself 5 minutes. But do not look at the page while drawing. Instead, turn around and look at your hand while drawing, not the paper itself.

The goal is to draw the details of your hand and not your entire hand. Also, avoid picking up your pencil during this activity. 

-Concentrate on Quantity

A piece of paper with 30 empty circles, a pencil, and three minutes are provided to each participant. The challenge is to complete as many circles as you can; quantity, not quality, is the goal.

Perhaps each of your circles is a different take on a theme, or maybe they’re all emojis. Your sole objective is to complete as many as you could.

After the exercise, discuss and consider any commonalities you found, and promote teamwork. In this game, if you aim for quantity, you don’t have time to second-guess your plan because you can always alter it afterwards.

The creative process thrives at this point.

-Use a writing prompt

The writing topic is introduced and narrowed down via a writing prompt. Writing prompts are intended to spark students’ interest in a subject and inspire them to write critically and creatively about it.

An effective writing prompt should clearly define the writing task in addition to introducing and limiting the writing topic.

Take a look at these prompts:  

• What’s something you’ve always regretted saying?
• What’s something you never told your parents?
• If you could only keep one memory from your life, what would it be?
• Write about your spiritual life.
• Describe a “first.”

Modern Methods Of Teaching That Make An Awesome Classroom

c) Creative Thinking Questions For Students

If you’d like to get your students to think and engage at the beginning of the academic year, asking creative thinking questions is a great way to get to know new students and create a bond with the rest of the class as well. 

Here are 15 creative thinking questions to give you some inspiration. You’ll find questions that suit elementary up to high schoolers!

Perhaps you can assign these to groups, pairs or even individual students to make the activity richer.

• What is the machine that you can invent to make people’s life easier? Draw or describe it.
• Can you make a list of 10 rhyming words? Let’s use these words to write a poem.
• What if you have been elected to start your own country? Discuss what would be different about it.
• How would the world as we know it to be different if there were no electricity? List ten different ways.
• What adjectives would you use to explain a flower to someone who has never seen or heard of one before?
• Can you write a narrative about the zoo without using the names of any animals?
• What if tomorrow is “Backwards Day,” what would change in the world around us? How can people live like that? 
• What are five ways life would be different if we did not need to sleep? How would you use this extra time?
• If you could make one expensive thing for free forever, what thing would you choose? Why did you choose this in particular?
• If parents were required to take a test before they can have children, can you think of ten questions that would be on the test?
• Think of a way where you can make $100 by next week.
• Do you really need teachers at school or can you just learn from the Internet?
• If you went back in time and changed one thing, what would it be and why? How would the world be different then? 
• Name 10 different things you can do with a cup.
• If you were invisible for one day, what would you do? Where would you go?

After all, as Albert Einstein once famously said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” As a teacher, if you remind yourself every day that you are a big part of shaping their minds, you’ll never run out of ideas to encourage creative thinking skills for students.

About Aida Elbanna

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The Need for Creative Thinking in Our Schools

As a head teacher of two primary schools in East London, I was recently asked to present a ‘practitioner’s’ response to a recent report published by the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, and I was very pleased to do so.

The place of creativity in our education system is a conversation where I believe we have to keep the fire burning. There is sufficient evidence to indicate that as a country, England is falling behind education systems around the world where the development of creativity and critical thinking in students is taking centre stage. As a head teacher, I’m also aware that my view on the importance of developing creative thinking is not reflected in all schools, and certainly not sufficiently reflected within levers of government policy, such as the National Curriculum or the recently revised OFSTED Inspection Framework.

A quick glance through the history of education demonstrates that there has been momentum within our education system to develop creativity through the curriculum. In 1999, the Robinson Report encouraged us to consider a national strategy for creative and cultural education. I still believe that we need to develop a national strategy that facilitates and supports school leaders and teachers to foster creative and critical thinking. 2009 saw the implementation of Personal Learning and Thinking skills (PLTs), which marked a significant shift away from a curriculum dominated by knowledge toward one which also seeks to promote wider skills. Now we have the Durham Commission on Creativity in Education (2019), which aims to identify ways in which creativity and creative thinking can play a larger part in the lives of young people.

So, what does this mean for us in schools? Not a lot right now. As many education systems across the world are investigating pedagogies and the effective assessment of creative thinking skills through the curriculum, we seem to have moved towards a system that values the acquisition of knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge is very important for students, but this must be balanced alongside the acquisition and development of creative thinking skills.

The way school leaders are encouraged to lead their schools is heavily dominated by an accountability system that values outcomes in national tests (at the expense of wider personal and social development) within a rigid inspection system. School leaders face immense pressure to lead their schools according to the demands of the inspection framework. My most recent experiences with OFSTED Inspectors have indicated to me that knowledge acquisition is valued more than creative thinking. The mantra of ‘Know more, Remember more’ is central and the word ‘creativity’ seems to be disregarded.

I will illustrate this with a straightforward example. I’m currently headteacher of a five-form entry primary school and before I arrived, the school had been graded “Requires Improvement” by OFSTED. I’ve been head teacher of three schools, and one of the first things I’ve done at each is introduce what we call the ‘Creative Curriculum.’ This curriculum enabled my first school to become one of the highest performing schools in London – basically, we teach in a way that develops children academically while also developing their motivation, curiosity, and critical thinking skills. We recently hosted an advisory visit from current OFSTED inspectors. When we introduced our creative curriculum, the title alone stopped one particular inspector in his tracks. He signaled for my Curriculum Lead to stop talking, explaining that the word ‘creative’ made ‘alarm bells’ ring in his head. He is not the only inspector who has given us similar feedback. As an experienced head teacher, I may be able to withstand the external pressures facing our schools – but many school leaders will not.

What do we need to do? The Durham Commission makes a good start for us by defining creativity and critical thinking:

Creativity: The capacity to imagine, conceive, express, or make something that was not there before.

Creative Thinking: A process through which knowledge, intuition, and skills are applied to imagine, express, or make something novel or individual in its contexts . . . underpinned by perseverance, experimentation, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Teaching for Creativity: Explicitly using pedagogies and practices that cultivate creativity in young people.

If you are currently working in a school, take a moment to consider the extent to which your curriculum offer reflects this. Other countries in the UK, notably the development of the new national curriculum in Wales, are further advanced in their inclusion of creativity as a desired goal of education. The fact that PISA has signaled that the assessment of creative thinking is a priority for 2022 should be considered. The global development of creative thinking in education is a movement that we in England can no longer ignore.

My first recommendation for developing a greater emphasis on creative and critical thinking in our schools is that we need to implement systemic change. Therefore, we need to have the development of creative thinking as central to our National Curriculum. This must be underpinned by a strong emphasis on the development of our students’ social, personal, and emotional skills.

Second, we need to adapt our inspection system and accountability framework to value the development of creativity in schools. Our inspection framework should also place greater value on the quality and leadership of teachers’ professional learning and development.

Finally, if we want to develop our students as independent, creative, critical thinkers, we equally need to develop independent, creative, critical thinkers amongst our school leaders and teachers. We need to enable staff teams to teach in a way that nurtures critical thinking – a national professional development programme that makes it as easy as possible for school leaders and their staff teams to work together to implement a curriculum focused on the development of creativity in our students. We need to do this urgently, because these are the skills I believe our young people need to lead successful, fulfilling lives in the future.

If you enjoyed this blog, check out Kulvarn’s other posts!

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Stem-based curriculum and creative thinking in high school students.

1. Introduction

2. literature review, 2.1. theoretical framework, 2.2. studies on creative thinking and stem, 2.3. studies on stem-based curriculum implementation in the uae, 3. methodology, 3.1. context of the study, 3.2. research design, 3.3. participants and sampling, 3.4. stem-based learning activities, 3.5. instrument, 3.6. data analysis, 4. findings, stem-based education and creative thinking, 5. discussion, 6. recommendations.

• A STEM-based curriculum needs to be implemented from elementary to high school because the early implementation of STEM-based curricula sharpens students’ creative thinking skills and broadens their interest in careers in STEM, increasing the pool of people considering careers in STEM fields who can contribute to research, development, and innovation.
• Future research must focus on developing curriculum materials and instructional models for STEM integration that are primarily concerned with developing students’ creative thinking. Few studies focus on STEM education models that can enhance students’ creative thinking abilities.
• Future research should use larger sample sizes and mixed methods to obtain in-depth results that can be generalized to the entire population and maximize the benefits of implementing STEM education at higher educational levels.

Author Contributions

Institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest, appendix a. sample of stem-based lesson plan and worksheets (smart car design lesson plan).

• Target Grade:10th
• Time Required: 3 days, 50-min lessons
• HS-PS1-4. Develop a model to illustrate that the release or absorption of energy from a chemical reaction system depends upon the changes in total bond energy.
• HS-PS3-2. Develop and use models to illustrate that energy at the macroscopic scale can be accounted for as a combination of energy associated with the motion of particles (objects) and energy associated with the relative positions of particles (objects).
• HS-PS2-6. Communicate scientific and technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in designing materials.
• Identify how friction generates heat.
• Quantify the energy released to the environment as heat to mathematically prove that the energy put into a system equals the energy that comes out of the system.
• Computers/tablets
• Simulation software (e.g., MATLAB, Simulink)
• Computer with modeling tools
• Data collection tools for real-world comparison
• Small solar panel
• Power management circuit
• Battery storage
• Wiring and connectors
• Various materials for wheels (rubber, plastic, metal)
• Prototyping materials (3D printing materials, modeling clay)
• Testing surfaces with different friction characteristics
• Computer with data analysis software (e.g., Excel, Python)
• Sensors for data collection
• Graphing tools
• Emergency braking system components (sensors, actuators)
• Microcontroller for control logic
• Obstacle objects
• Simulated urban environment materials (miniature road markings, obstacles)
• Smart car prototype
• Power source (battery)
• Testing area setup with various road conditions
• Microcontroller (e.g., Arduino)
• Testing apparatus with adjustable surfaces
• Force sensor
• Smart car prototype with adjustable wheels
• Inclined surfaces.
• Computer Model for Friction and Motion
• Simulator for Frictional forces
• Friction & Work Activities worksheet
• Before class, the teacher will need to set up five stations around the room.
• The five stations are the following: ○ PhET Simulation: The teacher will need to put one or two laptops/tablets at a table. ○ Simulate Your Ideas—Use the Simulator of Collision Lab model your physics knowledge ○ Sand Jar: Set up a jar with either sand or gravel inside. The students will need a thermometer to record temperature and a jar lid. ○ Rubber Band: Place a bag of rubber bands and a trashcan on the table. ○ Hot Wheels: Students will need some type of recording devise (can be cellphone, ipad, etc.), a ruler, track, and a hot wheel’s car. ○ Bow Drill: Students will need some type of device to watch the given YouTube video.
• When the students arrive in the class, the teacher should split them into five groups. ○ Each student will need a copy of the Friction & Work Activities worksheet.
• On the student’s worksheet, they will conduct an inquiry-based task to create their project of smart cars. The students will gather photos, video, and/or numeric evidence from the following activities to support their claim conclusions.
• The possible questions the students can investigate about:
• How can you design a smart car that maximizes energy efficiency and minimizes friction for optimal motion?
• What are the key components and materials that can be used to reduce friction in the car’s movement?
• How does friction impact the motion of a vehicle, and how can it be both advantageous and disadvantageous in a smart car design?
• Can you identify specific areas in a smart car where friction is most critical, and propose innovative solutions to minimize it?
• What role does friction play in energy consumption within a smart car, and how can students optimize the car’s design for energy efficiency?
• Can you explore renewable energy sources or regenerative braking systems to enhance the smart car’s sustainability?
• How can sensors be integrated into a smart car to detect and respond to changes in friction and motion?
• What types of sensors would be most effective, and how would they contribute to the overall performance of the smart car?
• What control systems can be implemented to adjust the smart car’s motion based on real-time friction data?
• How can machine learning algorithms be utilized to enhance the smart car’s ability to adapt to varying friction conditions?
• How can the principles of motion and friction be applied to real-world scenarios, such as urban traffic, to improve the efficiency and safety of smart cars?
• Can you design a smart car that addresses specific challenges in transportation, such as reducing traffic congestion or minimizing environmental impact?
• How do motion and friction affect the safety of a smart car, and what safety features can be incorporated into the design to mitigate risks?
• Can you explore the balance between speed and safety in a smart car, taking into account factors like braking distance and reaction time?
• How can different materials be used in the construction of a smart car to optimize friction and motion characteristics?
• What are the trade-offs between using traditional materials and newer, advanced materials in the context of motion and friction?
• How can data collected from the smart car’s sensors be analyzed to make informed decisions about optimizing its motion and friction?
• What insights can be gained from the data to continually improve the smart car’s performance?
• How can the design of a smart car contribute to reducing its environmental impact in terms of energy consumption and friction-related wear and tear?
• Can you propose sustainable practices in the manufacturing and use of smart cars to minimize their ecological footprint? The station descriptions are the following: ○ PhET Simulation: Students will open a simulation that explores fiction by Forces and Motion” or “The Moving Man” simulations can be adapted to understand acceleration, velocity, and the forces acting on an object. ○ Groups will travel to the Computer Model station to study all the factors -Variables related to their Design Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a versatile, low-cost, credit-card-sized computer that is widely used for educational purposes, including STEM education. It can serve as the brain of a smart car prototype, allowing students to program and control the car’s behavior.
• Groups will conduct a deep investigation to answer the previous questions and record them in their Journals.
• After the students have completed the stations, their group will devise their own experiment to collect at least three pieces of photo/video evidence to support their conclusion to their Science Project.
• Students will brainstorm what materials their group will need to collect their data.
• They will end the lesson by reflecting on what they learned that day and ideas for their Science-Project.

Appendix B. Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking

• Q1. List solid things that sink in water.
• Q2. List recyclable materials.
• Q3. List measuring tools.
• Q4. List things attracted by magnets.
• Q1. Write as many scientific words starting with the letter K as possible.
• Q2. Write as many scientific words starting with the letter C as possible.
• Q3. Write as many scientific words starting with the letter A as possible.
• Q1. Write as many scientific words ending with the letter N as possible.
• Q2. Write as many scientific words ending with the letter D as possible.
• Q3. Write as many scientific words ending with the letter K as possible.
• Q1. What would happen if a person lost the ability to balance and became unable to stand upright for more than a minute?
• Q2. What would happen if the Earth’s gravitational force was halved?
• Q3. Suppose you could walk on air or fly without being in an airplane or similar vehicle.
• Q4. Suppose you could be invisible for a day.
• Q5. What would happen if we suddenly lost the ability to move our hands?
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Share and Cite

Khalil, R.Y.; Tairab, H.; Qablan, A.; Alarabi, K.; Mansour, Y. STEM-Based Curriculum and Creative Thinking in High School Students. Educ. Sci. 2023 , 13 , 1195. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121195

Khalil RY, Tairab H, Qablan A, Alarabi K, Mansour Y. STEM-Based Curriculum and Creative Thinking in High School Students. Education Sciences . 2023; 13(12):1195. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121195

Khalil, Rana Y., Hassan Tairab, Ahmad Qablan, Khaleel Alarabi, and Yousef Mansour. 2023. "STEM-Based Curriculum and Creative Thinking in High School Students" Education Sciences 13, no. 12: 1195. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121195

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Why Creativity Should Be Taught In Schools

Table of Contents

In 2019, LinkedIn published results of a study designed to understand skills that employers are looking for. Out of the 50,000 professional skills analyzed, creativity ranked number one in the “Soft Skills” category.  This is not particularly surprising.  Several studies for more than a decade have pointed to the growth of creativity-based jobs, as automation takes away the more predictable jobs.

In an analysis of what kinds of jobs are disappearing, researchers found that routine jobs (both manual and cognitive) have been declining since the 2000s while non-routine jobs continue to grow. 

Economizing Creativity

Creativity, as psychologists define it, is the ability to come up with novel and useful ideas. Viewed from the economic lens, it’s clear that creativity, which by its very definition makes things non-routine, should be the most important skill to possess. But it’s also a skill in some danger. Since the 1990s, creativity has been declining among students in the US, with the largest decline occurring over the last decade. 

Unfortunately, there are many myths about creativity that continue to persist, including some who claim it’s not even a real skill at all. 

Should Creativity Be A Soft Skill?

The LinkedIn study places creativity into the soft skills category. But what exactly makes a skill soft or hard? 

Is it that a soft skill can’t be evaluated easily while a hard one can? If so, then creativity should not really belong in the soft bucket. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) was developed around the same time as the Cognitive Ability Test (CogAT). Unlike the CogAT, which evaluates your reasoning skills to arrive at one right answer, the TTCT evaluates your ability to come up with several different solutions to a problem.

The CogAT, being easier to administer,  took off in the education space and is primarily used in identifying gifted students, while the TTCT remains more as a research tool used to understand how the creativity of students is changing.

Misunderstanding the Importance of Creativity

Or is it because we don’t really understand the process of creativity? However, that’s not very different from something as fundamental as memorizing, a skill on the lowest rung of Bloom’s taxonomy . We don’t really understand how memories are stored in our brains and how we remember things.

However, that doesn’t stop us from using it to learn facts like states and their capitals or finding techniques like memory-palace, to improve our ability to memorize. In the same fashion, while we do not really understand how our brain produces creative ideas, we have figured out different creativity techniques that work well in triggering creative ideas. 

AI Proof Skill

By contrast, a skill like machine learning (ML) is considered a hard skill. On the surface this seems reasonable as you can learn and become knowledgeable about concrete ML algorithms. However, in practice when companies hire data scientists, they aren’t just looking for factual knowledge. Instead, during interviews they test whether you can apply your knowledge, take system constraints into consideration, and solve problems in interesting ways. So, ironically, they really test you for your creativity! 

But does it really matter if creativity is considered a soft skill or not? These are just words after all. The problem with labeling creativity as a soft skill is the perception it creates – that it’s a skill we are either born with or not and you can’t really learn to be more creative. It fuels a self-limiting mindset where people take fewer risks and don’t try things that would make them more creative. 

Creativity Can Be Learned

The truth is that one can learn to be more creative. While we may not understand how the brain comes up with a creative idea, we know enough about how to trigger the brain into thinking creative thoughts. Cognitive processes like associative thinking, analogical thinking or reverse thinking seem to play a fundamental role in coming up with creative ideas. 

Before the scientific revolution in the 17th century, abstract reasoning skills were not widespread. In an interesting 1920s study to understand the effect of social environment on cognitive development, Alexander Luria interviewed isolated peasants from rural Russia who had been untouched with scientific advancement of the 20th century. He gave them several different logical reasoning puzzles similar to the one shown in the picture below. 

What advanced us as a society was not believing that logical and abstract reasoning are innate abilities, but by understanding the building blocks and nurturing them early on. Children as young as toddlers are exposed to toys that build skills like sorting and pattern matching and by the time they are in elementary school logical puzzles like the one above become a piece of cake.   

Teaching Creativity Should Start in K12

In a similar vein, if we want to improve creative thinking skills, we can’t wait until our students are ready to start their first job. We should introduce these skills earlier during their K12 years, and give them the tools to think creatively and opportunities to exercise them. Building creativity, like any other skill, takes time and giving students plenty of exposure will better prepare them for the changing workforce. 

In more recent times, our push to introduce STEM into K12 education has been effective in improving knowledge as well as interest in pursuing STEM careers, especially for underrepresented populations. 

Creativity is similar in that respect. Incorporating creativity into the curriculum is shown to improve both creative thinking skills and content learning. When students are challenged to view a subject from different perspectives, it leads to deeper learning. 

In the end, creativity is just another aspect of human intelligence; one that encompasses both linear and non-linear thinking. It’s a much needed skill that can be improved with practice, and teaching it early to students can help them prepare better for the changing workforce. 

Further Reading

• The Guardian – Creativity is the key to the arts and the sciences
• edCircuit – Why Group Brainstorming Is Only One Part of Creative Ideation
• The Hechinger Report – Schools are rethinking classroom design to encourage collaboration, creativity

Pronita Mehrotra is the Founder of MindAntix , a company that develops tools and programs to bring creativity into schools and organizations. Her work focuses on the neuroscience behind creative thinking and leverages cognitive thinking patterns in ideation and decision making. She has participated in several global conferences and conducted creativity workshops for educators and leaders. 

Her work has been featured in leading publications like Harvard Business Review, Geekwire, ASCD and Education Week. MindAntix’s educational product was awarded EdTech Digest’s Cool Tool 2020 Finalist award in the 21st century skills category.

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Why creative confidence in schools is a must-have

School children perform at the Youth Transformed 3-day Arts for Schools Festival at the National Theatre main auditorium in Kampala on April 8. PHOTO | COURTESY | PHILIP MATOGO

By  Philip Matogo

What you need to know:

• Since the classroom is where children spend most of their time, it is imperative, experts argue, that the time spent in classrooms builds the country’s children for what they will inevitably end up doing when outside the classroom.

Uganda has 9,639,000 pupils enrolled in primary and secondary education. Of these, about 8,841,000 (92 percent) are enrolled in primary education, according to the Education Policy and Data Centre (EPDC).

Overall, there are about 21 million children (46 percent of the total population) in Uganda.

For many of these children, the classroom is where they spend most of their time. Per experts, it is imperative, then, that the time spent in classrooms builds the country’s children for what they will inevitably end up doing when outside the classroom. This could be any given profession, vocation, avocation, and, yes, even calling. The important thing here is how they access a chosen path tempered by the native impulse to create. 

We are born artists

The legendary Italian artist Pablo Picasso once said: “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”

If one is to infer correctly, Picasso was saying that as children, we are born with the confidence to create. However, as children age, they rarely come of age. That is because this impulse to create is watered down as the child matures in the ways of the world, most of which squelch the creative spirit.

Youth Transformed (YT) hopes to reverse this trend with a prime eye on how a child’s inborn creativity is reborn with every experience and challenge. YT is a non-governmental organisation that creates safe, effective spaces for youthful creatives in Africa to explore, showcase and grow their talents effectively for future economic stability.

In so doing, every year, YT holds a three-day “Arts for Schools Festival” at the National Theatre main auditorium in Kampala. The last festival took place on April 8. This initiative is a Youth Transformed project under YT Arts For Schools Programme.

“It was established to create a safe space for creatives in schools. To ensure the process and the productivity of talent development is effectively achieved at an early age, the project paves the way for youthful creatives in pre-primary school, primary school, and secondary schools,” YT states in its profile, adding: “We believe that through this project, the creatives in schools will be in a position to explore and express their talents effectively because a talent that is exercised grows.”

The YT programme and other related programmes hope to nurture how children perceive the world around them after school hours, but mostly within the open four walls of the classroom.

Classrooms as creative tools

In a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one of the world’s foremost medical research centres and an agency in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a lot was revealed on how mental health impacts creativity. Titled Classroom Learning Environments and the Mental Health of First Grade Children, the study turned up some interesting findings.

Researchers discovered classrooms could positively influence four mental health components. Firstly, learning where a student’s ability to pay attention to and gain knowledge from learning materials and conversations comes into focus. Secondly, externalising problems, which is a student’s external response to big, uncomfortable feelings—like starting fights or taking their frustration out physically on objects around them. Thirdly, interpersonal behaviour, that is, a student’s ability to build and nurture positive relationships with the people around them. Lastly, internalising problems, i.e., a student’s ability to internally cope with difficult emotions like sadness and anxiety.

It was discovered that creativity, through art-based interventions, builds creative confidence. According to Ana Arriola-Kanada, adjunct lecturer and mentor at both the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California, Berkeley, creative confidence is a game changer.

“Creative confidence means creating a safe space for yourself and others to practice your deep craft and think within a physiological, emotional, physical, and intellectual safe area. It’s about having the self-assurance to take risks and express your unique creativity,” says Arriola-Kanada.

She adds: “Creative confidence involves overcoming the fear of judgment and failure, allowing for more open and imaginative thinking. Failing is learning. To fail means one can grow to glean insights for future ideations and possibilities.”

She recognises that creativity is something that is done, a practice. Not just a means of expression or an inborn gift. A classroom, if it allows children to explore their inner selves in a safe and honest space, promotes psychological safety by encouraging a child to express themselves without being judged or punished.

Art-based interventions bolster psychological safety in the classroom through collaborative communication and sharing. In such environments, the child is made to feel that their feelings and thoughts are valid. Thereupon, they are more willing to share them freely. Each one teaches one by the sharing of feelings and thoughts, communication results and helps each child visualise different concepts, buttress their storytelling abilities and teacherly skills.

A world safe for diversity

As each child is encouraged to reflect upon their lives and their environments, they are also encouraged to dialogue about specific topics, viewpoints and emotions. This airing of multifaceted inner realities conjures a diversity of societal being expressive of the heterogeneity of humanity. 

When creativity is thereby fostered, it promotes shared meaning and collective (yet individuated) understanding surrounding different cultures, perspectives, and experiences. As creativity defines the child’s activities, they find that drama studios and theatre auditoriums are their natural habitats as they further bolster creativity and imagination.

This is why initiatives like Youth Transformed always lead to the National Theatre or places where self-expression and vulnerability are normalised as twin parts of the creative process. The nurturing of creative confidence in schools, particularly classrooms, cannot be achieved in isolation of the wider communities the children come from and return to. After all, growing up is going away and coming back home. So classroom expectations and practices must partly reflect the community in which they operate.

In Uganda, creativity is not placed at a premium where getting by is a handy option. However, the routinised thoughts and practices of our society can be used to create a culture of creativity out of a culture of repetition. In this vein, the creative is encouraged to create repetitively and consistently.

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Creative classrooms await miami-dade students as new school year begins.

Joseph Ojo , Reporter

Saira Anwer , Reporter

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – As Miami-Dade County public school students prepare to return to the classroom, teachers are hard at work transforming their learning spaces into vibrant and engaging environments.

The goal: To inspire and motivate students from day one.

Christy Padron, a fourth-grade teacher at George Washington Carver Elementary School in Coral Gables, is among those leading the charge.

“It’s going to be a great year; it’s going to be super exciting,” Padron said.

Padron told Local 10 she has big plans to keep her students captivated, with her classroom environment changing regularly to maintain their interest.

“The class looks like this right now, but tomorrow it will look like a jungle; the other day, it will look like a café,” she said. “I really try to motivate the kids with different activities.”

Fifth-grade teacher Adriana Perez, who has been teaching for over 15 years, echoed Padron’s sentiment, though she admitted there’s always a hint of nervousness as the school year begins.

“Teaching is a job where you teach from the heart. You work from the heart,” Perez said.

The teachers at George Washington Carver Elementary said they are not just focused on creating fun and visually stimulating spaces; they’re also committed to fostering an environment of hard work and high expectations.

Perez shared a clear message for her students: “We are going to have the best time in here. I’m going to expect a lot from you, but I have faith in you.”

As students return to school, these educators are determined to bring energy and joy into their classrooms, ensuring that learning is both enjoyable and effective.

Ms. Moran’s fourth-grade classroom at South Miami K-8 is buzzing with final preparations as she gets ready to welcome her new students. This marks her eighth year of teaching.

“You want to make sure it’s welcoming and buzzing with excitement,” Moran said. “You want to make sure they’re going to come in and enjoy being present in this classroom throughout the year with you.”

“What are you most excited about?” a South Miami student was asked by Local 10′s Saira Anwar.

“Seeing my teacher and my friends,” the student replied.

“The rush of getting the uniforms, the shoes, the supplies—I have one in fourth and one in fifth, and it was just crazy,” said parent Lissette Malagon.

For those dealing with first-day jitters, Moran offered some advice.

“Go to sleep early, get here early, and trust us when you’re coming in,” she said. “We’re here to help you; we’re here to help them.”

Teachers said if you’re not a student or a parent, be prepared for the first day of school.

The district is reminding drivers that a new camera system will issue fines for failing to stop for a school bus with the stop arm activated. Additionally, multiple campuses have activated cameras to catch drivers who speed through school zones.

Click here to read more of Local 10′s Back-to-School stories.

Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.

About the Authors

Joseph Ojo joined Local 10 in April 2021. Born and raised in New York City, he previously worked in Buffalo, North Dakota, Fort Myers and Baltimore.

Saira Anwer

Saira Anwer joined the Local 10 News team in July 2018. Saira is two-time Emmy-nominated reporter and comes to South Florida from Madison, Wisconsin, where she was working as a reporter and anchor.

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The future of education: why gen z is choosing trade schools over traditional college.

In recent years, a noticeable shift has been happening in the education landscape. Gen Z, often hailed as the most technologically savvy and forward-thinking generation, is increasingly opting for trade schools over traditional four-year colleges.   

This trend is reshaping how we view career paths and education. A prime example of this shift is the growing interest in cosmetology schools where students are finding new opportunities to thrive.  

A recent article by USA Today highlights several reasons why Gen Z is turning to trade schools. Key points include the rising cost of traditional college education, the allure of hands-on learning, and the desire for a quicker, more direct path to employment.   

Traditional colleges often come with hefty tuition fees and a prolonged period of study, leading to substantial student debt. In contrast, trade schools offer a more affordable and expedited route to entering the workforce, often providing practical skills that are immediately applicable in real-world settings.  

The USA Today article highlighted a study where 83% of those surveyed feel that learning a skilled trade can be a better pathway to economic security than college ‒ including 90% of those already holding college degrees.  

Why Cosmetology School?  

Cosmetology schools, like Aveda Arts, embody the very essence of what Gen Z values in education: creativity, practicality, and flexibility. Our schools offer programs that are not only shorter in duration but also rich in hands-on experience. Students at Aveda Arts, for instance, can dive straight into learning about hair, skin and makeup all while gaining practical experience under expert supervision. This approach ensures that graduates are well-prepared for their careers from day one.  

The beauty industry is thriving, and the demand for skilled cosmetologists continues to grow. Graduates from cosmetology schools like Aveda Arts are entering a field with diverse career opportunities, from salon professionals to makeup artists, skincare specialists, and beyond. The practical skills acquired during their education ensure that they are not only employable but also equipped to excel in their chosen careers.  

As the landscape of education continues to evolve, it’s clear that Gen Z is paving the way for a new approach to learning and career development. The shift towards trade schools reflects a broader desire for practical, affordable, and flexible education options.  

Interested in learning about our Cosmetology programs? Connect with Admissions at 877-892-8332 to set up a tour of our institute!  

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2024/07/11/gen-z-trade-school-college-ai-workforce/74090234007/    

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This high school is replacing teachers with ChatGPT and AI tools to personalize learning for some students

• David Game College will let some students learn with AI tools instead of teachers from next month.
• ChatGPT and LLMs will help 20 students prepare for exams in subjects like mathematics and biology.
• While some experts say AI can be a helpful learning tool, it cannot yet replace teachers.

A high school in London is replacing teachers with AI tools such as ChatGPT to help some students prepare for exams.

In the pilot scheme at David Game College starting in September, 20 students who are about 15 years of age will use AI tools for a year before taking their GCSE exams. The subjects will include English, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and computer science.

John Dalton, coprincipal of the fee-paying school, told Business Insider: "Students will benefit enormously from AI-powered adaptive learning, which allows every student to learn at their own pace rather than having to keep pace with a class, which often progresses too quickly for some students and too slowly for others."

The students will also be supported by three full-time learning coaches, and will receive personalized learning paths.

Dalton said AI-enabled learning will allow students to spend more time on a topic to master it, while also letting those who are ready to move on progress more quickly. It might also be helpful for students to ask the AI-powered learning assistant questions that they might not feel comfortable asking a teacher during class.

"We don't just want to teach core subjects as efficiently and effectively as possible, but to use the extra time this creates during the rest of the day to focus on areas such as self-awareness, critical thinking, active citizenship, digital literacy, artistic expression, public speaking, and entrepreneurship," he said.

Some educators hope AI can help to solve problems such as overworked teachers , ballooning class sizes, and a lack of one-on-one engagement with students. Others think it may have downsides.

Promising examples

"While AI can be a valuable supplement to live teachers, it cannot replace them entirely," Hadida Grabow, a director at the educational consultancy Higher Learning Group, told BI.

While there are some "promising examples" of tools such as Google's Socratic, an AI-powered learning app for students that offers explanations and resources, or the Khan Academy's AI teaching assistant, Grabow said: "We are not seeing anything that could replace a quality educator."

"Regrettably, the technology just isn't there yet — we've seen that with the high-profile failure of the Los Angeles Unified School District's AI chatbot," she said.

Related stories

The district introduced an AI chatbot called Ed in some schools last March to help with tracking assignments, grades, and student records. But about three months later, the chatbot was shelved after the company that created it collapsed.

Karl Knapp, dean of the business school at the University of Indianapolis, said AI systems can " hallucinate ," or make some things up, with students unlikely to "fact-check every utterance by the AI system."

Neither could AI systems judge tone of voice or facial expressions, which he said were "key indicators of student understanding when teaching."

'Humanized learning'

Dalton said that students participating in the pilot will spend their afternoons engaging in a "diverse support curriculum that includes learning how to debate, start a business, develop entrepreneurial skills, explore AI and financial literacy, and participate in creative activities such as cooking and painting." He added that the college has "humanized the AI learning process by creating a holistic and engaging educational experience." Students can still interact with teachers if they want to. "The system does not judge students. Instead, it allows them to learn at their own pace in a safe environment," Dalton said. "We also strongly believe that this approach will enhance student confidence as they achieve subject mastery, which in turn will improve their mental health."

Watch: What is ChatGPT, and should we be afraid of AI chatbots?

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