Improving Creative Problem-Solving Through Collaborative Reasoning

• In Event: Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Strategies in School Contexts

Abstract

This study introduces an instructional intervention, the Collaborative Reasoning (CR) discussion, to promote children’s creative performance in class. Participants included 474 seventh graders in a rural middle school in China. After having CR discussions, students completed a Realistic Presented Problem test which was designed to evaluate students’ divergent thinking. The results indicated that CR students generated more effective solutions (fluency), and proposed more varieties of solutions (flexibility) to three realistic problems than the control student. The solutions proposed by CR students were more unique (originality) and more useful for the real-life situation (usefulness) as compared to the control group. The implication is that providing abundant opportunities for social exchange of ideas can boost students’ performance in creative problem solving.

Authors

• Shufeng Ma, East China Normal University

• Qiannan Zhou, East China Normal University