SUPPORTING TEACHERS TO FOSTER STUDENT CREATIVITY AND CRITICAL THINKING:
A PROFESSIONAL
LEARNING INITIATIVE
Objectives
Creativity and critical thinking are key skills for the complex and globalised economies and societies of the 21st century. Many countries aim to develop creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication in their curricula as a way to deepen learning in subject areas and prepare learners for the labour market. However, providing opportunities for students to develop creativity and critical thinking in the classroom remains a challenge for most practitioners. The OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) and the Global Institute of Creative Thinking (GloCT) invite expressions of interest to adapt, translate, implement, test. and improve a professional learning programme to support teachers in primary and secondary education to enrich their teaching and foster students’ creative and/or critical thinking skills.
OECD Programme
For teacher professional learning
The OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), in collaboration with the Global Institute of Creative Thinking (GIoCT), has developed a Professional Learning Programme focused on preparing teachers and school leaders to embed creativity and critical thinking in classrooms. The programme builds on the experiences of working over several years with teachers, school leaders and innovators as part of the OECD Teaching, Learning and Assessing Creative and Critical Thinking Skills project. It includes 8 adaptable modules with 64 possible activities and a toolkit of over 100 example lesson plans and other pedagogical resources. After a localisation phase, with the guidance of the OECD and GIoCT, participants will be asked to implement and monitor the adapted training.
SUPPORTING TEACHERS TO FOSTER CREATIVITY AND CRITICAL THINKING © OECD 2024
Methodology
All participating institutions will design a local adaptation of professional learning activities from the global programme, in collaboration with the OECD and GIoCT. This involves selecting and further developing activities based on their teacher training context, as well as adapting and translating resources and incorporating local examples. Institutions will then implement and monitor the adapted version by training facilitators, recruiting teacher participants, delivering and monitoring activities, and providing feedback and revised resources for the global programme. While pursuing this common goal, institutions will have freedom to tailor the adaptation to their specific needs – such as the length and
intensity of implementation, structure, and participant requirements – and choose between a disciplinary or interdisciplinary approach. The OECD and GIoCT will support them through these different steps.
Do you want
to take part?
The project welcomes interested countries and institutions to participate. Expressions of interest
should be sent to:
FRANKIE LOWE
GIoCT
f.lowe@gioct.org
The project will start if institutions from at least 5 countries join it.
Interest
12 November
2024
Final commitment
31 December
2024
Interest
12 November
2024
Final commitment
31 December
2024
Expressions of interest should be sent by 12 November 2024. Interested institutions will be invited to information webinars in November – and those webinars will be publicised on the OECD and GIoCT websites. A final commitment is expected by 31 December 2024
To find out more about the GIoCT, visit: Global Institute of Creative Thinking – Nurturing Creative
Thinking, Empowering Educators Globally. (www.gioct.org)
To find out more about the OECD project, visit: Teaching, Learning and Assessing Creative and
Critical Thinking Skills | OECD. (www.oecd.org/en/about/projects/teaching-learning-and-assessingcreative-and-critical-thinking-skills.html)
Benefits
of participation
Benefitting from guidance and support
Receiving strategic guidance, feedback, and monitoring advice.
Developing a new course offer for in-service teachers
Co-designing a new type of training offer and/or improving the existing one that you can deliver afterwards.
Engaging in an international community of practice for peer learning and exchange
Sharing your expertise and learning from other
countries’ approaches.
Supporting educators to provide more engaging teaching and learning
Empowering teachers to inspire students’ creativity
and critical thinking and deepen their learning.
Improving the implementation of competency-based curricula
Equipping teachers with the tools and resources needed
to put new curricula into practice in the classroom.
Certificates for participation
Facilitators and participant teachers will receive an OECD and GIoCT badge certifying their training should they
qualify following the final OECD review
Contributing to the global common good
Helping OECD and GIoCT develop guidelines for the local adaptation of the global professional learning program.
Terms and conditions
of participation
Applying to the project is open to all types of institutions delivering professional learning at the school level in any discipline. It can be a single institution or a partnership of institutions. Ideally, a minimum of 200 educators
per country should receive professional learning.
Cost For participants
Participating institutions (or countries) will cover all domestic costs of the study (co-ordination, adaptation, translation, interpretation, implementation, data collection, participation in international meetings at OECD headquarters in Paris or other international location, etc.). They will also be requested to contribute to the international costs of the project). The amount of this contribution will depend on the
institution’s size, location in OECD membership and type
and number of teachers trained per year.
1.5 year Project
6 - 9 months Implementation
Adaption 3 - 6 months Debriefing
6 - 9 months Implementation
Adaption 3 - 6 months Debriefing
The expected duration of the project is 1.5 years – 6
months for adaptation (first semester 2025), 6-9 months
of implementation (the professional learning may be
offered to several cohorts during this time, depending
on the length of the adapted version), and 3-6 months
of debriefing, feedback and improvement. It will include
two in-person meetings for all participating institutions
What will participating institutions have to do?.
Institutions and countries applying to participate in the project commit to implementing and
monitoring a professional learning programme that aims to support teachers to foster their
students’ creative and critical thinking skills and their technical skills in their domain
of study. It will be at least partly based on the OECD professional learning program.
The common element for all participants will be:
- The definition of creative and critical thinking provided through the OECD rubrics and bank of pedagogical resources
- The use of the OECD professional learning programme to redesign or design their local courses.
Institutions will have a lot of flexibility
to adapt the materials to fit their context though. Applicants will have to demonstrate to have the adequate human resources and institutional ability to deliver the training and contribute to the international community of practice
Participating will thus require local resources
to develop, translate, and implement professional learning, to collect monitoring data, and to liaise with the Global Institute of Creative Thinking, the OECD Secretariat and other participating institutions and countries. Institutions can focus on either creativity, critical thinking, or both aspects. They can prepare specific training for developing these skills for teachers teaching different subjects or adapt/enrich existing training for teaching
a specific subject. In the latter case, enough emphasis should be given to the intentional fostering of students’ creative thinking or critical thinking in the classroom.
Adapt The international professional learning programme to local needs
– Elect professional learning activities from the global
programme and compile into a targeted programme that aligns
with local educational needs, with the guidance of GIoCT and
OECD
– Adapt, develop and translate accompanying resources,
incorporating local examples and contexts.
– Ensure alignment with the OECD resources exemplifying
creative and critical thinking in education.
Implement and monitor A professional learning programme
– Train facilitators to deliver the adapted professional learning
activities effectively.
– Recruit participant teachers and implement the adapted
professional learning activities.
– Monitor the implementation of the activities, by having
facilitators, participants and other stakeholders (e.g. students
and principals) answer a questionnaire before and after the
professional learning. The same questionnaire could also
be administered to a control group who will not receive the
professional learning.
– Adjust and refine the programme based on monitoring data
and feedback from participants.
– Integrate the programme into professional learning initiatives
that continue after the end of the project.
– Revise the local programme based on received feedback.
Provide Feedback and revised resources
– Document the local adaptations and share insights with the
broader community to inform global practice.
– Provide resources in the local language to be published by GIoCT
and the OECD to support further scaling of professional learning in
the country and in other countries that speak the same language.
– Contribute to the continuous improvement of the international
program by providing detailed feedback on what worked and
what did not work in the local context.
– Collect video testimonies, case studies, and examples if possible.
Engage In a community of practice
– Actively participate in discussions and knowledge-sharing
sessions with other institutions in the community of practice.
– Collaborate with other countries and institutions to refine
and enhance resources based on shared experiences.
– Attend and contribute to international meetings, workshops,
and webinars organised by the Global Institute of Creative Thinking
and the OECD Secretariat.
– Provide updates and reports on the progress of the local
adaptation and its outcomes to the Global Institute of Creative
Thinking and the OECD Secretariat.
