In our pursue of preparing students for real world careers and challenges and equipping them with 21st-century skills, we often forget that as educators, we have a duty to dream and create spaces where everyone has the opportunity to be creative and bring out the best in themselves.

The new edition of the course “Creativity for the future: promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving in the classroom​” took place in Bologna from 22/06/2025 to 28/06/2025. The participants came from across Europe, representing a diverse range of schools and institutions. From Greece, Soulougani Gavriela and Sarantinou Aikaterini joined from Geniko Lykeio Mantamadou. Portugal was represented by Ana Mafalda Varzea Rodrigues da Conceição e Silva, Maria Madalena Diogo Bernardo Santos, Sandra Marisa Veiga Lourenço, and Sónia Paula Ferreira Fernandes de Morais, all from Agrupamento de Escolas Fernão do Pó. Ute Glunz, Anna Knaup, and Monika Strehs took part from Sekundarschule Horn – Bad Meinberg in Germany, while Pau Recio Torres joined from Institut Premià de Mar in Spain. Barbora Krajčovic Barteková came from Gymnázium Andreja Kmeťa in Slovenia, and Judit Csörsz Nagy represented Budapesti Komplex Szakképzési Centrum in Hungary. Lastly, Simone Holt also participated from vhs Aschaffenburg, Germany.

Talking about key competences for living in the 21st century, participants touched on the topic of умения за учене и иновации, digital skills and also career and life skills,we learned through hands-on practice how differently our brain and thinking skills function when there’s a problem to solve. 

Participants were presented with a series of challenges to help them reflect how common barriers to out of the box thinking can be easily overcome by applying specific strategies. For example, using the Методът „6 шапки на мисленето“, участниците имаха възможност да приложат на практика “нестандартно мислене” and devise its concrete application to some existing content they are teaching. Through individual practice and peer review it became noticeable that this method can be used in any subject, from science to language learning, but also as a formative assessment tool, to encourage students thinking outside the box.
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Moving to визуални стратегии, participants experienced new activities which could be used to stimulate students’ creative expression and could be a basis for да обменят идеи или да обсъждат своите идеи. Ние оспорихме възприятието, че “визуалното мислене” обхваща “единствено изкуството”, като предложихме едно иновативна и цифрова перспектива. 
A reflection on the importance of training students’ critical thinking skills was needed in a world where most of the time they are passively exposed to loads of (dis)information. Participants engaged in разсъждения, задаване на въпроси и дискусии activities that could be adapted to different classroom situations to help students become активни и осъзнати участници в собствения си процес на учене.

Last but definitely not least, participants took part in group-based activities where they tackled creative quests and collaborated on developing tools and activities they can use with their students. Together, they contributed to the co-creation of a shared educational toolbox.

Научете повече за този курс тук.