As pillars of the 21st century range of skills, creativity and critical thinking are the main features of every innovative learning process.

It is a complex mechanism that can be transformed into a colorful challenge thanks to the role of the educator, that has to be ready to renew the traditional way to think about the educational environment.

This was the central topic of the latter edition of the course “Creativity for the future: promoting Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving in the classroom” that took place in Palermo from 30/10/2022 to 04/11/2022.

​The participants came from all across Europe, with Natalia Montoro Rodríguez from Gil de Zático Secondary School in Spain, Edyta Harasimczuk, Jolanta Tarnowska and Iwona Kochanowska from Szkoła Podstawowa nr 9 im. 42 Pułku Piechoty w Białymstoku in Poland, Renata Vaikšnorienė, Renata Ononigve and Gerda Šlenfuktaitė from Alytaus Panemunės progimnazija in Lithuania, Anabela Lopes Rodrigues, Dioclecia maria da Silva Melo and Graça Maria da Silva Cruz from Escola Secundária Augusto Gomes in Portugal, Indrė Bagušinskaitė, Kristina Burškytė and Yuliana Andriivna from KD International School of Vilnius in Lithuania and Minna Kattelus from Espoon työväenopisto Omnia in Finland.
​First of all, the participants explored the various range of definitions and formal aspects linked to learning and innovation skills, focusing their attention on the 4Cs: critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration. All of our activities and tasks have been hands-on practice, to deeply understand the importance of problem-solving skills adapted in different situations.  
​Every participant discovered through the “6 Thinking Hats Method” how lateral-thinking makes both educators and students realize how to become active and aware figures in their own learning process. In fact, in our days together, it became increasingly clear how originality in classroom has to be encouraged and rewarded, because it is also an important tool to discover self-awareness
​The large number of participants in this group was an additional resource for our sharing moments, in which every participant both alone or with their colleagues showed us a presentation about the main features and teaching strategies in their schools.
​Furthermore, the group discovered the power of the three main basis of a healthy exchange in learning environments: reasoning, questioning and debating. Questions have the ability to promote thinking and self-reflection, to create constructive answers and to motivate actions and the development of ideas. They also help students to act and think clever in a world where most of the time they are passively exposed to loads of (dis)information.
​Our main goal was reframing: old and traditional tools must be rethought, readapted and exploited to the fullest of their creativity in order to fuel student’s enthusiasm in their daily tasks. Creative brainstorming, roleplay and games about perceptions were our weapons against the grey shades of the strictest tradition. We also had the chance to share opinions and knowledge about ICT tools, enjoying the amusing aspects of the digitalization of the teaching methods.  
​This joyful and pushing week represented for the whole group a colourful path into the facets of the learning process, enriched by the different cultural contexts and the individual experiences that each participant wanted to share with us all.