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 competențe de învățare și inovare, 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 Metoda celor 6 pălării de gândire, participants were able to put into practice “gândirea laterală” 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 visual strategies, participants experienced new activities which could be used to stimulate students’ creative expression and could be a basis for să facă brainstorming sau să-și discute ideile. We challenged an “only-art” perception  of what “visual thinking” encompasses, by proposing an o perspectivă inovatoare și digitală. 
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 raționament, punerea sub semnul întrebării și dezbaterea activities that could be adapted to different classroom situations to help students become active and aware agents of their own learning.

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.

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