This presentation was given by Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin at the conference “Creativity and Critical Thinking Skills in School: Moving a shared agenda forward” on 24-25 September 2019, London, UK.

1. Fostering Students’ Creativity and
Critical Thinking Skills: What it Means in
Schools
Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, Carlos Gonzalez-Sancho,
Mathias Bouckaert, Federico de Luca, Meritxell
Fernandez-Barrera, Gwénaël Jacotin, Quentin Vidal
and Joaquin Urgel
Centre for Educational Research and Innovation,
Directorate for Education and Skills
London, 24 September 2019

2. Shifting the paradigm?
Alice laughed:
"There's no use trying," she
said; "one can't
believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had
much practice," said
the Queen.
"When I was younger, I always
did it for half an hour a day.
Sometimes I've believed as
many as six impossible
things before breakfast."
2Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, 1871

3. why creativity and critical thinking

4. 4
Survey of CEOs and HRM Directors: Top 10 Skills
Demand: 2018 vs. 2022

5. 1.83
2.05
2.08
2.09
2.15
2.19
2.19
2.20
2.35
2.36
2.36
2.42
2.51
2.58
2.60
2.71
2.81
3.00 3.90
1.00
assert your authority
knowledge of other fields
negociate
perform under pressure
use time efficiently
work productively with others
use computers and internet
write and speak a foreign language
write reports or documents
master of your own field
make your meaning clear
mobilize capacities of others
acquire new knowledge
coordinate activities
analytical thinking
alertness to opportunities
present ideas in audience
willingness to question ideas
come with news ideas/solutions
Critical skills for the most innovative jobs
(according to tertiary-educated workers)
Likelihood (odds ratios) of reporting the following skills: people
in the most innovative jobs vs. least innovative jobs
Source: Avvisati, Jacotin and Vincent-Lancrin (2014), based on REFLEX and HEGESCO data

6. Technical skills
Know-what and know-how
Behavioural and
social skills
Self-confidence, energy,
perseverance, passion,
leadership, collaboration,
communication
Creativity and critical
thinking skills
Creativity, critical thinking,
inquiry, imagination,
curiosity, ability to make
connections,
metacognition...
What skills should education systems foster?

7. Creativity is a source of personal and social well
being
7
Flow / Positive emotions / Positive impact on health

8. Critical thinking is (also) a source of personal and
social well being
8
Flow / Conducive to creative thinking / Essential to democracy

9. fostering and assessing creativity
and critical thinking in school

10. 10
“When I use a word,” Humpty
Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone,
“it means just what I choose it to
mean — neither more nor less.”

11. What the hell do we mean?

12. OECD project on fostering and assessing students’
creativity and critical thinking
1. Articulate a common international language
2. Develop an exemplary bank of pedagogical resources
to teach and assess creativity and critical thinking as part of
countries’ (current) curriculum
3. Develop professional development plans
4. Develop and pilot evaluation instruments to measure
the effects of pedagogical practices on pedagogies, beliefs,
social and behavioural skills, and standardised measures of
creativity and academic achievement

13. Round 1
(2015-16):
Brazil, France,
India, Hungary,
Netherlands,
Russia,
Slovakia,
Thailand,
United States
Round 2
(2016-17):
Brazil, France,
India, Hungary,
Russia, Spain,
Thailand, Wales
(UK), United
States
Fieldwork over 2 school years in 11 countries with 800 teachers and
20 000 students in 320 primary and secondary schools

14. building a professional representation
through a bank of pedagogical resources

15. • Creativity: the ability to produce work that is both novel and
approriate
• Critical thinking: the ability to carefully evaluate and judge
statements, ideas and theories relative to alternative
explanations or solutions so as to reach a competent,
independent position
• Two distincts concepts with different objectives but involving
some common cognitive processes: what do they mean in a
classroom?
15
Definitions

16. Bank of pedagogical resources
Rubrics Lesson plans
Student workAssessments

17. Bank of pedagogical resources: rubrics
Rubrics
• To develop activities
• To improve activities
• To assess student work
• To understand and
develop awareness of
creativity and critical
thinking

18. CREATIVITY
Coming up with ideas and solutions
CRITICAL THINKING
Questionning and evaluating ideas and solutions
INQUIRING
Make connections to other concepts and
knowledge from the same or from other
disciplines
Identify and question assumptions and generally
accepted ideas or practices
IMAGINING
Generate and play with unusual and radical
ideas
Consider several perspectives on a problem based
on different assumptions
DOING
Produce, perform or envision a meaningful
output that is personally novel
Explain both strengths and limitations of a
product, a solution or a theory justified on logical,
ethical or aesthetic criteria
REFLECTING
Reflect on the novelty of solution and of its
possible consequences
Reflect on the chosen solution/position relative to
possible alternatives
OECD rubric on creativity and critical thinking
(class-friendly version)

19. OECD assessment rubric on creativity
product and process dimensions

20. Bank of pedagogical resources: lesson plans
Lesson
plans
• 100 examples of
lesson plans
• To illustrate how to
deliver curriculum
contents while
developing creativity
and critical thinking
• To inspire and
improve
• Most are anchored in a
discipline

21. 22
Example of a science lesson plan: « what controls my
health? »
What controls my health?
Secondary: (ages 11 – 14) Science
This 7-lesson unit engages students in investigations to understand the
importance of both genetic and environmental factors in their risk for disease.
Students start the unit by experiencing the phenomenon of Type 2 diabetes
through the eyes of a peer recently diagnosed with the disease. They develop an
initial model to answer the question, “What caused Monique’s diabetes?”. They
find that diabetes, like many common diseases, is caused by a combination of
both genetic and environmental factors. Students also investigate how lifestyle
options for healthy foods and exercise help prevent or reduce diabetes. The unit
includes several opportunities for students to construct, test, revise and share
their models to explain the investigated phenomena, while performing
experiments and using computer simulations. For their final assignment, students
conduct an action research project to improve their school or neighbourhood to
help prevent or reduce diabetes
Time allocation About 20 lesson periods (plus a 20 hour action research project)
Subject content Develop inquiry and modelling skills for a scientific explanation
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how
environmental and genetic factors influence health
Creative and
critical thinking
This unit has a creativity and critical thinking focus:
· Consider several perspectives on what controls health
· Reflect on the limits of an endorsed position
· Propose, plan, and carry out an inquiry/action research
Credits:
Developed by the CREATE for STEM
Institute at Michigan State University
20 lesson periods
+
20 hours action research
project

22. 1. Why does Monique have diabetes? (1-2) (type I and II)
2. How can we describe Monique’s diabetes? (3-5) (Effects on
the heart, glucose tolerance tests)
3. How does Monique’s family affect her diabetes? (6-9)
(Genetics)
4. How does where Monique lives and what she does affect her
diabetes? (10-12) (Plant growth and their environment)
23
Example of a science lesson plan: « what controls my
health? »

23. 5. How do Monique’s characteristics and environment affect
her diabetes? (13-16) (Simulation of how genetics and
environment affect health of sand rats)
6. What can Monique do to make her environment healthier?
(17-19) (nutrition)
7. Community action projects: How can we work together to
make our environment healthier?
24
Example of a science lesson plan: « what controls my
health? »

24. 25
Example of lesson plan: « what controls my health? »
CREATIVITY
Coming up with new ideas
and solutions
Steps
CRITICAL THINKING
Questioning and evaluating ideas
and solutions
Steps
INQUIRING
Make connections to other scientific
concepts or conceptual ideas in other
disciplines
2,5 Identify and question assumptions and generally
accepted ideas of a scientific explanation or
approach to a problem
1,7
IMAGINING
Generate and play with unusual and radical
ideas when approaching or solving a
scientific problem
1,4,7
Consider several perspectives on a scientific
problem 3-6
DOING
Pose and propose how to solve a scientific
problem in a personally novel way
1,7
Explain both strengths and limitations of a
scientific solution based on logical and possibly
other criteria (practical, ethical, etc.)
6,7
REFLECTING
Reflect on steps taken to pose and solve a
scientific problem 7
Reflect on the chosen scientific approach or
solution relative to possible alternatives 2,3,4,7
Mapping of the lesson plan to the OECD rubric

25. 8 Design criteria for good lessons
1. Create students’ need/interest to
learn
2. Be challenging
3. Develop clear technical
knowledge in one domain or more
4. Include the development of a
“product”
5. Have students co-design part of
the product/solution or problem
6. Deal with problems that can be
looked at from different
perspectives
7. Leave room for the unexpected
8. Include space and time for
students to reflect and
give/receive feedback
26

26. Balancing structure and openness
• Fostering creativity or critical
thinking requires appropriate
tasks and assignments
• It can be learnt in any discipline
alongside technical skills
• Teachers have to prepare a
courses with a strong structure
and learning architecture but
allow for some student agency
27

27. designing professional development
strategies for teachers

28. • Innovation is in itself a source of professional development
• Professional development strategies usually based on:
– Teacher training (single induction or multiple workshops)
– Individual follow-up by external experts
– Shaping of peer learning and collaboration (face-to-face and/or online)
• Support from school and system leaders proved essential to enable
teachers to try changing their practices
• Effective strategies involved continuous support throughout the school
year and appeared to have a modest cost
29
Professional development plans

29. 30
Percentage of teachers reporting collaboration with peers in relation to
the project over previous 6 months
Professional learning communities among intervention
teachers
For 75% of school
principals:
• the project led to
collaboration between
teachers in unusual and
positive ways
• the project provided
professional
development
opportunities that
teaching staff would not
have had otherwise
51
39
13
42
46
47
7
16
40
-60-50-40-30-20-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
I participated in discussion forums (e.g.
online platform) about students’ creativity
and critical thinking with teachers from
other schools
I participated in working groups to refine
the rubric and/or develop lessons plans
aligned to the rubric
I had discussions about students’
creativity and critical thinking with other
teachers in my school
Never One to three times Four times or more
%

30. development of
evaluation instruments

31. ACADEMIC YEAR
Teaching and
assessment of
C&CT skills
Data collection POST:
• Subject-specific tests
• Questionnaires
Data collection PRE:
• Subject-specific tests
• Questionnaires
INTERVENTION GROUPS: USE OF RUBRIC + CONTEXTUAL DATA
Teaching and
assessment of
C&CT skills
Teaching and
assessment of
C&CT skills
Teaching and
assessment of
C&CT skills
CONTROL GROUPS: OTHER INTERVENTION + CONTEXTUAL DATA
Qualitative MONITORING:
• Interviews
• Focus groups
The evaluation framework for the pedagogical work

32. 33
Percentage of teachers reporting changes in pedagogy over previous 6 months
Teacher outcomes: changes in pedagogy
10
9
6
3
3
63
63
76
65
59
27
28
18
33
38
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
The way I assess student work
The way I design assessment tasks
(questions, exercises, tests, etc.) for students
The way I prepare my lessons
The consistency with which I try to
foster students’ creativity and critical thinking
My understanding of what it entails to
develop students’ creativity and critical thinking skills
Not at all Some Very much
%

33. 34
Percentage of teachers reporting changes in pedagogy over previous 6 months
Teacher outcomes: adoption of project rubric(s)
33
36
33
28
30
29
44
40
46
42
39
43
23
24
22
31
32
28
-50 -25 0 25 50 75 100
My students used a self-assessment rubric
to evaluate themselves in these areas
I adapted the language of the
general rubric to the subject that I teach
I discussed the general rubric with my students
I gave students feedback on
the skills described in the rubric
I designed new lesson plans based on the
general rubric and used them with my students
I modified existing lesson plans based on the
general rubric and used them with my students
Never One to three times Four times or more
%

34. • Broad support for fostering creativity and critical thinking
– Creativity and critical thinking are considered malleable
– Critical thinking more familiar than creativity
– Improved understanding of what it means during the project
– More consistent in their efforts to foster these skills and willing
to continue
• Main challenges:
– Greater awareness of the changes required in their teaching
– Difficulty or reluctance to formatively assess those skills
35
Teacher outcomes

35. • Disadvantaged students benefited particularly from the pilot
intervention:
– Low socio-economic background
– Poor understanding of the concepts of creativity and critical thinking
• The interventions seemed to benefit classes where the learning
climate was challenging at the beginning of the project
• A big diversity of outcomes across country teams, suggesting
differentiated effects of the different pedagogies
36
Interim student outcomes

36. examples of signature pedagogies

37. 38
Examples of associated pedagogies
• Project-based learning
• Research-based learning
• Creative partnerships
• Design thinking
• Orff Schulwerk
• Montessori
• Etc.

38. take aways
39

39. Fostering Students’ Creativity and Critical
Thinking
• Creativity and critical thinking can be learnt and
assessed in all subjects
• We need to be intentional and thus clear about what we
try to achieve: rubrics help clarify
• Teachers need support: professional learning
opportunities and scaffolding (resources, examples,
peer learning, etc.)
• It is not easy, it takes time, but it is feasible – and real
teachers in real-life settings have already done it
• There are many different ways to do it (and just starting
to move the needle is an important step)

40. 41
Pedagogical resources currently on book webpage,
soon available through a tablet application
Would you like
to pilot the
app?

41. Changing is not so easy…
"Well, in OUR country," said Alice, still
panting a little, "you'd generally get to
somewhere else — if you run very fast for a
long time, as we've been doing."
"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen.
"Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the
running YOU can do, to keep in the same
place.
If you want to get somewhere else, you
must run at least twice as fast as that!"
42

42. … but it is possible
Alice: This is impossible.
The Mad Hatter: Only if you believe
it is.
43

43. Stephan.Vincent-Lancrin@oecd.org
THANK YOU
https://oe.cd/educationceriinnovationstrategy