OECD Fostering and assessing students’ creativity and critical thinking skills in higher education

Note that this not a project under CIDEFES leadership

Funding type

OECD

Timeline

12/2/2019

Principal Investigator

OECD

Other Investigators

• This project is being conducted at the Universidade Lusófona woth the responsibility of the CeiED.
• Elsa Estrela (Coord.); Carla Galego; Sónia Vladimira Correia
• Other investigators from the partners below

Partners

• Monash University – Australia
• Ontario Tech University – Canada McGill University – Canada
• University College Copenhagen – Denmark
• Aalto University – Finland
• NISE (University of Limerick + Mary Immaculate College) – Ireland
• Politecnico di Torino – Italy
• Sophia University – Japan
• International Christian University – Japan
• KEDI (national coordinator) – Korea
• Universidad de Guadalajara – Mexico
• Universidad Pedagogica Nacional – Mexico
• Shanghai Normal University – People’s Republic of China
• Northeast Normal University – People’s Republic of China Central China
• Normal University – People’s Republic of China
• Escola Superior de Saude de Santa Maria – Portugal
• Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão – Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo – Portugal
• Técnico Lisboa (Lisbon University) – Portugal
• Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias – Portugal
• University of Porto – Portugal Universidade de Aveiro – Portugal
• Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro – Portugal
• Politécnico de Leiria – Portugal
• National Research University Higher School of Economics – Russian Federation
• Universidad Camilo Jose Cela – Spain
• University of Winchester – United Kingdom

Summary

Creativity and critical thinking are key skills for the complex and globalized economies and societies of the 21st century. There is a growing consensus that higher education systems and institutions should cultivate these skills with their students. However, too little is known about what this means for everyday teaching and assessment practices. This project at the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) aims to support higher education institutions to innovate in their teaching and nurture students’ creative and critical thinking. The project builds an international community of practice around teaching, learning and assessing creativity and critical thinking. It seeks to identify the key contextual factors and effective approaches to foster these skills in higher education settings, develop and implement exemplary instructional practices and assess the effects of innovative pedagogies on students and faculty members. The findings of the project will be published in an international report in 2022. The monitoring instruments developed for the evaluation of the impacts of the project will also be made public. The pedagogical resources (rubrics, redesigned courses, assessments, faculty professional learning plans, etc.) will be shared under a Creative Commons licence so that they can inspire faculty and institutions internationally. Beyond contributing to the common good of teaching excellence in higher education, participating institutions develop their innovation and improvement capacity in teaching and learning thanks to their involvement in an international network of like-minded institutions. Ultimately, the project aims to trigger a sustainable improvement process in teaching and learning in higher education and beyond.