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Development of Creativity in Children

Morteza Esma'ili Kartiji

As a potential talent, creativity demands attention and training. This is because this ability, like all other human abilities, cannot become actualized unless it is developed. Therefore, parents, nursery schools, and schools should provide the context for the growth of creativity in children from the early years of their childhood. Creativity is one of the most supreme and complicated activities of the human mind which should be taken into consideration by the educational system. It depends not only on individual's intelligence and thoughts but also on their character. Considering the role of the educational system as the instructor and developer of creative and inquisitive human resources, we must ask the important question of to what extent our educational system leads students to this direction. Therefore, we can consider research, alongside teaching, to be one of the most important purposes of education, which demands the attention of authorities. It seems that schools and teachers have a very critical duty in this regard. In addition to promoting research activities, teachers should motivate the students to become involved in research and teach them correct research methods. Accordingly, the present paper examines the different dimensions of creativity, such as the concept of creativity, the process of creative thinking, characteristics of creative individuals, influential factors in creativity, teachers' role in developing creativity, methods of promoting and developing creativity among students, and the role of research in training creative students. Here, after discussing the ideas of teachers and experts in the field of education with regard to the concept of creativity and the process of creative thinking, the writer tries to provide an answer to the following questions: Is creativity an internal or an external process? Does it require discipline or self-motivation? While referring to various research findings, the writer also explores the personal and psychological features of creative people and highlights their differences from non-creative people. In another part, he reviews the effective factors in creativity as well as the factors that prevent creative thinking. Given the roles of teachers and families in developing creativity, it is also tried to provide an answer to the question of whether the developers of creativity should be creative themselves or not. Finally, reference is made to the various methods that scholars in the field of education propose for establishing and developing creativity and the flourishing of creative talents.

Key Terms: creativity, research, creative thinking, child, teacher

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An Analysis of the Role of Schools in Establishing Public Order based on the Interactions between School-Masters, Teachers, and Students

Mohammad Heydar Ya'qubi

School is the first formal sub-system where order and discipline are taught to students in order to prepare them for living in today's society. The role of schools and the interactions existing there in establishing public order is of prime importance. The main question posed in the present study is what kind of school and which school functions could be efficient in establishing public order. Unfortunately, the number of academic studies conducted in this regard is very limited, and public order is one of the topics that has remained neglected like a barren curriculum. In our present educational system, it is considered to be an evident and unimportant problem, which is why it is not a part of formal school curricula. In this research, the author has attempted to explain the problem and initially searched for the related material in the existing literature and then performed a qualitative content analysis of the discussed categories, referents, and concepts. Finally, it is concluded that the interactions between the three groups of school masters, teachers, and students play a great role in creating public order. Moreover, it is emphasized that if we pay more attention to such interactions in a school where there is a harmony among these three groups, a more efficient system of public order will be observed in society.

Key Terms: school, public order, school masters, teachers, students

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A Review and Reconstruction of the Story of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and its Use in the Program of Philosophy and Children (P&C)

Nawwab Muqarrabi

In this paper, the author has tried to review and reconstruct the story of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan as the prototype of philosophical story writing for teaching thinking, deliberation, and rationalization in the Iranian-Islamic paradigm from a new perspective. He has also attempted to explain the methods of employing it in the classroom and philosophical research circles. Although the Iranian-Islamic culture and philosophy contains several rich literary, scientific, and philosophical elements and components, they have not yet attracted the attention of the researchers in the field of education as much as they deserve. Nor have they been explored by practitioners in the recent program of Philosophy for Children (P4C). Some of the people who advocate this program or translate its related works in Iran believe that Philosophy for Children has a western origin and is fed by western culture and philosophy. As a result, they claim that they must follow the "methods" and "ideas" of the founders and pioneers of this program. They even believe that they should translate their stories, which are incompatible with the Iranian lifestyle and Islamic culture and worldview, and publish them with a large circulation in order to teach the so-called selected method of thinking. In contrast, the author of this paper argues that Hayy Ibn Yaqzan is not a normal philosophical story and can, rather, be used as an inspiring model of philosophical story writing in the native Program of Philosophy and Children (P&C) in Iran provided that it is revised, rewritten, and modified to some extent. Of course, there are also many other philosophical stories among Persian philosophical and literary works that can be useful in this regard.

Key Terms: Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, model of story writing, native Program of Philosophy and Children (P&C), Islamic lifestyle, research circles

A Study of the Principles of Public Order in the Fundamental Reform Document of Education based on the Holy Qur'an

Public order is one of the important subjects in the field of education. This is because order and discipline play a crucial role in human life, and teachers should try to plant the seeds of knowledge, faith, piety, and discipline in the students' prepared and fertile minds in order to harvest the fruit of righteous human beings. The educational teachings and recommendations of religious leaders concerning the correct training of children indicate that the teaching of order and discipline demands particular attention. Given the fact that the Fundamental Reform Document of Education functions as a map for the educational methods and directions of the country, it is of prime importance to investigate it by paying attention to the different components of public order. Therefore, the present paper addresses these components through a content analysis of the studies related to public order in the Holy Qur'an. Having described the principles of public order, the authors analyze and explore it with regard to the solutions suggested in the Fundamental Reform Document of Education. The components of public order in the Qur'an are: cooperation, council, fulfillment of obligation, security, and forbidding injustice. In the solutions proposed in the Document, more attention has been paid to the first three components while the fourth and fifth are almost neglected.

Key Terms: public order, Holy Qur'an, Fundamental Reform Document of Education, education and training

The senses of inquiry and curiosity in children can be used as the most important bases for a correct, principled, and efficient educational system. Here, the teaching of philosophy, because of its tight relationship with practice, is of particular significance. Teaching philosophy means teaching rationalizing or thinking to children. Philosophizing can help us lead children towards self-perfection. In this way, they will develop critical and creative thinking abilities and internalize several educational concepts. From among the educational outcomes of such a teaching process, we can refer to the learning of order and discipline. In this process, the child learns about order in act and behavior through mental order and organization rather than external force. In Islamic philosophy, Mulla Sadra bases his practical wisdom on theoretical wisdom. Moreover, he derives the thinking and reasoning abilities from Man's rational faculty in the field of theoretical wisdom. Therefore, through training the rational faculty of a rational child, one can explain the significance of discipline and teach it to them.

Key Terms: Mulla Sadra, philosophy, child, order and discipline, practical wisdom

In all societies, supreme values and interests hold a particular station. The national legal systems support these supreme values and interests versus individual freedoms and benefits in the form of "public order". Additionally, public order is the prerequisite for social development and gaining power by a society and the necessary condition for enjoying many instances of citizenship rights. Accordingly, one of the most important purposes of the system of education is training citizens who are well aware of their own rights and duties and are also committed to society. Therefore, it seems necessary to design and execute the curricula in a way to gradually prepare students for social life, discipline, and internalization of necessary laws. In 1960s, by presenting the project of Philosophy for Children (P4C), Matthew Lipman introduced a new model to the field of education which officially considers the teaching of thinking skills to children to be possible even before entering school. In this project, philosophy is used as a method for developing critical thinking, creative thinking, and responsible thinking. The purpose of the present study is to explore the role and place of the Philosophy for Children Program in "public order" in society employing an analytic-descriptive design. Generally speaking, what is extensively practiced in this Program is the use of logical reasoning, which ultimately leads students towards correct judgment and accepting responsibility. It can be claimed that the Program of Teaching Philosophy for Children through "community of inquiry" is one of the most efficient educational methods which results in training cognizant, thoughtful, disciplined, and responsible citizens and provides the conditions for living in a healthy and dynamic society. The results of this study indicate that many of the skills reinforced through the Program of Teaching Philosophy for Children are those which constitute the main elements of citizenship training. Generally speaking, through employing this program, students develop certain types of knowledge, skills, and views which enable them, as members of society, to have active and efficient presence in various fields and play a determining role in establishing public order in society.

In my experience and that of my colleagues, children and adults without philosophical training are nevertheless capable of discerning ethical, aesthetic, political and other philosophical dimensions of their own experience, of recognizing problematic aspects of that experience, and of inquiring toward judgment and action intended to resolve what is problematic in that experience. In my work in pre-school through university classrooms around the world, I have often seen classroom dialogues that are highly democratic and that evidence many kinds of critical and creative thinking, yet tend to be disorganized and haphazard, lacking direction and momentum, because of a lack of a shared framework for systematic inquiry. In this article, I present a framework I have used for facilitating philosophical dialogue with children, school teachers and graduate students, in my work for the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC). The framework I present is meant to be an aid for conducting dialogue construed as systematic, collaborative inquiry. I think of such inquiry as having a trajectory in the shape of an arc, beginning with some kind of question, problem or vague opportunity, and ending in some kind of satisfactory resolution or fulfillment. The framework I present here is not a substitute for the social and cognitive virtues that distinguish rigorous dialogue from other modes of discourse; it is intended to structure the exercise of those virtues so that they can reinforce and build on each other toward a meaningful resolution of the questions at hand. It is intended to structure the exercise of those virtues so that they can reinforce and build on each other toward a meaningful resolution of the questions at hand. Regarding those virtues, the framework can be used pedagogically: students can learn the principles and the uses of argumentation and informal logic, as well as habits of democratic interaction. The framework consists of six stages. There is an order to the stages, but the order isn't lock-stepped: the dialogue can move back and forth between stages and even jump around among them, so long as the participants know where they are within the framework and which tasks have been accomplished. The hierarchy of these stages is as follows: 1) identify issues relevant to purposes; 2) formulate and organize relevant questions; 3) formulate and organize hypotheses in response to questions; 4) clarify and test hypotheses in dialogue and confirm, revise or abandon; 5) experiment with hypotheses in experience and warrant, revise or abandon; 6) implement warranted hypotheses. Finally, the kind of dialogue described in the intended framework is only possible if individual participants see themselves as partners in one collaborative inquiry, if they commit to a shared agenda of questions and to shared methods of pursuing those questions.

Key Terms: Philosophy and Children, classroom dialogue, collaborative inquiry