Mindfulness at Work, a Sound Business Investment

The COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis have brought tremendous pressure on human beings and have raised deep concerns regarding the future of people's activities all over the world. The post-COVID-19 era presents a highly challenging perspective due to the uncertainties raised by the new environment, already weakened by the lack of cooperation among individuals, the ruthless competition between entities, and the fierce and aggressive decisions taken in haste, which affected the balance of our planet, the future of the next generations, and the well-being and mental health of people. Mindfulness represents a major solution to today's problems, offering individuals the possibility to become more focused, more connected with present situations, and more willing to understand not only their needs, but also the requirements of their colleagues, communities, and all that surrounds them. Mindfulness, as an investment in our lives, comes to support creativity, development, innovation, responsibility, sustainability, well-being, and a healthy and well-balanced business environment.

TEXTBOOK AS A MEANS OF CREATIVITY DEVELOPMENT OF A STUDENT

The article provides a comparative analysis of primary school textbooks in Poland and Ukraine. Summarizing the results of the analysis of the approaches of different authors, the following functions of the school textbook are singled out: informational, managerial, developmental, communicative, educational, differentiation of learning, individualization of learning. It is established that in modern textbooks of New Ukrainian School (NUS) much attention is paid to: development of logical thinking; activity approach; work with information; development of students' critical thinking; ability to interact and communicate; creativity development. Tasks of a creative origin aimed at organizing the search activities of students and the development of creativity improve the developmental function of textbooks for primary school. One of the key trends is the use of “open” textbooks. It is noted that the “open” textbook promotes the creativity of teachers who become its contributors; in addition, the textbook is enriched with local realities. Key words: textbook, development of creativity, modern Polish primary school, creative potential, New Ukrainian School (NUS), reform.

THE CREATIVITY PATHWAYS‏ ‏IN CREATIVITY DEVELOPMENT BOOK SYNECTICS STRATEGY AS A MODEL

The research aimed to explore the pathways for developing ‎creativity‏ ‏through the use of synectics strategy‏. ‏The descriptive ‎approach was adopted, in the manner of content analysis, through ‎observation and induction.‎ The most significant finding is that synectics strategy is an ‎important‏ ‏in‏ ‏structional strategy‏ ‏for developing creativity‏ ‏because‏ ‏individuals of the study‏ ‏use‏ ‏the creative thinking skills while‏ ‏applying‏ ‏this strategy‏.‏ Based on the study findings, the recommendations indicated that ‎teachers should be more interested in implementing the synectics strategy ‎in delivering educational curricula because it has a crucial significance in ‎fostering creative thinking‎.‎

The simultaneous existence of modernist and neo-avant-garde tendencies in nonconformist art of Ukraine in the 1980s

In the early 1980s, the nonconformist art movement in Odesa, which had been developing since the mid-1950s, was widened by a new generation of artists. Their art searches differed significantly from their senior colleagues, which led to the formation of a separate movement within nonconformism, which later became known as APTART. The differences were mainly in the worldview of artists, aesthetics, themes, artistic techniques. The art of the new generation was closer to the Western neo-avant-garde, while their older colleagues tended toward modernism. The presence of two different well-defined movements within the nonconformism, a phenomenon in itself countercultural to official culture, distinguished the artistic process in Odesa in the 1980s from other cities in Ukraine. It is these features of the artistic life of that time, still insufficiently covered and analysed. The text considers the part of the work of the Odesa APTART artists, which the most clearly displays the elements of neo-avant-garde aesthetics, that, accordingly, affected the artistic means: acts, performances happenings; the differences between the two groups of artists belonging to the nonconformist subculture were analysed. Specific acts, works of the APTART artists opposed to the background of creative activity of their colleagues are considered. The stages of the APTART artists’ creativity development are traced. Within the disclosure of the research theme, the text highlights the processes of nonconformist artistic life in the main cities of Ukraine, traces parallels to similar phenomena in world art. Due to the experience of recent researches, the terms that directly affect the subject of the paper are specified: nonconformism, informal art, avant-garde, modernism, neo-avant-garde.

Étude de la littérature sur la créativité en sciences de l’éducation dans les pays francophones

The term “creativity” is used in a wide variety of ways in professional, technological, socio-economical and educational contexts. In this paper, an exploratory literature review of the French-language scientific literature in educational sciences was conducted, revealing the fields of knowledge that mobilize the creativity concept. Both a descriptive and a categorical content analysis were employed. The results of these analyses allowed us to situate the context of creativity and to identify five fields of knowledge: 1) teaching and personal development, 2) problem solving and computational thinking, 3) artistic approach, 4) training and/or educational programs, and 5) creativity development factors.

Teaching Strategies, School Environment, and Culture: Drivers of Creative Pedagogy in Ghanaian Schools

Creative pedagogy in educational institutions has been the mainstay of sustainable development globally as it ensures high standard human capital with a high level of imagination and problem-solving potentials. However, there are several drivers of creative pedagogy. This exploratory study employed the embedded mixed methods design with qualitative and quantitative approaches aimed at exploring the perspectives of teachers in selected pre-tertiary institutions in Ghana on the teaching strategies, school environment, and culture as drivers of creative pedagogy, using Lin’s creative pedagogy theory. The findings have shown that teaching strategies, school environment, and culture that promotes flexible and independent thinking, problem-solving and collaborative skills ensure students’ creativity development. The study recommends the implementation of learner-centered teaching strategies, a flexible teaching curriculum that encourages creativity development, smaller class sizes, semi-circular seating arrangements, and an introduction of a permissive culture that allows students to think and explore outside the box in Ghanaian schools.