Practicing Creativity

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people live and behave. Mental health has become more fragile due to social distancing, stress and fears, and the consequences of the disease. This chapter points out how the context of COVID-19 affects people's lives and the significance of doing creative tasks during these uncertain times. Research has shown that creativity can enhance the ability to cope and heal, as it heightens resilience and abilities of problem-solving. Moreover, everyone can learn techniques to become more creative and develop this skill through time and experience. For example, creativity increases through communication and collaboration with others. Therefore, this chapter demonstrates the relevance of practicing creativity during a worldwide pandemic, providing examples of applications and solutions for everyone to improve mental health and well-being.

Towards Generating Financial Reports From Table Data Using Transformers

Financial reports are commonplace in the business world, but are long and tedious to produce. These reports mostly consist of tables with written sections describing these tables. Automating the process of creating these reports, even partially has the potential to save a company time and resources that could be spent on more creative tasks. We implement a transformer network to solve the task of generating this text. By generating matching pairs between tables and sentences found in financial documents, we created a dataset for our transformer. We were able to achieve promising results, with the final model reaching a BLEU score of 63.3. Generated sentences are natural, grammatically correct and mostly faithful to the information found in the tables.

Towards Generating Financial Reports From Table Data Using Transformers

Financial reports are commonplace in the business world, but are long and tedious to produce. These reports mostly consist of tables with written sections describing these tables. Automating the process of creating these reports, even partially has the potential to save a company time and resources that could be spent on more creative tasks. We implement a transformer network to solve the task of generating this text. By generating matching pairs between tables and sentences found in financial documents, we created a dataset for our transformer. We were able to achieve promising results, with the final model reaching a BLEU score of 63.3. Generated sentences are natural, grammatically correct and mostly faithful to the information found in the tables.

Experience of creating a digital multimedia game

Создание геймифицированных образовательных ресурсов позволяет повысить мотивацию студентов к обучению, индивидуализировать образовательные маршруты, обеспечить вариативность содержания образования, учесть ограничения в здоровье. Цель настоящей статьи состоит в описании принципов разработки цифровых мультимедийных игр для сферы профессионального образования с учетом командного взаимодействия представителей различных профессиональных групп. В результате исследования выделены основные принципы разработки цифровых мультимедийных игр, предполагающие использование звуковых, анимационных и других эффектов при проведении корпоративных сеансов и выполнении творческих заданий. Практическая значимость заключается в возможности использования описанных принципов для дальнейшей разработки геймифицированных ресурсов. The creation of gamified resources makes it possible to increase the students’ motivation with the content of activities, to individualize educational routes, to ensure the variability of the content of education, to take into account health restrictions. The aim of this article is to describe the principles of developing digital multimedia games for vocational education, taking into account the team interaction of representatives of various professional groups. As a result of the study the basic principles of the development of digital multimedia games are highlighted, involving the use of sound, animation and other effects for corporate sessions and for doing creative tasks. The practical significance lies in the possibility of using the described principles for further development of gamified resources.

THE EFFECT OF CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING WITH THE INTERVENTION SOCIAL SKILLS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CREATIVE TASKS

This research aims to determine the social skills intervention with the student’s ability to solve problems creatively towards understanding the concepts and procedures: the objectives of learning. A quasi-experimental research design was used to see the interaction between attitudes and treatments. The research sample was students who took computer courses in reality-based laboratories in vocational schools. Data analysis was performed using descriptive analysis techniques and inferential statistical multivariate analysis of variance two paths. Creative problem solving is intervened by a background in social skills to understand concepts and procedures. Social skills have a greater influence on the creative process. This can be seen when giving creative problem-solving tasks. The abilities they have, about; readiness to learn, the ability to understand one’s own needs, and the ability to understand one’s own learning style, greatly support the performance of their creative assignments. At the same time, external factors have less influence on the performance of creative tasks. These external factors are influenced by the class social environment, group formation, and class management. Students who have high social skills find it easier to complete creative tasks, and students who have low social skills have problems adapting and adjusting to the learning process

How bad is the mere presence of a phone? A replication of Przybylski and Weinstein (2013) and an extension to creativity

A 2013 article reported two experiments suggesting that the mere presence of a cellphone (vs. a notebook) can impair the relationship quality between strangers. The purpose of the present research is twofold: (1) closely replicate this article’s findings, and (2) examine whether there may be an impact of the mere presence of a phone on creativity, whether at a group- or an individual- level. In two experiments (N = 356 participants, 136 groups), we followed the original procedure in the 2013 article. In particular, groups of participants who had never seen each other before the study had a conversation in the mere presence of either a smartphone or a notebook. The participants then carried out creative tasks, in groups (Studies 1 and 2) or alone (Study 1). In both studies, we failed to replicate the original results on relationship quality. We also failed to find any effect of the mere presence of a phone on creativity. We discuss possible reasons which may have caused differences between our results and the original ones. Our main conclusion is an effect of the mere presence of a phone on relationship quality and creativity is at minimum harder to find than what was previously assumed in the literature. More generally, this research contributes to qualify the view that smartphones are harmful.

Songs with Lyrics by Sergei Esenin in a Class of Russian as a Foreign Language

Юбилей Сергея Александровича Есенина — благодатный повод обратиться к произведениям одного из величайших и любимейших писателей России, чей поэтический стиль отличается уникальностью и самобытностью, а творческое наследие входит в сокровищницу культурного достояния страны. Обращение к стихам С. А. Есенина, положенным на музыку, создает отличную возможность применения этого материала на занятиях по русскому языку как иностранному, что позволяет не только углубить знания о стране изучаемого языка, расширить понимание русскоязычной картины мира, но и усилить мотивацию к овладению русским языком, а преподавателю, в свою очередь, помогает разрабатывать креативные увлекательные задания, не нашедшие отражения в большинстве учебников по русскому языку для иностранцев. Sergei Esenin’s 125th anniversary is a good reason for turning to the works of an author of almost unprecedented popularity, whose poetic style is original and unique, his literary heritage considerably enriching the treasury of the national culture. His poetry set to music can make invaluable material when teaching Russian to foreigners. It gives them an insight into the culture of Russia and the Russian language worldview, and enhances motivation for studying Russian and broadening understanding of its culture. It also gives the teacher an opportunity to use involving creative tasks not to be found in the majority of Russian textbooks for foreigners.

Reflexive monitoring of parameters of the development of logical operations as the basis for the individualization of learning

The prerequisite for the present study is the lack of instruments ensuring timely identification and development of school students’ giftedness in natural science disciplines in the arsenal of a modern teacher. A system of creative tasks integrated into the process of studying chemistry and biology can largely contribute to the development of subject-related knowledge and creative thinking. However, the integration of creative tasks in the educational process should be preceded by purposeful formation and monitoring of the development of a set of reproductive intellectual skills. The main goal of the study is to develop a method for the identification and development of students’ abilities including giftedness in chemistry and biology, as well as to study the opportunities for creating individual learning trajectories in natural science disciplines. The study is based on the hypothesis that the development of an individual trajectory in studying chemistry and biology will contribute to the development of individuality and the creative abilities of students. The main method used in the study is determining the speed of completion of logical operations in the process of solving cognitive tasks. Assessment of the speed of completion of logical operations allows determining, among other things, the ability for mastering natural science disciplines and a child’s giftedness in this educational sphere. A system of tasks and exercises in chemistry and biology providing for the study of the speed of development of reproductive and creative thinking and allowing real-time monitoring of the effectiveness of the educational process for its timely correction is developed for the first time. The results of the study of the speed of completion of logical operations by a student in the process of solving cognitive tasks presented graphically form the basis for the development of an individual program of development of intellectual and creative abilities of a child.