How does problem-solving pedagogy affect creativity? A meta-analysis of empirical studies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of problem-solving pedagogy on individual students' creativity in different teaching contexts and conditions, and to examine the role of moderating variables that may affect the overall effect size. The study screened 19 relevant studies from the Web of Science for inclusion in the meta-analysis, and extracted 77 effect sizes from these studies that could be used in the meta-analysis. The study first explored the relationship between problem-solving pedagogy and the development of learner creativity, and further analysis focused on moderating variables to investigate the effects of instructional method, grouping method, grade level, problem-solving scaffolding, source of problems, the application of thinking tools, and the application of technology. The results showed that problem-solving pedagogy enhances students' creativity, while at the same time, among the sources of problems, student-discovered problems are most conducive to creativity stimulation, while teacher-determined problems and problems that lead to student discovery are less effective in terms of promoting creativity. Among the grouping methods, heterogeneous grouping can better utilize the creativity cultivation effect of the problem-solving pedagogy than random grouping and homogeneous grouping. Among the different levels of grades, learners in elementary school are better able to gain creativity under the influence of problem-solving pedagogy than learners in middle school, high school, college, and those in on-the-job learning. However, this study did not reveal any significant benefits for creativity enhancement under the four conditions of instructional method, problem-solving scaffolding, thinking tools-assisted, or technology. The results of this study clarify the importance of problem-solving pedagogy for creativity development, and also reveal the actual effects of the various ways of applying problem-solving pedagogy on creativity development as well as the problems that exist, which provides inspiration for how to better utilize problem-solving pedagogy in the future.

Effects of association interventions on students' creative thinking, aptitude, empathy, and design scheme in a STEAM course: considering remote and close association.

One of the primary goals of STEAM education is to equip students with the capability of creativity to solve problems. Creativity is believed to be closely related to the ability of making remote associations and combining unrelated concepts. This article explored the effects of three kinds of association interventions (i.e., remote association, close association, free association) on students' creative thinking, creative aptitude, empathy, and design scheme. A total of 94 middle school students participated in the study and were assigned to three groups: the experiment group 1 (n = 30) used remote association and experiment group 2 (n = 32) used close association, the control group (n = 32) used free association (brainstorming) to complete the STEAM integration design projects respectively. Creative Thinking Test, Williams Creativity Aptitude Test (WCAT), Basic Empathy Scale (BES), design ideas, and interviews of students become source data for analysis. Results indicated that both remote and close association were effective strategies in promoting creativity in the STEAM course. However, students in the remote association group achieved a significantly higher degree of creative thinking. While students in the close association group significantly outperformed the remote association group on creativity aptitude and quality of design ideas. No significant difference was found among the three association conditions in students' degree of empathy. The findings highlight the different effects of remote and close association for creativity cultivation in STEAM education.

Effect of product-based pedagogy on students' project management skills, learning achievement, creativity, and innovative thinking in a high-school artificial intelligence course.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of product-based pedagogy (PBP) on students' creativity and innovative thinking in artificial intelligence (AI) education. A seven-step model (i.e., phenomenon, problem, plan, prototype, product, presentation, price) in accordance with PBP was proposed, in which the key function of the product as a linkage between creativity and innovation was emphasized. A total of 209 students from a major high school in South China were randomly assigned to a treatment group with PBP and a control group with direct instruction. Results indicated no significant difference was found in students' learning performance; however, students in the treatment group performed significantly better than the control group in terms of students' project management skills, creativity, and innovative thinking. This research validates the feasibility and effectiveness of the PBP and highlights its advantages for high-school AI education, which indicates a new direction for cultivating creative and innovative talents.

Understanding Zhongyong Using a Zhongyong Approach: Re-examining the Non-linear Relationship Between Creativity and the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean.

Zhongyong, a central theme of Confucian thought, refers to the "doctrine of the mean," or the idea that moderation in all things is the optimal path. Despite considerable interest in the relationship between zhongyong and creativity, especially in China, studies of this relationship have not yielded consistent results. Based on a review of the literature, we hypothesized that this inconsistency arises from the dual nature of zhongyong itself, which has both a positive side, promoting creativity, and a negative side, inhibiting creativity. We also hypothesized that the negative side of zhongyong takes the form of excessive zhongyong. Indeed, the observations that every coin has two sides and that too much of a good thing is as bad as too little are core principles of zhongyong in traditional Chinese culture. To test these hypotheses, we conducted two empirical studies (measuring explicit and implicit zhongyong personality, respectively) to examine the relationships between positive and negative zhongyong and creativity (measured in terms of creative personality, divergent thinking, and convergent thinking). The results of both studies revealed an interaction between positive zhongyong and negative zhongyong, indicating that only a moderate level of zhongyong is conducive to creativity; both deficiency and excess are harmful. We discuss the implications of these results, suggesting that a zhongyong approach can help to clarify non-linear relationships between things, and recommending to re-assess the creativity of Chinese culture from a neutral and objective outlook. This paper deepens understanding of zhongyong and offers clear insights into creativity from an in-depth cultural perspective.

Edge2Analysis: A Novel AIoT Platform for Atrial Fibrillation Recognition and Detection.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a serious medical condition of the heart potentially leading to stroke, which can be diagnosed by analyzing electrocardiograms (ECG). Technologies of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) enable smart abnormality detection by analyzing streaming healthcare data from the sensor end of users. Analyzing streaming data in the cloud leads to challenges of response latency and privacy issues, and local inference by a model deployed on the user end brings difficulties in model update and customization. Therefore, we propose an AIoT Platform with AF recognition neural networks on the sensor edge with model retraining ability on a resource-constrained embedded system. To this aim, we proposed to combine simple but effective neural networks and an ECG feature selection strategy to reduce computing complexity while maintaining recognition performance. Based on the platform, we evaluated and discussed the performance, response time, and requirements for model retraining in the scenario of AF detection from ECG recordings. The proposed lightweight solution was validated with two public datasets and an ECG data stream simulation on an ATmega2560 processor, proving the feasibility of analysis and training on edge.

University Students' Successive Development From Entrepreneurial Intention to Behavior: The Mediating Role of Commitment and Moderating Role of Family Support.

University students having high entrepreneurial intention while not transferring into actual entrepreneurial behavior is a contradictory issue in need of in-depth research. To explore the successive development mechanism of the entrepreneurial process, this study constructed a moderated mediation model to examine whether entrepreneurial commitment from three dimensions (affective, behavioral, and continuance) mediated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and behavior, and whether this mediating process was moderated by family support. A survey was conducted among university students from six major universities in south China using the snowball sampling approach. A total of 469 valid responses were obtained (44.6% male and 55.4% female participants). Structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis. According to the results of the confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that entrepreneurial intention had both direct and indirect positive effects on entrepreneurial behavior, while entrepreneurial commitment worked as the mediator, and family support moderated the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and behavior. Results indicated that entrepreneurial commitment bridged the path from entrepreneurial intention to behavior, and family support created the boundary effect. This finding highlights the importance of guiding students through entrepreneurial commitment toward entrepreneurial behavior, and pays special attention to the crucial role of family support under the national strategy.

Cellphone addiction during the Covid-19 outbreak: How online social anxiety and cyber danger belief mediate the influence of personality.

The highly contagious Covid-19 virus is spreading around the world, and quarantining at home has become one of the main preventative behaviors, but it has also led to news blackouts, affecting people's normal life and interactions. In order to determine a predictor of cellphone addiction (CPA), the present study, based on the Risk of Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, investigated the relationship between personality (Neuroticism and Extraversion) and CPA during the epidemic, mediated by online social anxiety (OSA) and cyber danger belief (CDB). A total of 683 questionnaires were collected through snowball sampling and analyzed by Mplus. Results indicated that neurotic and extroverted individuals developed CPA through different mediating factors. Neuroticism affected CPA through OSA while Extraversion affected CPA through CDB. These findings highlight the importance of different mechanisms of individuals with different personalities. Corresponding cognitive treatments on the perception of social anxiety and cyber danger are recommended on neurotic and extroverted individuals, respectively, in order to reduce their degree of CPA.

Online Learners' Reading Ability Detection Based on Eye-Tracking Sensors.

The detection of university online learners' reading ability is generally problematic and time-consuming. Thus the eye-tracking sensors have been employed in this study, to record temporal and spatial human eye movements. Learners' pupils, blinks, fixation, saccade, and regression are recognized as primary indicators for detecting reading abilities. A computational model is established according to the empirical eye-tracking data, and applying the multi-feature regularization machine learning mechanism based on a Low-rank Constraint. The model presents good generalization ability with an error of only 4.9% when randomly running 100 times. It has obvious advantages in saving time and improving precision, with only 20 min of testing required for prediction of an individual learner's reading ability.