the sun has come out
one crow flies across the lot
& then another


—


on the 38
one block from Jack’s Lawson Park
sidewalks lined with tents


—


ol’ crow got sum’n
he takes it up to the roof
of the bus station


—


the year’s shortest day
the mailman knocks on my door
& postage is due


—


without a coffee
I walk back from Circle K
crow caws out hello!


—


bio/graf

J. D. Nelson’s poems have appeared in many publications, worldwide, since 2002. He is the author of ten print chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including *Cinderella City* (The Red Ceilings Press, 2012). Nelson’s first full-length collection is *in ghostly onehead* (Post-Asemic Press, 2022). Visit his website, MadVerse.com, for more information and links to his published work. His haiku blog is at JDNelson.net. Nelson lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

ENHANCING STUDENTS’ CREATIVE THINKING THROUGH INTERNATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAMS

Annotation: This article describes the concept of creative thinking in a broad sense and mentions that this concept is important for students' future research.  The PISA program, which is considered one of the international researches, requires creativity and the opinions are expressed about the further improvement of the quality of education
Key words: skill, creative thinking, divergent thinking, science, mathematics, problem, platform, domain, 

INTRODUCTION

       The main task of education is to form the skills that the student will need today and in the future to lead a successful life in society.  Creative thinking is an important skill that today's youth should have.  These skills help them adapt to a world that is constantly and rapidly changing, requiring workers with "21st century" skills that go beyond simple literacy.  In general, today's student is expected to work in the future in fields that do not even exist now, to solve new problems through new technologies. A number of researchers have tried to identify the mental capacities necessary for creative thinking.  

The importance of developing creative thinking at school is not limited to the labor market.  School is important for young people to discover their abilities and skills, including creative talents.  Also, creative thinking supports students' learning by interpreting events, experiences, and behaviors in a new and personally meaningful way. In order to increase the student's motivation and interest in the school, it is necessary to establish new forms of education that take into account the creative potential and enthusiasm of all students. 

This can especially help students who are not very interested in the educational process, and it will help them express their opinions and develop their potential.  the concept of convergent and divergent thinking has greatly influenced research in this field.  Analytic thinking is generally defined as the ability to use conventional and logical strategies to search, understand, and make decisions based on information gathered in order to find answers.  Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is original by applying new approaches and forming unexpected combinations from existing information, as well as using the capacities of connections, thinking, and transformation, such as semantic variability and fluidity.  is the ability to develop ideas.  

        REFERENCES AND METHODOLOGY

          Divergent thinking is also described as the ability to abandon ready-made instructions, to search for different solutions to problems, to resort to unexpected measures when all other means are exhausted, to look at problems from a different point of view, to abandon ready-made methods and try new ones.  In general, divergent thinking is often about generating new, unusual, and unexpected answers.  Creative thinking is often described in terms of divergent thinking, and most research to date has been devoted to studying the mental processes associated with divergent thinking. 

But the research is analytical or decision-making  clearly shown that mental processes of similar thinking, such as the ability to do, are important for creativity. For example, the ability to generate new and valuable ideas may depend on the implementation of other processes, such as problem definition.  In fact, it was found that the success of art students in defining the problem is closely related to the criteria of aesthetic value and originality of the pictures they draw.  These criteria, in turn, depended on the long-term success of these students as artists.  Schools can promote educational methods that support the mental skills and approaches necessary for creativity, and learning to form mental representations has been shown to improve student creativity in science, mathematics, and ICT.

     The literature suggests that the more domains covered in an assessment of creative thinking, the better the coverage of the construct.  However, some practical and logistical limitations of the PISA study affect the possible domains to be included in the PISA program.  The first of these is related to the age of those being tested.  Given that the target audience of the PISA study (15-year-old students) has limited knowledge and life experiences, the domains chosen for assessment should be based on knowledge and experiences common to all students in the world (such as drawing, writing or problem solving).  The domain being tested (and related tasks) should also reflect a realistic expression of the creative thinking that a 15-year-old student can demonstrate in this context.

 The second limitation is related to the time allotted for testing.  According to the structure of the current PISA assessment, one hour is allocated to the test to assess students' creative thinking.  This means that the number of possible domains must be limited so that a sufficient amount of data can be collected for each domain.  Since the purpose of the PISA study is to provide benchmarks of test results at the country level rather than individual test results, different forms of tests can be used interchangeably.  In this, students solve a diverse mix of tasks (with some accidental overlap) within the domain.  

However, ensuring that students obtain reliable indicators of national test performance in each domain requires that sufficient time be allocated to each domain's task and limits the number of tasks that can be covered in an assessment.  A third limitation is the implementation of the test of creative thinking in the standard PISA test-taking platform related to the obligation.  PISA tests are performed on a standard computer, which does not have a touchscreen or an Internet connection.  The platform currently supports various forms of response input, including multiple choice, text input, drag-and-drop, hot-spot (clicking on an area within a text or image), chat interface, interactive charts, and graphics.  

Although it is possible to add new functionality to the platform during the development of this assessment, such as a drawing tool, selection of assessment areas, the technical limitations of the platform must be taken into account when developing the same tasks.  The development of an international program for the assessment of creative thinking can lead to positive changes in educational policy and pedagogy.  The PISA Assessment of Creative Thinking in Research provides a clear, reliable, and actionable assessment tool to help policymakers make evidence-based decisions.  The results also fuel debates in society about the importance and methods of developing this important skill through education.  

This activity in the international assessment program PISA is related to another project of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development aimed at supporting a new pedagogy for the development of creative thinking.  The main task of education in creative thinking is to form the skills that the student will need today and in the future to lead a successful life in society.  Creative thinking is an important skill that today's youth must have, and this skill will help them adapt to a constantly and rapidly changing environment that requires personnel with up-to-date skills beyond simple literacy.  In general, today's students will work in fields that do not even exist in the future, for new skills for new problems will allow them to solve increasingly complex local and global problems through an unusual approach.  

The importance of developing creative thinking at school is not limited to the labor market.  School is important for young people to discover their abilities and skills, including creative talents.  Creative thinking also supports student learning by interpreting events, experiences, and behaviors in new and personally meaningful ways.

         Conclusion

      A number of educational research studies have explored different methods of teaching or learning that increase the likelihood of knowledge and skill acquisition.  Research shows that creative thinking can be effectively developed by working together in a team environment that allows for the creation of knowledge and skills.  In other words, schools act as knowledge and skill-generating organizations, where students are actively engaged in creative and regular activities infused with new ideas.  

When the process of creating knowledge becomes a purposeful activity that is an integral part of the educational process, that is, a type of everyday activity, Knowledge can also be created by "looking at the world with the eyes of questioning wonder."  Looking at the world with questioning wonder is understood as the process of a student trying to understand the world, and it motivates students to put forward their own opinions about various phenomena.  Students' creativity is reflected in their creative thinking skills, especially when most of the creative thinking process involves "invisible" tasks.

              REFERENCES

1.	Amabile, T. (2012), «Componential theory of creativity», No.12-096,HarvardBusinessSchool, http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/12-096.pdf (accessed on 28 March 2018). [59]
2.Amabile, T. (1997), «Motivating creativity in organizations: on doing what you love and loving what you do», California Management Review, Vol. 40/1, pp. 39-58, http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/41165921.
3.Guilford, J. (1956), «The structure of intellect», Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 
53/4, pp. 267-293, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0040755. [46]

4.Guilford, J. (1950), «Creativity», American Psychologist, Vol. 5/9, pp. 444-454, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0063487.
5.Essex, C. (1996), Teaching Creative Writing in the Elementary School. ERIC 
Digest, ERIC Digest., https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED391182.pdf. [108]

6.Feist, G. (1998), «A meta-analysis of personality in scientific and artistic 
creativity», Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 2/4, pp. 290-309. [61]

7.Gajda, A., M. Karwowski and R. Beghetto (2017), «Creativity and academic 
achievement: A meta-analysis.», Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 
109/2, pp. 269-299, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000133.

What is happiness for you?

Everyone imagines happiness differently, but the scope of this concept is much wider than our scope of thinking and it cannot be expressed in a single case. Let's say that the birth of a person
is happiness, marrying someone you love is happiness, and having children is happiness. Also, receiving parental blessings is happiness for a child, to have a car, to build a house, to achieve some other dreams... They are, all of them can be happiness for some people. 

These states, which people know as happiness, can be continued as long as they want. But there is such happiness among them that to be a guest of it is a great example of perfection. This is to be loyal to the Motherland, to show self-sacrifice for the development of society, peace, and tranquility of compatriots. Also, happiness can be, to love people, to look at them impartially, with the eyes of love, to recognize that everyone is a person like himself and that they are equal
before the Creator. Even greater happiness for me is that I am a young generation of a peaceful country called Uzbekistan.

The word "Motherland" itself has a broad meaning. Our world is one of the meadows, where nature is our land, and faith in God is a blessing. Unfortunately, many estimate happiness to be wealth in this life. Wealth is not an indicator of happiness. For example, a great Russian scientist saw his happiness in creating rockets. He lived by eating leftovers from kitchens. But even in such conditions, he considered himself happy. Being full can be a small factor in feeling happy.

Satisfying human needs at least to a moderate level also creates the basis for happiness. Sometimes even people who have enough of everything feel unhappy. What should people do to feel happy?

Coming into this world as a human is happiness, and leaving it as a human is even more happiness. Nonetheless, we are not always able to appreciate the value of happiness. Getting up early to see the sunlight and breathing every moment of our life is unlimited happiness. It's about being able to feel it and enjoy the blessings of the world.

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual
experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." 
-- Denis Waitley

Why should I cry?!

If I die my spirit flies to the sky 
If they cry with blue on the Earth they are him for I 
Say him that she's gone for coming back never- because she died 
Why do I have to cry, do they cry 

If friends have tears-causes are expressed 
We said it for the soul, or what or else 
This sadness stuck me into the darkness 
If any questions, say she flied to the sky 
Why do I have to cry, do they cry 

Bunches of the life throw away flowers 
The life of one flower is ending as bu(rgeon)d 
Making me feel that events in my heart 
They left me leaving such torture as peeks 
Nibble my inside-I became downward 
Why do I have to cry, do they cry 

Reason-memory(memento) martyr me by after by after 
Heart burning continuously (my mind) hurts (mine) my mind 
Versus winds standing my patience 
Roars saying "oh" - tough protestation
"Don't cry" they say, flower glamourous 
But cannot say we don't make you cry, tongue wonders 
Left me, won't come back that sweetheart liar 
Why do I cry, do they cry 

Kindness in eyes, words without words 
Exists spark still, intends glowing 
But the possessor of fire burning another 
Every moment tells fiery words 
Getting away, not coming back my valentine-without tolerance, pert (without justice-fired) 
Why do I cry, do they cry 

Causing impatience they left me, of course 
Have you reached at your pointed distance, (at the end ?) destinations 
Did you deliberately hurt me, finally again (at the end) ? 
Or again brought me to the grain, at the end ? 
Oh my chosen valentine chose the other 
Have you left me forever - entirely end ? 
Yourself whisper, who could I make mine-my lovely anymore(then) ? 
Why do I cry, do (they) cry 

I will leave this world one day 
Right towards to my God, his forward (away)  
At that time He will give me Happiness huge endless 
I do live in the garden of Paradise with gladness 
My patience's travelled unending space 
Before it ends, impart(deliver) me to Your Ways 
Oh My God, I will go back to You, without any doubts 
I am Your servant(creature, prayer), I am (only, just) Yours  
Forgive my sins, My Lord who created, (I am thoughtless) 
You are aware and listener as well(also) with patience 
The time hasn't been taken down for us - mysterious 
Why do I have to cry, (but) do they cry 

My heart hurt, causing that satisfaction night 
I find my soul out dead at (next) that dawn 
No hearts to feel anymore then 
I will shut it (forever) till the end 
And that life unmatched and with locked hair 
From my Happiness into the moments 
Why is sadness finding spaces ?  
That annoyed(uneasy) psyche  is abandoned(ruin), insulted 
That fire is not for intolerant jack, anymore again 
Why do I cry, do they(he, all) cried...?!

Mukhlisa Safarova was born on August 13, 2001, in the Surkhandarya region of the Republic of Uzbekistan. She is 21 years old and has a deep interest in poetry. She is the author of numerous poems, songs, stories, and articles. Currently, she is a second-year student at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy. She was awarded the Peace Ambassador nomination in a competition organized by the Iqra Foundation and has served as a representative of the SPCS organization in the United Kingdom, as well as a Global Education representative for Wisdom University, earning certificates and winning various competitions and contests.

Dinner in Colombo

He’s having

An egg kottu

At a random place

On Galle Road

In Colombo,

Trying to

Hold back

This massive smile

As he eats,

He loves

Sri Lanka.

Taylor Dibbert is a writer, journalist, and poet in Washington, DC. “Invictus,” his debut poetry collection, is due out in January 2024.

This Doesn’t Take Place In Florida

I live alone in the woods but
I am still less alone than
Most people in human history
Because I have a phone

In a few days I will go to a funeral
In a big city
Where someone will tell me his life story

He grew up in Florida
Has returned to Florida
It was hard for him in Florida

Which sounds exactly like
Everywhere else 

I have been to Florida
But not for a long time
So it is not part of my life story
But most people have the same life story
If you just insert your own details
Mentally replacing “Florida” for
Your personal “Florida”

I have considered my life 
In its totality and strangeness
More recently than I’ve been to Florida

So basically I was in Florida

If Florida is a metaphor 
For the place where things happened 
In your life story
Instead of it being the state called Florida

Sometimes I wait for a new life
I wait for it to emerge from the trees
I wait and I wait
And it does not appear
But that does not dissuade me
From trying again at some point in the future

At a funeral people will try and tell
Someone’s life story
Since that person is not there to tell it
They do a decent job usually
Considering it is not possible



 

The World Where it Rains


The rain is continuous and forever
Nobody knows how long it has been raining
It has been raining since we can remember
So long that now we don’t call it raining anymore

In the raining world I decide I will
Quit my job and move far away
Then go grocery shopping
To celebrate
That it will always rain

Before anyone speaks to me they are beautiful
In the aisles they are being beautiful
They have come out of the rain to be with me
And we will frolic among the groceries

But then they speak to me
And ruin it all

I think of the specific flavor of candy I want to buy
And I can’t recall the brand
Or maybe they don’t make it anymore
So yes, we can want things that are gone I guess

We unconsciously pine for the sun
That we no longer even remember
Or who people could have been
Before they started talking

I think about
When I move and
When this is no longer “my” store
I will love it so fucking much then
But not before then 

Somehow
That night it stops raining when
I am at the gas station
It is just me and the gas station
Oh and also the guy that works at the gas station
I remember that I miss everyone who is not me and the guy at the gas station

In the world where it is not raining now
It can be different
Because when something changes you know
It has just begun changing
And soon it will be the rest of everything changing
Forever
And it will continue this way
And I will move far away
And be in the sun


 

Leaves (Leaves)

A mental image of me covered in leaves
Exponentially decreasing in size relative to the pile of leaves
Completely minimized by nature (leaves)
Until eventually everything else becomes secondary to leaves

To the massive foliage dome of leaves
Nothing else matters but the leaves

But these are just imagined leaves 
I made up for this poem 
So there are no leaves actually

And the world is as it is 
And I say it is a pile of leaves
In a poem about leaves

Which is to say
Metaphorically and not literally so

No Word for It

There’s a paradigm of friendship between females

named sisterhood,

there’s a paradigm of friendship between males

named brotherhood.

The paradigm of friendship (everything up

to but not including sex) between people

of opposite sexes is a siblinghood unnamed,

but let’s call X.

The shattered man may win sympathy

from an unaccountably friendly woman,

feel her reviving his cadaver piecemeal,

feel her magnetize selectively

the fragments of him no more posthumous –

which shards, recalling prior composition

commence re-congelation now anew,

undevastated and rejuvenated.

What present could be gentler or more tender,

what surprise could nullify such grief?

What sweeter gift than life might some girl render –

who may withhold frustrate desire’s relief?

Remember how she loved you as a human

who cannot be your lover as a woman,

return her love in kind with some acumen,

flirt up some other babe.  And watch your groomin’.

That Isis-girl who caused your resurrection

deserves your love to verge upon true X-hood:

all guys who have new life through her selection

experience enhancement of their sex-hood!

 COFFEEHOUSE TRANCE

Motto:  If the Pope is the poet of the Love God of Jealousy,

              the poet is the Pope of Desire

Sinking into trance of automatic writing,

nothing of the coffeehouse coming through

but nymph-visions passing or alighting,

the dazed transcriptionist receives the new

afflatus with confidence he’ll get it down

in efficient-est simplicity.

He sees two couples about the town

in the haven of youth’s felicity.

They start comparing parents’ love-lives:

one girl’s was riddled with infidelity,

jealous harangues tanked up in dives.

The other girl’s own folks’ terse civility

was all they could spare for one another

ever since the Mother’s found-out fling

a decade prior made just some other

platonic mockery of desire’s real thing.

Now one of the two guys being juggled by

those two girls had a Dad mostly gone

and a Mom who hooked a bit, the boy nearby

in the next room while the revels went on.

The second dude, friend of the girls’ other guy,

had parents who were ever deep in love,

met not each-other’s straying with some wry

possessive judgment, but forgave – above

all, each deferred t’other in own bod’s claims.

All four offspring, in their a-quatre menage

to remake human love, bent modest aims –

staring Venus’s decolletage….

Sinking into trance of automatic writing,

nothing of the coffeehouse coming through

but nymph-visions passing or alighting,

the dazed transcriptionist receives the new.

…