Creativity for Everyone: Integrating the 21st Century Skills in Russian Schools

Nadezhda Avdeenko - Analyst at the Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: nad-avdeenko@mail.ruLarisa Denishcheva - Candidate of Sciences in Pedagogy, Professor at the Department of Further Mathematics and Mathematics Teaching Methodology, Institute of Mathematics, Informatics and Sciences, Moscow City University. Address: 29 Sheremetyevskaya Str., 127521 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: denisheva@inbox.ru.Klara Krasnyanskaya - Candidate of Sciences in Pedagogy, Senior Researcher, Centre of Evaluating the Quality of Education, Institute for Strategy of Education Development, Russian Academy of Education. Address: 5/16 Makarenko Str., 105062 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: klarakr@mail.ru.Aleksandra Mikhaylova - Analyst, Center for Socioeconomic Aspects of Schooling, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: s.mikhaylova211 @gmail.com.Marina Pinskaya - Candidate of Sciences in Pedagogy, Leading Researcher, Center for Socioeconomic Aspects of Schooling, Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., 101000 Moscow, Russian Federation. E-mail: m-pinskaya@yandex.ru.This study is part of the OECD Center for Educational Research and Innovation's project Teaching, Assessing and Learning Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in Educationand uses action research methodology. It seeks to elaborate a teaching format to develop 21st century skills within the framework of a particular school subject, making participation in such classes available for as many teachers and students as possible. The study puts forward an approach to designing contextual problems that students are offered to solve collaboratively in the classroom. Key components of such assignments are described, which allow for fostering creativity within specific school subject domains. The results from testing the validity of such assignments are presented. Accessibility of subject-specific teaching practices enhancing 21st century skills is assessed by analyzing the outcomes of focus groups consisting of teachers and students who participated in the assignment validity assessment.