d Children (NAGC) Standards & FPSPI emphasize:
• ethical leadership for positive change,
• gift and talent development,
• independent investigation, and
• achievement in areas across dimensions of learning.
Future Problem Solving
Meeting Standards of Today and The Future...
Contact FPSPI for additional information, including the annual International FPS Conference.
mail@fpspi.org 321-768-0074 www.fpspi.org
Schools require an effective model to teach critical and creative thinking, problem solving, and
decision-making through state and national standards. Future Problem Solving Program International
(FPSPI) is a research-based academic program teaching problem solving strategies, collaboration,
critical/creative thinking, and effective communication across the curriculum. While
promoting the development of students’ ethical leadership abilities through structured
problem-solving situations, FPSPI’s interdisciplinary approach provides a unique
opportunity for students to learn essential life skills.
Future Problem Solving Program International, a non-profit educational
corporation administering problem solving activities for students in grades
K-12, was developed in 1974 by Dr. E. Paul Torrance in response to a critical
need for curriculum reform. Dr. Torrance developed the Future Problem
Solving Program to address multiple educational priorities, an
accomplishment that no single curriculum model had yet achieved.
FPSPI today addresses essential requirements for the successful
implementation of any major educational reform:
• comprehensively meets standards for curriculum and instruction;
• stimulates critical and creative thinking skills and encourages
students to develop a vision for the future;
• features several curricular as well as co-curricular opportunities
to engage students in problem solving: Global Issues Problem
Solving (GIPS), Community Problem Solving (CmPS), Scenario
Writing (SW), Scenario Performance (ScP)and Action-based
Problem Solving (AbPS);
• allows individual students or teams to participate in competitive
components: Junior Division - grades 4-6, Middle Division - grades 7-9,
and Senior Division - grades 10-12; and
• provides opportunities for students to develop and exercise the skills
necessary to meet and exceed standards through analysis of research,
investigation, and application of student-generated solutions relevant to their
world.
Critical and creative thinking skills are embedded in the Creative Problem Solving
process and serve as the basis of the Future Problem Solving components.
Generating and Focusing skills are developed at each step.
Learning and using the Creative Problem Solving process enriches the learning by
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