Abstract:

Cre-active problem-solving means the solving of problems of various degrees of importance and difficulty in due time and measure by catching and moulding the 'kairos' - a nowadays again useful notion from Greek antiquity, which will be explained more thoroughly. Starting with an example of such cre-activity in everyday life, it will be shown that cre-active problem-solving presupposes mindfulness, rational sensitivity, stress resilience, psychological flexibility, and good judgment - informed by situated cognition and critical thinking, by intellectual understanding as well as not immoderate emotions, by imagination of the unreal, but possible, and last but not least by a certain artfulness or cunning (in Greek antiquity called 'metis') to profit from the uncertainty of critical situations, from the widening of horizons, or the loopholes in the regular functioning of the world.

Examples from the inventory of educational tools for developing the general and some more specific skills for cre-active problem-solving will be described in the second part of the paper.

Keywords:

Problem-solving, educational tools, cre-activity, kairos.