Poetry: It's not just for English class anymore

Higher level thought involves both critical and creative thinking skills. Although the psychological literature is rich with research on teaching critical thinking, relatively little published work addresses ways of promoting creative thinking. In this article we describe the use of poetry writing in an abnormal psychology class to encourage creative exploration and informed empathy. Content analyses suggested that the majority of students' poems communicated both accurate information and empathy. Furthermore, most students described the poetry assignment as a positive learning experience. Two examples demonstrate creative ways students' poems can distill and communicate information.