Critical and Creative Thinking

Learning in Critical and Creative Thinking

The Critical and Creative Thinking capability focuses on the development of increasingly complex and sophisticated processes of thinking. Critical and creative thinking processes are fundamental to effective learning across the curriculum. The knowledge and skills set out in this capability should be taught, learnt, developed and applied in and through each learning area.

Critical and creative thinking processes are a necessary component in each learning area, however they are not replicated in the content descriptions or achievement standards for each.

The Questions and Possibilities strand is the basis for all effective learning and provides a structure for inquiry-based approaches to teaching. Helping students understand the fundamental role that questions and questioning play in enabling learning and developing a learning disposition is a necessary condition for deep learning.

The Questions and Possibilities strand supports students to develop their imaginative and intuitive capacity as well as fostering a curious and speculative disposition. Students apply these to propose novel ideas, develop original artefacts and make new connections.

The Reasoning strand provides students with the knowledge and tools to both construct and evaluate ideas and arguments that may be unfamiliar. It underpins other areas of the curriculum in which students are required to gather, consider and evaluate data, evidence and propositions and then form conclusions.

The Meta-Cognition strand defines the knowledge and skills that enable students to better identify, describe, understand, practice, develop and manage their own learning processes. Critical and creative thinking processes are not discrete but are related within each of the strands. For example, part of creative thinking is establishing and using criteria to critically evaluate the merits of various propositions generated by creative thinking processes. Likewise, critical thinking can involve the application of creative thinking processes to generate novel criteria that can then be used to evaluate propositions in innovative and productive ways.

The Critical and Creative Thinking capability is not a description of the full development of creativity. It is concerned with the development of one element of creativity, that of creative thinking. Other vital elements of creativity, for example, creative expression, creative endeavour and creative collaboration, are included in other learning areas and capabilities.

Structure

 Critical and Creative Thinking is organised into three interrelated strands: Questions and Possibilities, Reasoning and Meta-Cognition.

At Chalcot Lodge Primary School:

Critical and Creative Thinking

This program is embedded across the curriculum and aims to develop levels of thinking from lower cognitive skills of recall and comprehension to the development of higher-order processes required for creative problem solving, decision making and conceptualisation.  Students develop the ability to reflect on and manage their own thinking.  Students are given challenging tasks which stimulate, encourage and support skilful and effective thinking.