Introducing Critical and Creative Thinking

Agenda The importance of Critical and Creative Thinking What is in the curriculum? Questions Planning for implementation  Relationship to other curriculum areas  Progressing learning  Whole school planning Assessing Questions Using polls

“In the new work order, young people will need excellent enterprise skills – digital literacy, critical thinking, creativity, financial savvy, flexibility, the ability to collaborate, self sufficiency – to survive and thrive in a radically altered economy.” The Age, 3 May 2016

“For unless students are creative, curious, resilient and resourceful they will neither be prepared for a lifetime of learning new things nor be able to thrive in a fast changing world.” The Age, 15 March

Most effective strategies

What is meta-cognition and self-regulation? Meta-cognition and self-regulation approaches aim to help learners think about their own learning more explicitly. This is usually by teaching students specific strategies to set goals, and monitor and evaluate their own academic development. Self-regulation means managing one’s own motivation towards learning. The intention is often to give students a repertoire of strategies to choose from during learning activities.... These strategies are usually more effective when taught in collaborative groups so learners can support each other and make their thinking explicit through discussions. Source: Australian Teaching and Learning Toolkit

What should you consider when teaching meta-cognition and self regulation? Teaching approaches which encourage learners to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning have very high potential, but require careful implementation. Have you taught students explicit strategies on how to plan, monitor and evaluate specific aspects of their learning? Have you given them opportunities to use them with support and then independently? Have you asked students to: identify the different ways that they could plan (general strategies) and then how best to approach a particular task (specific technique)? consider where the task might go wrong? identify the key steps for keeping the task on track? consider how they would improve their approach to the task if they completed it again? Source: Australian Teaching and Learning Toolkit

Structure Questions and Possibilities Explore the nature of questioning and a range of processes and techniques to develop ideas and possibilities Reasoning Explore how to compose, analyse and evaluate arguments and reasoning Meta-Cognition Explore the range of strategies to understand, manage and reflect on thinking and learning processes Achievement standards The first achievement standard is Foundation to Level 2 and then at Levels 4, 6, 8 and 10. “Towards Foundation Level” (Levels A-D) for students with disabilities is included Strands

Implementing the capabilities The Victorian Curriculum F–10 includes capabilities, which are a set of discrete knowledge and skills that can and should be taught explicitly. It is expected that the skills and knowledge defined in the capabilities will be developed, practised, deployed and demonstrated by students in and through their learning across the curriculum.

How and where to teach this? An example Content description: Examine how different kinds of questions can be used to identify and clarify information, ideas and possibilities. Achievement standard (part of): Students apply questioning as a tool to focus and expand thinking. Possibilities – Where will it be: introduced/developed practised deployed demonstrated

Year XXX Introduced/ developed PractisedDeployedDemonstrated English Maths The Arts History Geography Civics and Citizenship Economics and Business Languages Health and Physical Education Science Digital Technologies Design and Technologies How and where to teach this?

Planning for progression in learning Examine how different kinds of questions can be used to identify and clarify information, ideas and possibilities What will you teach to progress the student’s learning? Consider how to approach and use questions that have different elements, including factual, temporal and conceptual elements By the end of Level 6, students apply questioning as a tool to focus or expand thinking. What will the students be able to demonstrate as they are progressing towards the standards? By the end of Level 8, students prioritise the elements of a question and justify their selection.

Analysing whole school planning What are the implications when English is used as the main vehicle for teaching critical and creative thinking? How do you build consistency for the students? What are the implications for sequencing the concepts? Could you “over teach” the content?

Assessing If we articulate the learning progression with standards, we can teach it and assess it

Key messages Critical and creative thinking processes are fundamental to effective learning across the curriculum. This Victorian Curriculum F-10 design assumes that knowledge and skills are transferrable across the curriculum and therefore are not duplicated. For example, where skills and knowledge such as asking questions, evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions are defined in Critical and Creative Thinking, these are not duplicated in other learning areas such as History or Health and Physical Education.

Key messages Explicit teaching of and the application of thinking skills enables students to develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the processes they can employ whenever they encounter both the familiar and unfamiliar, to break ineffective habits and build on successful ones, building a capacity to manage their thinking. Thinking that is productive, purposeful and intentional is at the centre of effective learning and the creation of new knowledge, with the progressive development of knowledge about thinking and the practice of using thinking strategies fostering students’ motivation for, and management of, their own learning.

Location / Contact details VCAA websites Victorian Curriculum F-10 Victorian Curriculum F-10 Resources and Support resources.aspx Curriculum Planning Resources: Queries Sharon Foster – –