Mount Duneed Regional
Primary School
Primary School
CRITICAL & CREATIVE THINKING
RATIONALE
Responding effectively to environmental, social and economic challenges requires young people to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the motivation, confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully. Explicit attention to and 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.
Critical and creative thinking are strongly linked. Students require explicit support to develop the breadth and depth of their thinking and to take intellectual risks. This attention to thinking helps students to build self-awareness and their capacities for reflection. Developing critical and creative thinking capability is an essential element of developing successful, confident and innovative members of the community.
AIMS
Critical and creative thinking capability aims to ensure that students develop:
- understanding of thinking processes and an ability to manage and apply these intentionally
- skills and learning dispositions that support logical, strategic, flexible and adventurous thinking
- confidence in evaluating thinking and thinking processes across a range of familiar and unfamiliar contexts.