Critical and Creative Thinking

Watch now: To find out more about this curriculum area, watch ‘Understanding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, Capabilities’ on the Resources page.

Rationale and Aims

Rationale

Developing the capability to think critically and creatively is an essential part of the development of successful, confident and innovative members of the community. Identifying and responding effectively to environmental, social and economic challenges, as well as technological changes, requires young people to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully.

Critical thinking and creative thinking are strongly linked and work together to help students inquire into the world around them. 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 their self-awareness and capacities for reflection and self-correction.

Thinking that is productive, purposeful and intentional is at the centre of effective learning and the creation of new knowledge. Explicit attention to and application of thinking skills and dispositions enables students to develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of general strategies they can use whenever they encounter learning challenges. The progressive development of knowledge about thinking and the practice of using thinking strategies fosters students’ motivation for, and management of, their own learning.

Aims

The Critical and Creative Thinking capability curriculum aims to ensure that students develop:

• an understanding of thinking processes and an ability to manage and apply these intentionally
• skills and dispositions that support logical, strategic, flexible and adventurous thinking
• confidence in analysing, evaluating and improving reasoning and thinking processes across a range of familiar and unfamiliar contexts.