Beginning Teacher's Guide Issue 1, May. 2014 | Page 3

Critical and Creative thinking is when students develop capability as they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems.

Critical and creative thinking are integral to activities that require students to think broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school.

The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) have been inspired by the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008) and their recognition that "critical and creative thinking are fundamental to students becoming successful learners."

By teaching children to apply thinking skills throughout the curiculum, ACARA have created a way to teach children of the 21st century how to "develop an increasingly sophisticated process they can employ whenever they encounter problems, unfamiliar information and new ideas".

The 21st century requires our students to be enthused, innovative, adaptable and creative to be able to use critical and creative thinking to respond to the advanced globalised world, which is constantly evolving and growing by the second.