From the Classroom – Year 6 Learning Embedded with Critical Thinking
In the Australian Curriculum students develop capabilities in critical and creative thinking as they learn to generate and evaluate knowledge, classify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities, consider alternatives and solve problems.
At St Catherine’s we utilise the critical thinking philosophies and ideas from Project Zero, a program developed by Ron Ritchhardt from Harvard University.
Our focus in Year 6 this year is to regularly embed a variety of thinking routines into our teaching and learning.
As part of our Migration Unit we have used a range of thinking tools and graphic organisers to encourage students to become more confident and autonomous problem solvers and thinkers.
By utilising the thinking routines, the girls are able to develop thinking processes they can use whenever they encounter new ideas, unfamiliar information and problems.
As shown in the images below, the Year 6 students have used the Project Zero, Think Puzzle Explore and See Think Wonder thinking routines as prompts to delve deeper into areas of interest relating to our Humanities and Social Sciences Unit.
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Year 6 HASS Learning using Think, Puzzle, Explore to organise and deepen student thinking
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Year 6 HASS Learning using Think, Puzzle, Explore to organise and deepen student thinking
The Australian Curriculum reports:
“Responding to the challenges of the twenty-first century – with its complex environmental, social and economic pressures – requires young people to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the motivation, confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully.”
