Critical and Creative Thinking Assessments Fact Sheet
About the assessment tool
Brief description
What does the
assessment tell you
about the child?
What are the
components of the
tools?
What is the style of
assessment?
What are the limitations
of the tool?
Critical and Creative Thinking Assessments are on-demand assessment tasks for
teachers to evaluate their students’ critical and creative thinking as described in the
AusVELS General Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking. Validated tasks for learners
in Years 1 – 10 are available. Tasks assess the four elements of the critical and creative
thinking curriculum:
 inquiry – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
 generating ideas, possibilities and actions
 reflecting on thinking and processes
 analysing, synthesising and evaluating reasoning and procedures.
Using specific combination of tasks enables a teacher to place the student on the
critical and creative thinking continuum of learning, and will allow progression over
time to be measured. Individual tasks can be used to gain an indication of the student’s
strengths and weaknesses against the specific elements being addressed within the task
and support teachers to understand what students are ready to learn now, and what is
likely to be too challenging.
There are 31 tasks in total, 18 for levels 1-6 and 13 for levels 7-10.
The number of questions in a task ranges from 2 to 21.
An administration and scoring guide is provided for each task, mapping each question
against the critical and creative thinking curriculum.
The tasks are online onDemand assessments. The stimulus materials include video,
images, sound and text. Most questions require a short written answer and there are a
small number of multiple-choice items.
Students who struggle to read the stimulus materials or the instructions and questions
can have these read to them and can equally be assisted to complete their responses.
Each task is designed to be completed by the individual student. There are no group
tasks.
The administration time for a single task varies from 15 minutes to 70 minutes,
depending on the task.
Some tasks do not fully address all four elements within the critical and creative
thinking curriculum. Teachers need to be aware of the limitations of the results when
only one task is administered.
Background to the assessment tool
How was the
assessment tool
developed?
How long has the tool
been used?
Relevant research
underpinning tool
Validation process and
data for the tool
In 2011, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) was commissioned by
the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) and Victorian
Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) to develop critical and creative thinking
assessment tasks. The assessments were designed to address the Australian Curriculum
and Assessment Authority (ACARA) Critical and creative thinking learning continuum.
The tasks were extensively scrutinised by experts in the thinking field as well as expert
teachers and curriculum specialists. During the development phase extensive feedback
was collected from students and teachers.
The tasks were trialled in 2011 and 2012 in a range of 48 primary and secondary,
Government, Catholic and Independent schools in metropolitan, regional and rural
areas with 4,954 students responding to the tasks.
The assessment tool was launched online for by schools in late 2014.
The Critical and creative thinking tasks are based on research conducted by the Australian Council
for Educational Research (ACER).
The trial school data confirmed that the tasks were statistically valid and reliable.
Supporting Information for the assessment tool
Link to the assessment
tool
Critical and Creative Thinking Assessments page provides login instructions