Critical and Creative Thinking
Assessment Tool
Session 1: What is the tool?
18 February 2015
Outline of the session
• Welcome - Victoria Hall, Department of
Education and Training
• The Critical and Creative Thinking
Assessment Tool
- ACER Julian Fraillon and Ray Philpot
• Questions and discussion
• Next steps
Accessing the Tool
• The tool is available from the Insight Assessment
Portal and includes:
– Teacher Site, where teachers can preview and assign tasks
to students and mark student responses
– Student Site, where students can complete their assigned
task.
Valuing Critical and Creative Thinking
• Thinking that is productive, purposeful and intentional
is fundamental to students becoming effective and
successful learners. (MCEETYA, 1999, 2008)
• Critical and Creative Thinking is necessary ‘to
compete in a global economy that demands
innovation’ (Partnership for 21st century skills, 2013).
• Responding to the challenges of the C21st – with its
complex environmental, social and economic
pressures – requires CCT (ACARA 2012)
Valuing Critical and Creative Thinking
• When information is readily accessible from a handheld device, recall of knowledge is less important
than the ability to critically analyse masses of data
and come up with innovative, open-ended
solutions to problems. (McCurry, 2013).
http://images.bwbx.io/cms/2012-06-
Purpose of the Critical and Creative
Thinking Assessment Tool
• Provide support for the assessment of Critical and
Creative Thinking by teachers (formative/summative
assessment for/as learning)
• Assess Critical and Creative Thinking using a
standardised, trialled and quality assured set of tasks
• Support assessment of Critical and Creative Thinking
across the years of schooling AND in contexts across the
curriculum
• Provide a model to support teachers to create their own
assessments of Critical and Creative Thinking
Developing the Tool
The Critical and Creative Thinking
Construct
What is critical and creative thinking?
• Critical and Creative Thinking involves the
ability to generate and evaluate knowledge,
clarify concepts and ideas, seek possibilities,
consider alternatives and solve problems.
(ACARA, 2013).
• The tool was developed with reference to the
ACARA Critical and Creative Thinking general
capability
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/iStock_000007651615XSmall.jpg
The Critical and Creative Thinking
Construct
• Critical and Creative Thinking can be thought of as:
– dispositions (Tishman, Perkins and Jay; Ritchhart, Church
and Morrison)
– taxonomies of skills (Bloom; Anderson, Krathwohl et al.)
– habits and frames of mind (Costa and Kallick; Gardner; de
Bono)
– thinking strategies (Marzano, Pickering and Pollock)
– philosophical inquiry (Lipman, Sharp and Oscanyan).
http://educationaljargonschs.wikispaces.com/file/view/blooms_revised_taxomony.jpg/197905582/blooms_revised_taxomony.j
The Critical and Creative Thinking
Construct
• Critical thinking is at the core of most intellectual activity
that involves students in learning to recognise or develop
an argument, use evidence in support of that argument,
draw reasoned conclusions, and use information to solve
problems.
• Creative thinking involves students in learning to
generate and apply new ideas in specific contexts,
seeing existing situations in a new way, identifying
alternative explanations, and seeing or making new links
that generate a positive outcome.
(ACARA CCT General Capability)
The Critical and Creative Thinking
Continuum
• The Critical and Creative Thinking learning continuum
includes four strands:
– Inquiring
– Generating
– Reflecting
– Analysing
The Critical and Creative Thinking
Continuum
• Inquiring
– Identifying, exploring and clarifying questions and issues
– Gathering, organising and processing information
– Transferring knowledge into new contexts
• Generating
– Imagining possibilities and considering alternatives
– Seeking and creating innovative pathways and solutions
– Suspending judgment to visualise possibilities
The Critical and Creative Thinking
Continuum
• Reflecting
– Reflecting on thinking
– Reflecting on procedures and products
• Analysing
– Applying logical and inventive reasoning
– Drawing conclusions and designing a course of action
Sample Tasks/Items
• Examples from the Critical and Creative Thinking
Assessment Tool
Sample Task: Year 5/6
Playground
• The slide in a playground is broken. Who broke it,
what should replace it and how can the playground
be made safe?
Sample Item: Year 5/6 (Inquiring)
Sample Task: Year 3/4
In the cave
• An antelope becomes trapped in a cave with a lion.
What strategies will help the antelope escape?
Sample Item: Year 3/4 (Inquiring)
Sample Item: Year 3/4 (Generating)
Sample Task: Year 1/2
Possum
• Information about a possum and its predators is
provided. Keep Possum safe from the predators!
Sample Item: Year 1/2 (Reflecting)
Sample Task: Secondary –
Maths/Science
Detective
• Assist an on-screen detective identify a mystery
liquid.
Sample Items: Secondary – Maths/Science
(6-Generating; 7-Analysing)
Sample Task: Secondary –
Humanities/Social Studies
Movie Star
• Critically examine source material, evidence and
arguments in the context of a (fictitious) movie star.
Sample items: Secondary –
Humanities/Social Studies (Inquiring)
Sample Task: Secondary – Art
Sheep Stealer
• Compare and contrast two visual representations of James
McKenzie, a sheep-stealer from New Zealand.
Sample item: Secondary – Art (Generating)
Next steps
• Session 2: How do I use the tool? 4 March 2015, 4:00
– 5:00pm
• Session 3: How could schools use the tool? 18 March
2015, 4:00-5:00pm
• Register for the CCT Online Collaborate sessions by
emailing: studentlearning@edumail.vic.gov.au.
• Provide any feedback to:
studentlearning@edumail.vic.gov.au.