Critical Thinking
Teaching & Learning Faculty
Teaching & Learning Faculty
Critical thinking skills include the ability to deconstruct, analyse, synthesise and reconstruct ideas while emphasising evidence and reasoning. In today’s world, where information is readily available, critical thinking is becoming more important than remembering and recalling facts. Society values critical thinking because it is an interdisciplinary and transferable skill. It means that no matter what path or profession is pursued, critical thinking skills will always be relevant and useful.
The course aims to engage and encourage students to develop their critical thinking skills and recognise the key aspects of a critical thinking mind. They will develop the essential skills to evaluate the vast and diverse amount of information they encounter in their daily lives. This will help them face future challenges in a continually evolving world.
The critical thinking course emphasises the fundamental attributes of critical thinkers and gives students a wide range of opportunities to transfer these skills across multiple disciplines. The course structure encourages students to think about thinking and transcend factual learning.
Students will explore the key features of critical thinking, including how critical thinking is distinguished from other models of thinking. Students will learn about the process of argumentation and apply it to evaluate claims.
Topics will include: Barriers to critical thinking; Logical fallacies; Research skills to support the critical mind; Dealing with misinformation; Strategies used in business and war; Conspiracy theories: Where are the facts; Advertising: Have they got your attention?; Blind justice: You’ve been selected for jury duty.
Students will also gain practical research skills to collect information from various sources and evaluate their credibility. They will be guided to ask probing questions to strengthen their critical thinking skills and challenge their perceptions of the world around them.
After completing the critical thinking elective, students will be able to apply critical thinking processes to analyse the strength and validity of information and claims. Those skills are valuable for learning in Stage 6. By applying their critical thinking skills, students will deepen their understanding of content and skills across many disciplines.
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This is a Non-RoSA course and will therefore not appear on your RoSA. Students are advised to do no more than 200 hours of Non-RoSA courses throughout Years 9 and 10.