Explore content
The Critical and Creative Thinking capability is key to the development of consumer and financial literacy. Responding to the ever-changing consumer and financial landscape requires young people to be creative, innovative, enterprising and adaptable, with the motivation, confidence and skills to use critical and creative thinking purposefully. The Critical and Creative Thinking capability contributes to the development of the following dimensions of consumer and financial literacy.
Approximate proportion of the dimensions addressed by Creative and Critical Thinking
Through this capability, students develop the critical thinking skills of analysing, evaluating and synthesising information. They learn to discriminate between fact and opinion, question the reliability of evidence and draw reasoned conclusions. These are important skills for students when making sound consumer and financial decisions. Critical and Creative Thinking also equips young people to be innovative and manage opportunities at work, in the community and in their personal lives. Dispositions that enable students to effectively participate in the complex consumer and financial landscape, such as inquisitiveness, reasonableness, intellectual flexibility, open- and fair-mindedness, a readiness to try new ways of doing things and consider alternatives, and persistence are also enhanced by Critical and Creative Thinking.
Moneysmart for teachers and Tax, Super and You provide a number of interdisciplinary units and interactive activities that include aspects of the Critical and Creative Thinking capability.
Typically, by the end of Foundation Year, students:
Identify and clarify information and ideas
identify and describe familiar information and ideas during a discussion or investigation
Organise and process information
gather similar information or depictions from given sources
Apply logic and reasoning
identify the thinking used to solve problems in given situations
Typically, by the end of Foundation Year, students:
Pose questions
pose factual and exploratory questions based on personal interests and experiences
Imagine possibilities and connect ideas
use imagination to view or create things in new ways and connect two things that seem different
Consider alternatives
suggest alternative and creative ways to approach a given situation or task
Seek solutions and put ideas into action
predict what might happen in a given situation and when putting ideas into action
Transfer knowledge into new contexts
connect information from one setting to another
Draw conclusions and design a course of action
share their thinking about possible courses of action
Evaluate procedures and outcomes
check whether they are satisfied with the outcome of tasks or actions