Critical and Creative Thinking – Cranbourne Secondary College PEDAGOGY TOOLBOX

Critical and Creative Thinking

Barometer – Taking a Stand on Controversial Issues

Description: The Barometer teaching strategy helps students share their opinions by asking them to line up along a continuum based on their position on an issue. It is especially…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Silent Discussions (Big Paper)

Description: This discussion strategy uses writing and silence as tools to help students explore a topic in depth. In a Big Paper discussion, students write out their responses to a…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Readers’ Theatre

Description: In an activity based on the Readers’ Theatre strategy, groups of students are assigned a text excerpt to present to their peers. As opposed to presenting skits of the…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Town Hall

Description: This teaching strategy mimics the process of a town hall meeting, where community members take the floor to share their perspective on a topic of concern. Using this format,…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

PCQ (Pros, Cons, Questions)

26 Dec 201917 Feb 2020

This strategy will help students to: PCQ is a basic tool used by the critical thinker to analyse any situation before deciding whether or not to support it. The PCQ…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Peer assessment

8 Mar 201921 Mar 2019

This strategy will help students to: discuss and moderate other students' work in order to formulate an improved response. Implementation: Students write a response to a question or an…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

See, Think, Wonder

11 Feb 201921 Mar 2019

This strategy will help students to: spark interest and raise curiosity for a new topic or task. make detailed observations, think carefully about why something looks the way it does or is the…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Pooch Decision Making Strategy

10 Feb 201921 Mar 2019

This strategy will help students to: identify possible solutions for potential problems, and help them to justify their decision making. Implementation: Separate your page into 4 columns. Title each of the columns Problem, Options, Outcomes…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Lotus Diagram

10 Feb 201922 May 2019

This strategy will help students to: break down and visually organise complex topics. Implementation: Separate a piece of paper into nine sections. In the centre section, record the topic. In…

Critical and Creative Thinking…

Connect, Extend, Challenge

10 Feb 201921 Mar 2019

This strategy will help students to: make connections between new ideas and prior knowledge take stock of ongoing questions, puzzles and difficulties as they reflect on what they are learning. Implementation:…