EDF5313 Critical and creative thinking in STEM education

The effective development of learner’s critical and creative thinking skills is an area of increasing interest in education. While positioned as a cross curriculum capability within the Australian curriculum, it is argued that STEM education provides rich opportunities to enhance such thinking, particularly through authentic problem-based learning. This unit aims to explore the characteristics of critical and creative thinking and its relationship to STEM Education. You will utilise your acquired knowledge and understanding to evaluate different kinds of research literature in the STEM field, and effectively communicate your understanding of the challenges and opportunities for STEM education. The learning experiences are designed to assist you to develop and review approaches that can promote critical and creative thinking in ways which clearly and logically integrate these ways of thinking within a learning sequence. Importantly, you will explain the rationale for your choices and how the chosen approaches will support the development of learners’ understanding and capabilities in critical and creative thinking in STEM education.