What are thinking skills?

Thinking skills encompass a set of higher-order thinking processes that include critical thinking, creative thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and metacognition (understanding how we think).

They help learners use cognitive processes strategically to gather, analyse, evaluate and use information to reason, make decisions and generate new ideas.

Thinking skills are essential for effective learning, as they enable learners to understand, process and apply knowledge in various contexts. Also commonly referred to as ‘soft skills’, they are increasingly necessary for success in the workplace and everyday life.

Thinking skills are often represented in discipline-oriented terms such as computational thinking, which refers to thought processes involving formulating problems so that solutions can be represented as computational steps and algorithms.

Learn more about thinking skills and how they can be nurtured in the classroom by accessing the resources below.

Reports and papers

• A conversation about computational thinking – Jeannette M. Wing.
• Coding and computational thinking: What is the evidence? – James Curran, Karsten Schulz and Amanda Hogan.
• Creativity in education: What educators need to know – John Munro.
• Thinking for the future – preparing students to thrive in an AI world – NSW Department of Education.
• How to teach critical thinking – Daniel Willingham.
• Metacognition: A key to unlocking learning – NSW Department of Education.
• On critical thinking and collaborative inquiry – Peter Ellerton.
• Teaching critical thinking: Implications for Stages 4 and 5 Science and History teaching – Learning First, for the NSW Department of Education.

Podcasts

• Thinking skills for all students including low achievers – Edspresso Episode 10, with Anat Zohar.
• Computational thinking for an AI world – Edspresso Episode 11, with Matt Bower.
• Thinking critically for an AI world – Edspresso Episode 3, with Peter Ellerton.
• Teaching critical thinking through philosophy – Edspresso Episode 4, with Sandra Lynch.
• Learning through creative thinking – Edspresso Episode 5, with Christine Cawsey.
• The magic of thinking critically with picture books - Edspresso episode 8, with Mary Roche.
• Reinvigorating a love of maths with computational thinking - Edspresso episode 9, with Richard Buckland

Panel discussion

• Thinking skills in an AI world: preparing students to shape their future – Toby Walsh, Lyria Bennett Moses, Peter Ellerton, Christine Cawsey, Sandy Plunkett and Lesley Loble (moderator).