Preparing Teachers to Program Philosophy/Critical Thinking in Subject English to Explore Indicators of Giftedness in Secondary Students in Western Australia

Abstract

The Australian Curriculum is due to be implemented fully in Western Australia by 2017. In an introduction to the new curriculum on the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority's website, The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA, 2008) is quoted as stating that critical and creative thinking are fundamental to students' becoming successful learners. Later in this introductory section, it is explained that The Australian Curriculum will enable students to develop capability in critical and creative thinking. According to researchers such as Lipman (1969, 1974, 1995, 1998, 2003), critical and creative thinking are the consequences of engaging in a course in Philosophy. The Department of Education and Training of Western Australia has indicated that "strong critical thinking skills" are indicators of giftedness and leading researchers, for example, Silverman (1993) and Clark (2002) have suggested a similar connection between "thinking skills" and giftedness when publishing their own checklists. It follows logically, that if critical thinking and the component skills that make up this term can be taught, then to some extent at least, it is possible to teach students to exhibit behaviours that characterise the academically gifted.