In Level A, the curriculum focuses on exposing students to choice making, reasoning and problem solving. Students encounter vocabulary and simple strategies used to structure and improve thinking. Students are learning how to attend to, explore and experience the world around them.
By the end of Level A, students react to significant changes in their environment. Students generate ideas by using their senses to explore the characteristics of everyday objects and make choices between objects.
Students begin to identify their personal preference and make choices about what they would like and dislike.
Students are exposed to everyday problems and communicate their thinking through emotion responses. They experience the learning strategy of repetition and beginning to react in everyday routine activities. Students communicate when faced with a problem.
In Level B, the curriculum focuses on developing students understanding of the world around them, how to learn and solve everyday problems. Students become familiar with simple strategies to structure and understand the world and thinking. Students are exposed to thinking processes.
By the end of Level B, students use their senses and cause and effect to explore and understand the world around them. Students generate ideas based on their experiences and make choices in structured situations.
Students begin to become aware of their own point of view through their emotions. Students answer ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions which assist them to reflect on their learning and choice making.
Students use learning strategies including repetition to participate in everyday routines and events. They use cause and effect to understand the world around them and solve problems.
In Level C, the curriculum focuses on developing the skills to reason, problem solve and learn. Students become familiar with simple strategies to structure thinking and solve problems. Students explore how thinking can be made explicit.
By the end of Level C, students answer simple questions about familiar events and topics. They identify a familiar idea or experience with support and make choices from a range of options.
Students can identify their own point of view. They use personal experience and examples to explain reasons. They connect present and past experience with support.
Students predict what will happen next in a familiar routine. They practice some learning strategies including following a visual schedule. Students demonstrate some problem-solving approaches when faced with common everyday issues.
In Level D, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge and skills to express reasons, to problem solve and learn more effectively. Students become familiar with simple strategies to structure and improve thinking. Students learn how thinking can be made explicit.
By the end of Level D, students answer simple questions related to their own investigation, their feelings or concept. They identify and describe an event or scientific experiment. They generate ideas based on past experience and make choices based on their personal preferences.
Students can identify some components of a point of view. They draw on previous experience to assist with their ideas, reasoning and when drawing a conclusion.
Students actively participate in structured thinking activities. They practice some learning strategies to assist them to organise and demonstrate their ideas. Students participate in problem solving activities and can articulate some possible solutions and their outcome in structured practical situations.
From Foundation to Level 2, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding to express reasoning and to problem solve and learn more effectively. Students become familiar with key vocabulary and simple strategies to structure and improve thinking. Students develop an understanding that thinking can be made explicit.
By the end of Level 2, students use and give examples of different kinds of questions. Students generate ideas that are new to them and make choices after considering personal preferences.
Students identify words that indicate components of a point of view. They use reasons and examples for different purposes.
Students express and describe thinking activity. They practise some learning strategies. Students demonstrate and articulate some problem-solving approaches.
In Levels 3 and 4, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding to improve and monitor thinking. Students learn and consider the advantages of different thinking techniques. Students learn there are different ways to respond to problems, visualise thinking and think more effectively.
By the end of Level 4, students explain how to construct open and closed questions and use them for different purposes. Students select and apply techniques to generate a range of ideas that extend how problems are solved.
Students describe and structure arguments with clearly identified aims, premises and conclusions. They use and explain a range of strategies to develop their arguments. They identify the need to make distinctions and apply strategies to make these.
Students use concrete and pictorial models to facilitate thinking, including a range of visualisation strategies. They practice and apply an increased range of learning strategies, including visualisation, note-taking, peer instruction and incubation. Students select and apply a range of problem-solving strategies.
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In Levels 5 and 6, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding to test the strength of thinking. Students develop their capacity to deliberately manage their thinking. Students explore common errors that can occur in thinking.
By the end of Level 6, students apply questioning as a tool to focus or expand thinking. They use appropriate techniques to copy, borrow and compare aspects of existing solutions in order to identify relationships and apply these to new situations.
Students distinguish between valid and sound arguments and between deductive and inductive reasoning. They explain how reasons and evidence can be evaluated. They explain and apply basic techniques to construct valid arguments and test the strength of arguments.
Students represent thinking processes using visual models and language. They practice and apply learning strategies, including constructing analogies, visualising ideas, summarising and paraphrasing information. Students disaggregate ideas and problems into smaller elements or ideas, develop criteria to assess and test thinking, and identify and seek out new relevant information as required.
In Levels 7 and 8, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding to analyse thinking and the selection and application of a range of techniques to support effective thinking. Students learn strategies to assist them synthesise their thinking. Students develop an understanding that flexibility in thinking is often required and that certainty in thinking can be influenced by a range of factors.
By the end of Level 8, students prioritise the elements of a question and justify their selection. Students demonstrate flexibility in thinking by using a range of techniques in order to repurpose existing ideas or solutions to meet needs in new contexts.
Students explain different ways to settle matters of fact and matters of value and issues concerned with these. They explain and apply a range of techniques to test the strength of arguments.
Students use a range of strategies to represent ideas and explain and justify thinking processes to others. They evaluate the effectiveness of a range of learning strategies and select strategies that best meet the requirements of a task. Students independently segment problems into discrete stages, synthesise new knowledge at intermediate stages during problem-solving and develop and apply criteria to assess ideas, proposals and emerging thinking.
In Levels 9 and 10, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge, skills and understanding to recognise and manage what is often implicit in thinking. Students learn and apply techniques to progress, analyse and evaluate thinking. Students develop an understanding that it is often necessary to take a range of perspectives and to challenge assumptions.
By the end of Level 10, students construct and evaluate questions, including their own, for their effectiveness. They demonstrate a willingness to shift their perspective when generating ideas, resulting in new ways of perceiving solutions.
Students structure complex valid arguments. They explain and apply a range of techniques to test validity within and between arguments. Students identify, articulate, analyse and reflect on their own and others thinking processes. They use, monitor, evaluate and redirect as necessary a range of learning strategies. Students develop, justify and refine criteria to evaluate the quality of ideas, proposals and thinking processes.
