Creative arts : an essential element in the teacher's toolkit when developing critical thinking in children

This position paper, argues that critical thinking is a crucial skill, which needs to be developed in the school curriculum and that the creative arts can do this. The paper explores the states of the Arts in the present curriculum and goes on to argue that knowing how to develop critical thinking is an important pedagogical skill that needs to be developed in preservice teachers. This position is supported through data gathered from an innovative project that explored teachers' and mothers' perceptions of children's critical thinking. [Author abstract, ed]