Being critical is about asking questions to interrogate the norms and routines of your practice.

Critical questions and reflection help to:

•    challenge assumptions

•    offer a new lens with which to view practice

•    make informed decisions about practice

•    prevent ‘groupthink’ by offering stimuli to encourage different perspectives

Engaging in critical thinking involves questioning your current practice to:

•    bring about fundamental changes in pedagogy through enquiry

•    develop a deeper understanding and questioning of theory, policy and practice

•    question, develop and evidence for their practice in more meaningful ways

•    develop deeper knowledge, understanding and skills in research

•    understand our own and our students’ learning more deeply

•    accurately and creatively assess and generate evidence of impact on learners and learning

•    become critically informed

•    engage in deep, sustained and transformative professional learning

•    critically question and challenge educational assumptions, beliefs and values

•    become adaptive experts

Being critically informed means being able to: 

•    draw on a range of sources to justify choices relating to your practice

•    evaluate the credibility, relevance and appropriateness of sources

•    recognise that viewpoints different to your own have value

•    balance your contextual knowledge, as well as personal and professional experiences alongside other sources of information to generate deep professional awareness

•    think about professional choices through the lens of theory as well as practice