Articles and resources to further develop
visual, critical and creative thinking

A negative experience with learning can inhibit a person’s ability to connect with a subject. Visual-spatial learning tends to look at the big picture first and then the details. Visual learners like to look at the whole rather than the parts, and they tend to understand the whole all at once.

The relationship between memory and music is a very powerful one, and this is why music and singing are such important teaching tools. As a teacher and a musician, I’ve always used music in my English teaching. As a published novelist, I’ve referenced songs in my novels. They reflect the zeitgeist of the era.

The picture consciousness that characterises early childhood, Steiner suggested, was foreshadowed in the mythic nature of the consciousness of early peoples. In ancient times, Steiner observed, our consciousness was more participatory and filled with imaginative, picture content. 

Creative thinking is a 21st century skill and a global priority. It is not taught effectively and largely misunderstood. Indigenous Australians have not had a learning method that has given them the educational outcomes they need to thrive. They have explicitly asked for visual leaning methods including Learning Maps (visual mapping), symbolism, metaphor and storytelling in the delivery of information. Our institutions do not don’t know how to teach in this manner as it’s not a Western method, and again largely misunderstood.

High Schooling can feel scary, and the language around your education and final exams can seem so defining. Balancing study, assignments, exams, presentations, meetings, not to mention friendship dynamics, planning for your future – you are embarking on a big and sustained journey. But that is exactly what it is, a journey, and every journey needs a map.

V10_Buthi Storybook is a series online classroom activities for pre-school and and Early Learning. The activities in this program are underpinned by Aboriginal Pedagogy, specifically the 8 Ways of Learning, and the 4C’s.

Helma af Klint’s paintings are intriguing as well because of their mysterious nature and the spiritual inspiration that informs them. Helma was a Theosophist, who, like Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, was also influenced by the writing and ideas of Rudolf Steiner.

Ideation happens when your mind is unfocused, playing, daydreaming or idle. Many of us go entire days without putting our brains on idle, and others never do it at all. Between work and homelife we’re constantly busy and engaged with activities that require focus.

Aboriginal artist Dorsey Smith and author/writer/teacher Jo Tuscano have much to give. They are writing an Indigenous Storybook for children to continue to develop and nourish their imaginations.

Aboriginal artist Dorsey Smith and author/writer/teacher Jo Tuscano have much to give. They are writing an Indigenous Storybook for children to continue to develop and nourish their imaginations.

We want to give our children (while they are at school) the best possible start on their learning journey. How then do we nurture their creative potential?

Eureka or aha moments are what psychologists call “insight”. This form of creativity is the sudden experience of illumination. How does it work?

Without reviewing information, we don’t absorb it and as much as 80% gets lost. That is super unproductive. The best way to review and retain information is to synthesise it into an image – to see the big picture.

There are a lot of mechanisms we use as we navigate throughout our week that help us practice wilful blindness. There are plenty of benefits for doing so too. Learn what the top 6 Social Biases are that inhibit our ability to be more creative and better critical thinkers.