Critical thinking is a crucial part of teaching and learning, especially when it comes to mathematics. It is a complex mental journey that requires students to transform information into knowledge and apply this knowledge to a variety of real-world contexts. Participants of this presentation will walk away with a handful of practical ways to embed critical thinking in their maths lessons. In this presentation, we'll use the comprehensive Maths Trek program resources to highlight effective strategies to purposefully teach and improve students' critical thinking skills. Maths Trek is a new resource which is aligned to the newest Victorian Curriculum and focuses on developing students' problem-solving, reasoning and critical thinking skills through explicit teaching and real-world application in investigations.

Key takeaways:
1. Learn how and why students should be carefully guided through their critical thinking journey.
2. Identify different explicit and implicit teaching strategies to help develop students’ critical thinking skills.
3. Apply the strategies in your classroom immediately, either by adopting the principles discussed to your own maths resources, or  by using the scaffolded critical thinking resources and activities from the Maths Trek program.