This presentation explores how Teaching for Thinking, as developed through the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project, can be purposefully applied within Design and Technologies classrooms to strengthen students’ capacity for deep inquiry, ethical decision‑making and creative problem‑solving. While Design and Technologies naturally lends itself to inquiry, this session argues that inquiry must be treated not only as a process, but as a valued and cultivated way of thinking.

Central to this approach are the Values of Inquiry, which provide a shared metacognitive language for evaluating the quality of thinking. These values; clarity, accuracy, precision, depth, breadth, relevance, significance, coherence, and cogency, are made explicit to students and used consistently for feedback across the design process. Rather than focusing solely on task completion or product quality, teachers and students attend to the quality of reasoning, justification and decision‑making underpinning design solutions.

Through sustained and reflective application of these values, students develop the Virtues of Inquiry. These virtues are not taught as a fixed checklist; instead, they emerge over time as dispositions such as open‑mindedness, intellectual humility, perseverance and responsibility. The presentation highlights how these virtues are developed through authentic design challenges that require students to consider alternatives, evaluate evidence, respond to constraints and engage with multiple perspectives.

Practical classroom examples from secondary Design and Technologies contexts will demonstrate how thinking routines, structured questioning and reflective prompts can make inquiry visible at key moments, including problem framing, prototyping and evaluation. Participants will see how Teaching for Thinking aligns strongly with the intent of the Australian Curriculum and the QCAA syllabi, supporting the development of informed, critical and responsible designers.

By explicitly valuing inquiry and deliberately cultivating its virtues, Design and Technologies classrooms can become spaces where thinking is not only used—but named, strengthened and sustained.