Promoting Higher-Order Thinking

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Promoting Higher-Order Thinking

• Toward a More Comprehensive Comprehension
  Curriculum
• Peter Dewitz pdewitz_at_cstone.net

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Toward a Conceptual Understanding of HOT

• What are the characteristics of High
  Order-Thinking?
• Describe some examples of High Order Thinking.
• Consider some non examples of Higher Order
  Thinking.
• Apply these ideas to the comprehension of Papa's
  Parrott

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Sources of a Higher Order Thinking Curriculum

• Education and Learning to Think, L. Resnick, 1987
• Teaching for Thinking, R. Sternberg L.
  Spear-Swerling, 1996
• A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing,
  L. Anderson et al., 2001(B.Bloom the sequel)

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Characteristics of Higher Order Thinking - Resnick

• Involves nuanced judgment and interpretation
• Construct new formulation of issues
• Imposing meaning, find structure in apparent
  disorder
• Is complex and total path to understanding is not
  visible

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Characteristics of Higher Order Thinking - Resnick

• It is non-algorithmic - the path or course of
  thinking cant be spelled out in advance
• It yields multiple solutions and involves
  multiple criteria
• Demands self-regulation and is effortful

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Social Requirements of High Order Thinking

• Higher Order Thinking develops when living in a
  community that values and practices such thinking
• Accepts uncertainty
• Accepts and rewards social risks
• Questions authority - challenge the authority of
  the text and the teacher

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What HOT is not According to Resnick

• Following known paths and routes to understanding
• Believing that the meaning in text is apparent or
  literal
• Working to replicate the meaning of others -
  graphic organizer can lead to a conformity of
  thinking

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Problems in Resnicks Formulation

• What Resnick means by reading comprehension
  includes many attributes of Higher Order Thinking
• Employing a broad set of knowledge
• Building coherence among elements in a text
• Making inferences, elaborations
• Monitoring the constructive process
• Is reading comprehension HOT?

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A Reading Example of High Order Thinking - Resnick

• Reciprocal Teaching
• Self-questioning
• Generating inferences
• Seeking clarification
• Summarizing
• Making prediction
• Conducted in a safe supportive setting

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Teaching for Thinking Sternberg, Spear-Swerling

• Triarchic Theory of Human Intelligence
• Critical-analytic thinking - analyzing, judging,
  comparing, contrasting, examining
• Creative thinking - discovering, producing,
  imagining, supposing
• Practical thinking - practicing, using applying,
  implementing

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Characteristics of Thinking Sternberg,
Spear-Swerling

• Analytical, creative and practical thinking are
  all thinking - no hierarchy is implied
• Each of the three types of thinking has
  implications for reading comprehension and
  instruction

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Examples of Thinking Sternberg, Spear-Swerling

• Analytic Comparing and contrasting two character
  within a piece of literature or comparing and
  contrasting two pieces of literature
• Creative Constructing an alterative
  interpretation of a characters motivation -going
  beyond the given
• Practical Applying character traits and motives
  beyond the text to life - elaboration

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Steps, if there are any, in High Order Thinking

• Deciding what is the problem or how to approach
  the text - allows for and encourages multiple
  interpretations
• Defining the problem the interpretation
• The issue or theme that seems to be most
  important to the author may not be to the reader
• Realizing that problems interpretations are
  ill-structured - completing a graphic organizer
  may not lead to new insight

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Steps, if there are any, in High Order Thinking

• Solutions, understandings, arise when problems
  are considered in light of real life contexts.
• Realizing what information prior knowledge will
  be necessary to reach some interpretations
• Solutions to problems interpretations depend on
  the context in which the texts are discussed.
• Realizing there is no one correct interpretation
  and the thinking process is complicated and
  messy.

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Social Requirements of Triarchic Theory

• Acknowledgements that there are no right answers.
• Teachers and students are both learners.
• The discussion is the end not just the means to
  the end.
• The creation of the solution interpretation is
  a critical part of the process of higher order
  thinking.

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A Taxonomy Learning, Teaching and Assessing

• Knowledge Dimension - Factual, conceptual,
  procedural, metacognitive
• Cognitive Process Dimension - Remember,
  Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create
• We can bring different kinds of knowledge to bear
  to create outcomes in the different Cognitive
  Process Dimensions

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The Taxonomy
Cognitive Process Dimension Cognitive Process Dimension Cognitive Process Dimension Cognitive Process Dimension Cognitive Process Dimension Cognitive Process Dimension
Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create
Factual Know.
Concept Know.
Procedural Know.
Meta Cognitive Know.
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The Taxonomy When does Higher Begin

• Remember - not here
• Understand - possibly here because it includes
  inferences and interpretations
• Apply - possibly here because students carry out
  a task and it can be new and creative
• Analyze - definitely here because attributing
  motives or point of view raises the level of an
  instructional experience

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The Taxonomy When does Higher Begin

• Evaluate - definitely here because the reader can
  evaluate the themes and the methods of the
  writer.
• Create - definitely here because we may want the
  learner to use the same rhetorical devices in his
  or her own writings.

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Apply to Papas Parrot

• Knowledge -
• factual and conceptual - narrative structure or
  genre
• conceptual knowledge of parent - child/adolescent
  relationships
• Cognitive Process
• Understand - infer and interpret feelings and
  insights Harry and his father gain about each
  other
• Analysis - attribute the role of the parrot to
  the process of self-discovery
• Evaluate the authors rhetorical techniques

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Papa's Parrot Applying Higher Order Thinking

• Strategy instruction develops the required
  inferences
• Strategies - self-questioning, clarifying,
  monitoring, summarizing - promote these
  inferences.
• Higher Order Thinking develops insights or
  interpretations that go beyond the required
  inferences
• Higher Order Thinking is the disposition to
  develop these interpretations

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Papa's Parrot

• Required Inferences
• Harrys feelings for his father
• Mr. Tillians feelings toward Harry
• Causes of Harrys change in behavior
• Mr. Tillians new feelings.
• What Harry learns about Mr.. Tillian and how

• HOT Inferences
• Is Harrys reaction to the parrot realistic?
• Why does the author use animals to bring meaning
  to peoples lives?
• Is the growing distance between parents and young
  adolescents inevitable?

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More HOT with Cynthia Rylant

• Why doesnt Mr. Tillian simply tell Harry about
  how much he misses him? (Evaluation)
• Why does the relationship not change at home?
  (Evaluate)
• Compare the role of the animals in two or more of
  Rylants short stories. (Evaluate)
• Create a short story in which an animal helps
  people grow or attain some insight in some
  way.(Create)