Читать книгу Raising the Rigor - Eileen Depka - Страница 10

CHAPTER 2

Deconstructing Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Higher-order thinking skills can set the stage for more detailed conversations about questioning strategies. Higher-order thinking skills enable students to apply knowledge and skills in a variety of unique situations. Students are engaged in processes often requiring real-world applications. Tasks teachers develop to support these skills often have multiple solutions and multiple paths to correct solutions. To fully engage in situations that require this level of interaction with content, students need foundational background information (King, Goodson, & Rohani, n.d.). As teachers introduce content, they should consider the response to three questions: (1) What background knowledge and vocabulary are necessary for students to better understand the next unit? (2) Can connections be made with what is about to be learned to what students already know? and (3) What real-world connections can be made to relate the content and concepts to their purpose and importance outside of school? As content is introduced, regularly incorporate responses to these three questions. Chapter 4 discusses background knowledge in more detail.

Building a foundation for students can require the use of lower-order skills like recall, as is explained in Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework (Webb, 1997, 1999). The key is to not stop there. When students demonstrate comprehension, they need to move beyond and be given ample opportunity to demonstrate understanding using methods unfamiliar to them. Application of higher-order thinking skills requires instruction, practice, and repetition. Multiple opportunities to employ these skills support and extend the ability of students to experience success (Brookhart, 2014).

You can design tasks that build these skills. This chapter offers Bloom’s taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge, which help you promote higher-order thinking through task design, followed by a template to help you formulate those tasks. How will you know students are engaged in higher-order thinking when they tackle those tasks? This chapter tells you the indicators to look for. Bloom’s taxonomy provides a structure with which to evaluate the sophistication of the work students are being asked to perform. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge assists in understanding the cognitive complexity of the standards and the task intended to measure the standards.

Building Higher-Order Thinking Skills With Tasks

Meaningful tasks promote higher levels of thinking. Authentic, performance-based assessments provide a structure for students to intellectually engage with the content. These tasks characteristically:

• Involve the learner’s skills, imagination, and originality

• Require students to use skills that will prepare them for life

• Remain rooted in realism

• Have a clear purpose that extends beyond the classroom

• Increase cognitive engagement

Good tasks are most often associated with real-world problems, which help students associate classroom skills with their purpose in life. Students recognize that they can transfer skills to uses beyond the classroom, and that gives them a purpose beyond a request of the teacher (Burke, 2009). For example, at some point in mathematics, students learn to use formulas to find the areas of a square, rectangle, and triangle. A task provides real-world experience if students have to find the area of a nontraditional shape—the area of an oddly shaped room, or a spot on the playground or parking lot, for example. This requires students to use their knowledge of area and apply it to the real world, applying formulas they know to solve an unknown.

When developing a higher-order thinking skills task, consider the following steps.

1. Identify the standards and content to address.

2. Determine ways in which the standards and content are applicable to a real-world situation.

3. Create a scenario that will engage the students in a task that requires them to apply their knowledge and skills to a new and unique situation. One effective way to create the task is to determine a situation in which students can apply the skills, state the situation, and create the need for student involvement. Flexibility in the methods that students use to complete the task will provide more opportunity for the use of higher-order thinking skills.

4. Determine the task requirements. Specifically, decide what students need to accomplish in order to successfully complete the task.

5. Identify the task evaluation criteria and the tool. Establish the characteristics that should be evident within a successful performance.

The following section provides a template that facilitates task design.

Using a Template to Design Tasks

The template in figure 2.1 can assist when you are designing tasks. Template completion requires the following information.

• Standards and Content: In this portion of the template, list the specific standards and content on which the task will focus. After creating the task, revisit this section to ensure that it measures the standards and content it intended to measure.

• Task Scenario: Design a task scenario that places the student into a real-life situation that they will need to solve. The task should indicate the problem and the required outcome. Avoid telling students what they will do. Let students determine the best path to obtain a solution.

• Task Requirements: Provide a list of any expectations connected to the task solution. This would include any specifics as to the format of the solution, components to be included in the response, and any supporting information that might be necessary.

• Evaluation Method: Share a rubric, point scale, or any other method of evaluation. Provide criteria for success to students prior to completing the task.

Figure 2.1: Developing higher-order thinking skills tasks.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

The templates can be used across subjects and curricula. Figure 2.2 provides an example of English language arts study with a completed template.

Source for Standard: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) & Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), 2010a.

Figure 2.2: Template for English language arts skills.

Figure 2.3 provides an example of a class some schools might call a special with art as the subject.

Figure 2.3: Template for art skills.

The template works not just for arts and humanities, but for sciences as well. Figure 2.4 is a completed template for a science-related task.

Figure 2.4: Template for science skills.

Design tasks to fit within a shorter or more extended time frame depending on the complexity of the task. If less time is available, construct a task that relates to the same standards but is more simplistic in nature. You can simplify tasks by limiting the expectations and by supplying tools or organizational structures to complete the task. For example, figure 2.5 shares a task to demonstrate knowledge and application of area and perimeter. You can alter the task for simplicity and time constraints by:

• Using a room in the school instead of a room outside of school

• Supplying the tools students need to measure the room

• Incorporating teamwork

• Sharing catalogs or advertisements so students can determine pricing

• Providing charts to facilitate students’ organization of findings

Source for standard: NGA & CCSSO, 2010b.

Figure 2.5: Template for mathematics skills.

Indicators of Student Engagement in Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Students who are processing information at higher levels show certain characteristics. Being aware of these attributes can help us evaluate student qualities and provide individual support needed to grow the characteristics. The criteria can help measure the growth in students’ levels of comfort and ability as they become more familiar with higher-order thinking (Brookhart, 2010; Copeland, 2005).

The indicators of success include the following.

• Increased willingness to persevere in solving problems or completing tasks

• The ability to see a problem from a variety of perspectives

• The identification of more than one solution to a task

• Insight into multiple methods to arrive at a solution

• The ability to support solutions with evidence

• Increased ability to clearly communicate solutions

• Willingness to collaborate and listen to the perspectives of others

• The ability to create and follow a plan of action

• The ability to scrutinize, select, and use information that positively assists in completing the task

• The ability to organize conclusions and evidence into charts, graphs, visual displays, or other methods so that the outcome can be interpreted and understood by others

Clear communication, though not necessarily an indicator of success, is a byproduct. Monitor communication growth as well with the criteria checklist (figure 2.6). It identifies the current status of students regarding higher-order thinking skills and provides a framework for measuring their progress. Share the assessment criteria with students so they are aware of the indicators of success. When a teacher stresses the criteria, students make the connection between their own skill development and their ability to successfully engage in higher-order thinking tasks. Use the criteria to evaluate performance and growth throughout the year. Figure 2.6 provides space to evaluate each criterion on three separate dates.

Figure 2.6: Higher-order thinking skills criteria checklist.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

When using the higher-order thinking skills criteria checklist, fill in all squares when students achieve a proficiency level. Doing so creates a visual representation that is easy to interpret. In other words, fill in Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4 if a student is at a Level 4. Figure 2.7 provides an example. A student consistently receiving a 1 in “identifies information important to the task solution” requires help distinguishing between the crucial and the superficial. Without support, the student will continue struggling with other components. The shaded squares could show growth, strengths, or challenge areas depending on the number and pattern created as squares are filled in. You can share the chart with students to set growth goals. Students can also benefit from completing a self-rating and comparing it with the teacher’s observations.

Figure 2.7: Higher-order thinking skills criteria checklist—sample.

To keep track of all students on a single page, tweak the format slightly. You can set up the chart similar to a traditional gradebook. Figure 2.8 (page 22) illustrates an alternative view. To record results, place the appropriate proficiency level in each cell at each administration. To enhance the view, color code the cells to create an easily interpreted visual display (1 = red, 2 = yellow, 3 = green, and 4 = blue). Although this format could be more convenient, it would be more difficult to use as a visual when conferencing with individuals about their progress (because multiple students appear on the same grid).

Recording students’ progress based on specified criteria is a great start to measuring growth, but that alone will not ensure that skills increase. Teaching students the criteria for success expedites the ability to successfully demonstrate the characteristics.

A first step in growing student capacity is to share the indicators with students, then concentrate on each criterion, one at a time. That will make criteria clear to them. For example, you might give the following introduction to introduce perspective.

Teacher: Students, throughout the year we will be involved in analyzing situations that require a look from different perspectives. Can you think of a time when you looked at a situation differently than someone else? Perhaps you both saw the situation accurately, but your perspectives were very different?

Student: I am in one now. I want to get my driver’s license because not only do most of my friends have one, but I want to be less dependent on other people. That’s my perspective. My mom is worried that something will happen to me if I drive, so she wants me to wait. My dad is fine with me getting one but doesn’t know if he has the time to help me practice driving. My little brother can’t wait because he wants me to take him to his baseball practices. That’s four different perspectives on just one thing in my life.

Teacher: I would imagine that many of us have had a similar experience, maybe on the same or different topics. Understanding the perspectives of those involved in a situation can help us better understand the situation, responses to the situation, and possible solutions.

Figure 2.8: Higher-order thinking skills criteria checklist—multiple students.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/instruction for a free reproducible version of this figure.

Student: It does help understanding what others are thinking. It makes it easier to know how to approach the situation or respond to their comments or actions.

Teacher: Understanding perspectives will promote understanding of the historical events that we will discuss throughout the year. We can evaluate cause and effect, but without analyzing the perspectives of those involved, we may never truly understand why an event happened in the first place and why it is historically important.

This is not a one-time conversation but one that should be revisited throughout the year. Teachers and students can continue to provide examples of perseverance both inside and outside the classroom. Students can track their growth in the skill when reflecting on their performance using the higher-order thinking skills criteria checklist highlighted in figure 2.6 (page 19).

A conversation about perseverance might also be appropriate prior to a state or standardized testing experience. Students can be reminded that, in order to successfully apply their knowledge and skills, some situations command a greater level of perseverance. When the path to a solution is not immediately recognizable, we don’t give up. Instead, we read the problem again and again until a plan of attack surfaces. Perseverance is a characteristic that can be learned and developed.

Table 2.1 (page 24) lists some of the benefits of engaging in the use of higher-order thinking skills. Checking for engagement sometimes looks like directly asking students what they think. The ultimate goal is to help students understand the connection between the questions they encounter and the skill development they experience. Secondly, we want them to be able to understand that the skills are beneficial to them beyond school. The conversation points in the right column of table 2.1 should help students make connections between the skill and how it is currently beneficial to themselves and others. The questions that students ask and answer have the potential of helping them achieve the benefits and skills discussed in the left column, including increased perseverance and collaboration. The conversation points in the right column help students realize the importance of the benefits associated with skill development enhanced through responding to complex questions. Either students or teachers can ask those questions.

Students grow in their ability to interact with content when they are engaged in tasks and projects that promote higher-order thinking skills. Although projects are not necessarily related to a specific type of question or questioning technique, they serve to broaden the experiences of students and place them in situations that expand their horizons. Paying attention to the indicators associated with successful application of higher-order thinking skills can help monitor current status and growth. Teach the skills in the checklist so that students can achieve greater success in their ability to use higher-order thinking skills. As students grow in perseverance and use skills known to promote higher-order thinking, they will be more comfortable responding to questions that challenge and take them out of their comfort zone.

Table 2.1: Establishing Purpose With Students—Develop Questioning Expertise