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    Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve
    Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve
    Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve
    Ebook149 pages1 hour

    Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve

    By R. Bruce Williams

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    About this ebook

    Explicit instruction in thinking skills must be a priority goal of all teachers. In this book, the author presents a framework of the five Rs: Relevancy, Richness, Relatedness, Rigor, and Recursiveness. The framework serves to illuminate instruction in critical and creative thinking skills for K-12 teachers across content areas.

    Each chapter treats one category of thinking skills. A chapter begins with a brief anecdote that illustrates the category, then discusses the skill, presents relevant life questions, and concludes by examining chosen strategies for the three thinking levels.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkyhorse
    Release dateMar 17, 2015
    ISBN9781632209733
    Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve

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      Book preview

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      Multiple Intelligences for Differentiated Learning

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      Copyright © 2003 by R. Bruce Williams

      First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2015

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

      Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected].

      Skyhorse® and Skyhorse Publishing® are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.®, a Delaware corporation.

      Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

      Print ISBN: 978-1-63220-556-8

      Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63220-973-3

      Printed in the United States of America

      Dedication

      To Jim Kelly who compassionately blends his heart with his profound thoughtfulness in order to bring life to those who he cares for.

      Contents

      Introduction

      Relevance

      About Relevance

      The Life Question

      Understanding Information—Skills of Comparing and Contrasting

      Generating Insight—Skills of Evaluating and Judging

      Discerning Implications—Skill of Applying

      Richness

      About Richness

      The Life Questions

      Understanding Information—Skills of Classifying, Sorting, and Ranking

      Generating Insight—Skills of Visualizing and Imagining

      Discerning Implications—Skills of Creating, Innovating, and Inventing

      Relatedness

      About Relatedness

      The Life Questions

      Understanding Information—Skill of Connecting

      Generating Insight—Skill of Forcing Relationships

      Discerning Implications—Skill of Generalizing

      Rigor

      About Rigor

      The Life Questions

      Understanding Information—Skill of Explaining Why

      Generating Insight—Skill of Inferring

      Discerning Implications—Skills of Sequencing and Predicting

      Recursiveness

      About Recursiveness

      The Life Questions

      Understanding Information—Skill of Analyzing

      Generating Insight—Skill of Making Analogies

      Discerning Implications—Skill of Transferring

      Conclusion

      Appendix A: Brainstorming and Planning Lessons

      Appendix B: Blacklines of Graphic Organizers

      Bibliography

      INTRODUCTION

      THE SITUATION NOW

      As the stakes are raised in testing and accountability, recall of subject matter has become more and more important. However, both past and present voices are raising questions about using recall as the sole bottom line of schooling. Although recall is important, recall is not to be confused with depth knowledge, thought, and learning. As Paul said, To this day we have refused to face these facts about knowledge, thought, and learning. To this day we commonly teach as if mere recall were equivalent to knowledge (1993, p. viii).

      There is no question that recall is crucial in this day of high-stakes testing. Furthermore, brain research is teaching educators about many ways to assist students in recalling information. However, recall alone is not enough for the person of the twenty-first century. Indeed, some standardized testing does reflect the demand for skills that go far beyond recall:

      Recall alone is not enough for the person of the twenty-first century.

      Yet classroom instruction around the world, at all levels, is typically didactic, one-dimensional, and indifferent, when not antithetical, to reason. Blank faces are taught barren conclusions in dreary drills. There is nothing sharp, nothing poignant, no exciting twist or turn of mind and thought, nothing fearless, nothing modest, no struggle, no conflict, no rational give-and-take, no intellectual excitement or discipline, no pulsation in the heart or mind. Students are not expected to ask for reasons to justify what they are told to believe. They do not question what they see, hear, or read, nor are they encouraged to do so. . . . They do not challenge the thinking of other students nor expect their thinking to be challenged by others. (Paul, 1993, p. ix)

      Teachers cheat their students if all they ask of them is recall. By asking only for recall, teachers convey the message that the students’ own thinking is not valuable and that questioning and challenging ideas is not welcome—this makes for very boring class situations and creates minds that are dull and lazy. Talk about dumbing down the curriculum.

      THE CASE FOR HIGHER-ORDER THINKING

      As educators look ahead to future schools, much of the data and information they rely on today may be changed or repudiated. To prepare our young people for the possibilities and probabilities of the future that few of us can imagine, the wisest course seems to be a curriculum that triggers their critical and creative thinking (Bellanca & Fogarty, 1986, p. 5).

      What can remain forever useful to the students of today is the capacity to think clearly and creatively in life and work situations. Prentice makes it clear: Teaching thinking is an essential foundation for developing the minds of tomorrow’s adults (Prentice, 1994, p. xi). In addition to requiring crucial data, information, concepts, processes, and tools, teachers are being called on to enable the thinking of every student. To prepare students for the world of rapid change, it is absolutely imperative that teachers groom their students to think critically and to think on their own. Consequently, the role of higher-order thinking, which has been encouraged by educators since the 1980s, has become more important

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