HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS A REVIEW

 Shifting from seeing the SmartBoard as a teaching tool towards the SmartBoard as a learning tool.

Before allowing teachers to break off into groups, I showed two Notebook examples files of how to allow students to:

• predict
• imagine
• hypothesize
• role-play
• invent

The first one was from Matt Mikhail, which I found through

The other one I created as an example simply was a storyboard with a background and a few animal characters (objects) placed on it.

Make this storyboard interactive, by allowing students to “create” their own story.Allow them to manipulative the objects.

• Why is the bear in the forest?
• What would happen if the parrot flew around the bear?
• Would the bear try to eat it?
• What would happen if the penguins crossed the bear’s path?
• Is that even possible?
• Lessons on habitat, food chain, fantasy/fiction vs. reality, etc.
• Let students manipulate the story by adding, deleting and changing variables.
• What if the lion and the bear meet? What if it is a baby bear? What if the lion is an old lion?
• Ask questions, such as I wonder… What if… How about… let students come up with their own answers.
• Let them evaluate and decide what happens next.

What is ‘Higher Order Thinking Skills’ (HOTS)?

It combines the use of computers, drama, Socratic dialogue, and a detailed curriculum to stimulate thinking processes Computers are not used to present content, but rather
to intrigue students and get them involved Drama, in the form of teacher play-acting—
sometimes in costume—also stimulates students’ interest and curiosity. Some days the teacher may present a lesson as a mysterious situation for which the students' help is needed.

HOTS is a creative program designed to build the
thinking skills of educationally disadvantaged students

What is ‘Higher Order Thinking Skills’(HOTS)?

However, HOTS is foremost a program built on Socratic dialogue, creative and logical conversation between teacher and students  While most teachers ask simple questions of educationally disadvantaged students, and are content with one-word responses,
HOTS teachers are trained to ask questions that require students to explain and elaborate their answers at length.
Thinking Skills?
Thinking Skills can be broadly classified the into six areas:

Knowledge

Comprehension

Application

Analysis

Synthesis

Evaluation

The CBSE is using these components in the examinations.

It would be worth while to know more about the typical question frame work for all the six areas
mentioned above.

Knowledge

This is about learning and recalling information from your text book and surroundings

Define, Describe
List down, Name
When, Where
Tabulate, Identify etc.
Comprehension
This is about drawing inferences from what you have read.

The question may ask you to grasp the meaning, infer the causes and make predictions.

Typical question types are

Explain / Discuss

Compare / Contrast

What will happen if

Why does it happen so



 Application

This is about using the information that you have acquired in new situations to solve problems.
Typical question types are
Numerical problems
Apply / Illustrate
Classify, etc.
 Analysis
Analysis
This section is about seeing patterns in what you study and recognizing the implications.

The typical question types would be

Arrange / Separate

Classify / Compare

Explain why

 Synthesis

Synthesis
This is your ability to draw conclusions from given facts and generalizations.

The question types are

What if

How will you design / plan

What do you infer from
 Evaluation
..EvaluationThis is about assessing the merit of what you have learnt, knowing its uses, and
limitations; giving out reasoned arguments, etc. The typical question types are

Recommend / Judge
What do you conclude
Rank in the order of
 Comments
..Conceptwiseit seems to be good ..This will definitely bring out the difference between ..a student who has ..studied the subject with the view of actually “learning”..and a student who has “By-heart”it with the sole aim..of getting good marks.
 Comments…
..At first, most students are resistant to expressing their ideas.
..The computer helps overcome this resistance by building a bridgebetween the familiar passive visual learning offered by TV
..and the active verbal learning expected in HOTS and the regular
classroom.
..It provides an interactive means for students to test their ideas before
verbalizing them.
..Over time, the teacher's expectations, combined with interestingprogram activities, result in a highly conversational environment in
which students begin to discover that they are good at thinking and
explaining ideas. With this confidence, they embrace intellectual
challenges rather than run from them

Hots in CBSE

For the first time, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) students of Class 10 and 12 take their exams that includes Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) that will put to test, their application skills. The question paper is designed in such a way that students should be able to answer all the questions within the stipulated time, besides revising them.

This year too, they will be given an additional 15 minutes so that they get sufficient time to read the questions carefully.
Internal evaluation in Maths, Social Science and Science subjects and oral testing in languages will be introduced for Class I to X.

 How can technology develop higher order thinking and problem solving?

the national average gains on reading and math test scores, suggesting a transfer of the students' cognitive development tolearning specific content, and ..increased performance on measures of reading comprehension, metacognition, writing, components of IQ, transfer to novel tasks, and grade point average ..Higher-order thinking skills improve with home and school access to computers. Students who were supplied home computers and modem access to the school were compared with students who didn't have this equipment. The students with home computers and modem access to school realized:

..an increase in all writing skills,

..better understanding and broader view of math,

..greater problem-solving and critical thinking skills,

..ability to teach others,

..greater self-confidence and self-esteem, and

..more confidence with computer skills.