The Benefits of Higher Order Thinking

As a tutor, you may be quite used to a number of challenges. One common scenario is to have a student who is not motivated toward independent study. Assignments garner poor results either because of incomplete answers or because they are not done at all.  

In this scenario, the learner’s caregivers turn to you for help, but is there anything that you can do?

Assisting with homework is time-consuming. Is there time in your schedule for developing higher order thinking skills?

Regardless of whether you are a classroom teacher who earns an extra income as a private tutor or whether your full-time job is to provide academic support outside of school, you probably know that encouraging students to think through assignments rather than just doing them, is one of your critical functions.

In other words, facilitating strategies for developing higher-order thinking skills may already be part of your pedagogy.

You may however be new to tutoring and are unsure how to combine your clients’ instructions with higher order thinking skills activities.

In this article, Superprof lays out a few helpful strategies for developing higher-order thinking skills to benefit students.

Setting the Path to Higher-Order Thinking

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day ...

This famous quote has been attributed to several writers including Confucius, but regardless of its origin, the truth is that when we limit someone’s access to work, knowledge or food, that individual is likely to hunger again.

On the other hand, arming people to know how to provide for themselves by developing higher-order thinking skills in them will help them to be self-reliant in achieving their goals.

This ethical reflection makes the case for educators’ efforts at instilling higher-order thinking skills in their students.

According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, there are three learning domains that are necessary for a successful academic career:  

• The cognitive domain captures knowledge and synthesises and analyses study material
• The affective domain which is emotion-based triggers responses to information and the organisation thereof.
• The psychomotor domain which includes guided responses acts to execute a maths function through step-by-step, complex responses.

To date, general education has traditionally addressed the cognitive domain which means that two-thirds of Bloom’s Taxonomy is not addressed and that a substantial part of a student’s needs is left unmet.

This leaves plenty of room for tutors to assist students who are searching higher order thinking skills activities.

However, as mentioned in another article in this series, it is possible to push students too hard when it comes to developing higher order thinking skills. Unfortunately, besides damaging the mentoring relationship, doing so could have disastrous consequences on a learner’s success.

The way around this? Starting slowly.

Searching ‘Higher Order Thinking Skills Activities’?

Consider the 5 W’s and H: who, what, when, where, why and how.

Questions like these are good ways to kick off higher order thinking skills activities, however bear in mind that this need not be a criticism of the current order of the day. Of these questions, perhaps it is the why that is most critical:

• Why is that happening?
• Why would you think that?
• Why is that answer correct?

Asking why unlocks many benefits of higher order thinking skills and it is a great way to steer learners to think differently. Fortunately, once the habit is formed, the question is anticipated and the answer is ready.

This is one of the best strategies for developing higher-order thinking skills because it ensures engagement with both the subject material and the student.

It is also helpful to take this concept to another level by having the student write down all the step they took to arrive at their conclusion.

The process addresses the psychomotor domain but also ensures that the student outlines prior knowledge to the question while fostering metacognition which is an understanding of one’s own thought processes.

If you are an experienced tutor or teacher you will know that even though the benefits of higher order thinking skills are enormous, but opportunities to pursue them in the classroom are limited.

Once you feel assured that your student has the ability to reach reasonable answers to your questions, you could move on to teaching how to debate which is also one of the strategies for developing higher-order thinking skills.

Of course, debating works well in study groups several opinions are inevitably offered.

Once you are confident that your students are capable of critical thinking it will be time to introduce other benefits of higher order thinking skills.

Other Strategies for Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is only half of the matter when it comes to higher-order thinking. The other half entails problem-solving. This requires finesse and even, educational psychology.

Educational psychology is important for learning methods, student assessment and cognitive development.

When it comes to cognitive development, it takes problem-solving and creativity to address how students process information.

As an open-ended question, a problem could be either a math, word or social problem.

For instance, one could make the assumption that as a tutor you have posed a challenging question that requires thought to see their critical thinking skills at work.

1. You could suggest that the student plays with the problem. This will encourage him, or her to choose varying perspectives to look at the problem.
2. You could break the problem down into parts using questions like: Who is involved? What is involved? Why? How? This will help you to guide the student to determine which is the biggest aspect of the problem and which is the easiest to solve. Using the 5W’s and H formula mentioned above is an excellent problem-solving tool.
3. Get verbal: Using reason to think about a problem out loud will help to slow down your thought process so that your student does not feel overwhelmed by the size of the issue. If the student is more of a kinaesthetic learner, you could also suggest that they write down the main parts of the problem on sticky notes and then organise them according to their importance.
4. Focus on the process: believe it or not, there is more satisfaction involved in the process than the answer.
5. When students are older or more cognitively advanced, you could also try offering suggestions as opposed to guiding them to their desired responses. Remember that guiding is something you would do when a student is intellectually less mature or younger.

Regardless of the outcomes associated with problem-solving exercises, positive reinforcement, even if the student has not arrived at a satisfactory conclusion is vital to their success.

Remember that the point of these exercises at this phase of intellectual development is to encourage thinking over problem-solving. Once these skills have been mastered, the student needs to come up with workable solutions for the identified problems.

The overall aim of training a student in higher order thinking is that eventually, finding answers to questions eventually becomes child’s play rather than something that induces stress.

Defining higher-order thinking takes time and effort, or does it?

Surprisingly not!

In an initial interview with caregivers and students, you will be able to form an opinion regarding both a student’s cognitive ability and learning style. This is how you will be able to determine exactly what is required of you as a tutor. As you begin to work together, this background knowledge will help you to gauge their progress as a critical thinker through formative assessment.

As you glean insights through the process, you will be able to begin introducing even more higher-order thinking skills into your tutoring.

The question is, will you have time to provide academic support and critical thinking development?

The answer depends on whether the student’s caregivers are advocates for giving a man a fish or teaching a man to fish.

We encourage you to stand firm on the side of teaching.

If this article was of interest, make sure you read another one in this series that debates whether it is more helpful to be a critical thinker or a problem solver.