Importance of Higher Order Thinking Skills

It is not very difficult to see why so many learners are able to secure a matric certificate, without having the slightest notion of how reason or work their way through a problem. Many have come believe that don’t have to put in any effort: they simply have to ask a teacher.

The amount of administration that teachers have to contend with – drafting and marking of assessments and reporting on learner progress – takes up far too much of a teacher’s precious time, which could have been spent devising interesting, well-constructed classroom activities to develop higher-order thinking.

This administrative overload has led to teachers reaching a point of burnout or abandoning the profession before they reach that unhappy ending. Each year, an increasing number of educators is leaving the profession, sadly contributing to the situation where class sizes are rising and the remaining educators face larger classes and an even greater mountain of administration.

Considering all of this, do educators actually get the opportunity to employ all the wonderful teaching strategies they were exposed to during teacher training?

So, would having sufficient numbers of teachers available automatically mean that they would be in a position to get their learners to solve problems and think critically?

There is no question about it: teachers work under an inordinate amount of pressure and something has to be done about it … and soon!

Thus, if the Department of Basic Education wishes to equip learners with skills for the 21^st century, it has to re-examine the current curriculum and the demands that it places on both learners and educators.

The current crop of learners appears to be more tested than taught, considering regular class tests, quarterly exams, systemic evaluations at the end of various phases and the matric exams, to boot!

So, let’s consider what some of the changes are that should be brought about to improve the situation for learners and teachers!

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The Constant Assessments

The educational authorities believe that they are doing the best for the learners in their charge and so, they believe that regular testing will certify top-notch education. Learners, accordingly, are tested at the end of every term, year and phase.

Learners, to top it all off, are then required to sit for matric exams at the end of a short, stress-filled grade 12 year!

It would appear, that our kids are more tested than taught!

But what exactly is being taught?

From the outside, one would assume that, very often, educators are teaching with the test in mind, leaving little or no time for innovation and in-depth exposure to any of the topics at hand.

This, however, is only half of the problem. The much bigger concern is that many classrooms nowadays concentrate more on memorisation than on engaging with new material cognitively!

This is a viewpoint that is borne out by the fact that most exams consist of questions that invite recall, with very little focus on comprehension, analysis, evaluation and synthesis.

So, while there is nothing inherently wrong with developing a great memory, however, a brilliant performance on an exam still does not mean that the learner has understood the concepts which were tested.

The Building of Cognitive Skills

Let us start by examining the term cognition. It can be defined as the mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through the senses, experience and thought.

For young school children, The Grade R phase and the Foundation Phase are concerned primarily with developing cognitive skills.

Teachers, in these grades, use a number of teaching devices which will maximise learning, such as music, movement and brightly-coloured visual aids.

Learners mainly learn through play and games, but are also exposed to mathematics and literacy lessons. The focus at this level is cognitive development and learning and teaching methods are emphasised: a wonderful example of educational psychology at work.

Suddenly, after this phase, as if a switch were thrown, all of the pedagogy that informed the teacher’s practice and addressed various learning styles switches to a mode of instruction that is teacher-centred.

Starting at grade 1, lessons are teacher-led. Maths and reading skills are taught and developed, with no real exposure to critical thinking.

It is, unfortunately, true that very little space is allowed for learners to think creatively – a pattern that manifests itself throughout children’s academic careers, only disrupted by some very innovative educators. All educators need to be advised on how to develop higher order thinking skills.

National Curriculum versus Bloom's Taxonomy

”Common core” is a term which originated in the USA and represents the subjects that are considered to be the most important in a curriculum.

English, Maths and Science are deemed common core subjects. Other subjects, which are not seen as core subjects, include the arts and humanities.

In South Africa, subjects, which are tested at the end of grade 12 (matric) give one a good idea of which subjects are regarded as important or ‘core’. Few subjects actually lend themselves to critical thinking, many requiring students to learn volumes of information for the purposes of writing one final exam: matric.

Besides literature and the languages, very few other subjects allow learners to dissect information and render an analysis or a conclusion.

The all-important question is: while the learning goals of students are often met, are their essential learning needs ever met?

Who Was Benjamin Bloom?

American psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, pioneered the classification of educational objectives. His work, specifically, led to the understanding of three spheres of knowledge acquisition:

• The psychomotor domain, which deals with how knowledge is perceived and adapted, as well as the way in which knowledge is applied;
• The cognitive domain incorporates the comprehension, application and analysis of knowledge; and
• The affective domain relates to the emotional aspect of knowledge acquisition, which includes how learners organise, value, characterise and respond to information.

For example, when someone learns how to use a computer, all of these domains are involved.

The first domain would involve interacting with the device using the keyboard or a mouse. The second domain would make sense of knowing how a computer works, while the third domain would accord a value to this set of skills as a tool for earning a living and as a source of entertainment.

The public school system focuses a great deal of attention on attending to the cognitive domain, but allows for very little physical activation during class periods and does virtually nothing in terms of evoking an affective response to the information being accessed.

Something, in the current status quo needs to change, given that teachers are overwhelmed and only a single aspect of student learning is being addressed. Every teacher, no matter how over-burdened, needs to consider the question: why are higher order thinking skills important? Again, to take it a step further, teachers must be shown how they can develop higher order thinking skills in their learners.

Bringing Higher-Order Thinking into the Classroom

In South Africa, since the introduction of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), the education powers-that-be have adapted a policy which sees teachers more as facilitators of learning than the source through which all knowledge flows.

Here’s one way in which facilitation could work.

Teachers need to be brave about this as they have to give up a certain measure of control and allow learning to occur in a more natural, if a somewhat, unstructured way. Group work, very often, is the order of the day: learners discuss and make sense of the information that they’re engaging with.

On occasion, you could group learners according to their strength in a subject and on another, make use of mixed-ability groupings to allow for the stronger ones to direct and lead discussions in the groups.

On another day, you could assemble the groups according to their interests, skills or learning style.

The top achievers would, most likely, enjoy projects that require higher level thinking – those that require both critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The majority of your learners may focus on problem-solving or critical thinking, while your LSEN learners would be content summarising the lesson or may enjoy working on topics of interest.

Learners will feel invested in such lessons.

The function of the educator in such a class is to circulate amongst the different groups, posing open-ended questions to keep them focused, while assessing the level of understanding of the topic at hand.

Once you know that your learners are gainfully employed, you might even find yourself free to grade a few papers or essays.

Introducing your learners to debate is another great way to develop their thinking skills.

• Identify an issue which correlates with your study topic for the day. This may be a topical event or something which impacts on your learners’ lives, something which the learners may have opinions on. Write the identified issue on the board.
• Put a banner or poster up, marking each corner of the room as Agree, Strongly Agree, Disagree or Strongly Disagree.
• Point out to the learners what you have put up in each corner. Allow them a few minutes to consider the issue at hand, before they head off to the corner that strongly represents their position on the topic.It will surprise you quite pleasantly to witness spontaneous discussion taking off, in each corner, as the learners support each other’s viewpoints.
• Request that the learners express their views either orally, in writing or in a combination of the two. They can even represent their viewpoint visually.

Good teachers will soon answer the question: why are higher order thinking skills important?

Importantly, it steers learners away from rote learning and encourages critical thinking about a topic. It teaches children problem-solving skills. They will be exposed to structured ways in which to solve problems quicker and with greater ease!

Innovative teachers will uncover numerous ways to unlock the higher-order thinking abilities of their students and, in doing so, lighten their own workload and, possibly, even rekindle their love for the act of educating!