R. Bruce Williams - Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve

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Higher-Order Thinking Skills: Challenging All Students to Achieve

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Multiple Intelligences for Differentiated Learning

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Copyright 2003 by R. Bruce Williams

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2015

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

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 welcomethis makes for very boring class situations and creates minds that are dull and lazy. Talk about dumbing down the curriculum.

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 tomorrows 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 than ever. Caine and Caine point this out:

Perhaps the most significant thing we have confirmed for ourselves is that, although actions are important, the thinking that influences and shapes what we do is far more critical. Changing our thinking is the first thing we have to do both individually and collectively, because without that change we cannot possibly change what we really do on a day-to-day basis. (1997, p. vi)

It is absolutely imperative that teachers groom their students to think critically and to think on their own.

The ability to think critically that comes with having the tools for higher-order thinking can help students far into their future not only grasp new information and material but also figure out how to change and adapt to new situations. Meir says, Feuerstein argues that enhancing a childs cognitive abilities can have a snowballing effect in that, with these abilities enhanced, the child is capable of learning additional and even more complex cognitive operations and strategies (Meir, 1994, p. 90). Feuerstein offers the possibility of ever-increasing higher order thinking capacities as more and more higher-order thinking occurs. Earlier, Paul suggested that higher-order thinking has a direct connection to the quality of life.

Elder and Paul strongly articulate that thinking is at the heart of our future, not only for our society but for every society in the world (1994, p. 34). They suggest three massive trends are gaining predominance: accelerating change, intensifying complexity, and increasing interdependence (p. 34). In their perspective, this makes it crystal clear that only minds that are adept at higher-order thinking skills can deal with the change, the complexity, and the interdependence that now are inextricably part of the world.