The most widely accepted framework
for higher order thinking is Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom gives us the lower-order
thinking skills (LOTS) as well as the higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in
six umbrella verbs: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing,
evaluating, and creating. Under these major verbs we hear other skills like
synthesizing, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, reasoning,
logic, collaboration, inferring, reflection, hypothesizing etc. As educators,
we are constantly trying to engage students in tasks that will require them to
deepen their thinking levels.
As culture has shifted with the turn of the century, we have seen a greater focus on the higher-order thinking skills. Why is this? I’m sure there are many factors that increase the need for higher-order thinking skills, but in my opinion I believe it comes back to technology. The more advanced our technology becomes we have devices, software, and computer programming that completes the lower order thinking skills for us. I would argue that it is not necessary for a successful adult in the 21st century to need to know how to solve the inequality of a parabola in everyday life, because even experts in the field will be using calculators to graph such functions to minimize human error. The computer devices are performing the menial and lower level thinking so we need to “up our game” as humans and reach wider and deeper. The higher order thinking gives us the ability to decipher the information that we are obtaining from the devices and create meaningful analysis and evaluation.
We are the technology leaders of the education field! So what is the impact of technology upon our development of these higher order thinking skills? First of all, as we discussed in depth during our in-class debate, when used incorrectly technology can have a negative impact on our ability to think deeply and create linear thought. If we aren’t paying attention to the stimulus around us and processing the information we receive then we are missing out on developing any and all of the HOTS.
On the flip side, when technology is incorporated effectively, the world opens up to our students and we now have opportunities that before were limited. Creation is the pinnacle of higher-order thinking skills and technology gives students the opportunity to quickly and easily create a digital product – Padlet, Popplet, Powtoon, Prezi, PowerPoint, Podcast (and these are only ones that start with P!)– Which they can then share with their peers. Teachers can give students the opportunity to make the choice as to which technology medium is best used for their project-based learning, thus building the problem solving and decision making higher-order thinking skills. Blogging provides an excellent platform for long-term reflective writing. Using an in-class twitter feed gives students a chance to express their hypothesis or inference in real-time before the class continues forward with the science experiment. Teachers should take the time to practically review the latest technology available and then try it in the classroom to see what ways it can be used to enhance and promote the development of higher order thinking skills for their students. After all, isn’t this what teaching is all about? So let’s make it fun.
Sources: http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
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