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Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills

The document discusses teaching strategies to enhance higher-order thinking skills in students. It defines higher-order thinking as using complex ways of thinking about what is being learned rather than just memorization. Ten strategies are provided: 1) help students understand what higher-order thinking is; 2) encourage questioning; 3) connect concepts; 4) teach students to infer; 5) use graphic organizers; 6) teach problem-solving strategies; 7) encourage creative thinking; 8) use mind movies; 9) teach students to elaborate their answers; and 10) teach Question-Answer Relationships. The strategies are meant to take students' thinking to a higher level and help them make connections between ideas.

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Jeraldine Repollo
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228 views

Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills

The document discusses teaching strategies to enhance higher-order thinking skills in students. It defines higher-order thinking as using complex ways of thinking about what is being learned rather than just memorization. Ten strategies are provided: 1) help students understand what higher-order thinking is; 2) encourage questioning; 3) connect concepts; 4) teach students to infer; 5) use graphic organizers; 6) teach problem-solving strategies; 7) encourage creative thinking; 8) use mind movies; 9) teach students to elaborate their answers; and 10) teach Question-Answer Relationships. The strategies are meant to take students' thinking to a higher level and help them make connections between ideas.

Uploaded by

Jeraldine Repollo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TEACHING STRATEGIES THAT ENHANCE HIGHER-ORDER THINKING

By: Janelle Cox


One of the main 21st century components that teachers want their students to use are higher-order
thinking skills. This is when students
use complex ways to think about what
they are learning.
Higher-order thinking takes thinking to
a whole new level. Students using it are
understanding higher levels rather than
just memorizing math facts. They
would have to understand the facts,
infer them, and connect them to other
concepts.
Here are 10 teaching strategies to
enhance higher-order thinking skills in
your students.

1. Teaching Strategies to Help Determine What Higher-Order Thinking is

Help students understand what higher-order thinking is. Explain to them what it is and why they
need it. Help them understand their own strengths and challenges. You can do this by showing

2. Encourage Questioning
A classroom where students feel free to ask questions without any negative reactions from their
peers or their teachers is a classroom where students feel free to be creative. Encourage students
to ask questions, and if for some reason you can’t get to their question during class time, then
show them how they can answer it themselves, or have them save the question until the
following day.

3. Connect Concepts
Lead students through the process of how to connect one concept to another. By doing this you
are teaching them to connect what they already know with what they are learning. This level of
thinking will help students learn to make connections whenever it is possible, which will help
them gain even more understanding. For example, let’s say that the concept they are learning is
“Chinese New Year.” An even broader concept would be “Holidays,” and if you take it one step
further it can be “Celebrations.” Each small concept can be connected to a bigger, broader
concept.

4. Teach Students to Infer


Teach students to make inferences by giving them “Real-world” examples. You can start by
giving students a picture of a people standing in line at a soup kitchen. Ask them to look at the
picture and focus on the details. Then, ask them to make inferences based on what they see in the
picture. Another way to teach young students about how to infer is to teach an easy concept like
weather. Ask students to put on their raincoat and boots, then ask them to infer what they think
the weather looks like outside.
5. Use Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers provide students with a nice way to frame their thoughts in an organized
manner. By drawing diagrams or mind maps, students are able to better connect concepts and see
their relationships. This will help students develop a habit of connecting concepts.

6. Teach Problem-Solving Strategies


Teach students to use a step-by-step method for solving problems. This way of higher order
thinking will help them solve problems faster and easier. Encourage students to use alternative
methods to solve problems as well as offer them different problem-solving methods.

7. Encourage Creative Thinking


Creative thinking is when students invent, imagine, and design what they are thinking. Using
your creative senses help students process and understand information better. Research shows
that when students utilize creative higher order thinking skills, it indeed increases their
understanding. Encourage students to think “Outside of the box.”

8. Use Mind Movies


When concepts that are being learned are hard, encourage students to create a movie in their
mind. Teach them to close their eyes and picture it like a movie playing. This way of higher
order thinking will truly help them understand in a powerful, unique way.

9. Teach Students to Elaborate Their Answers


Higher-order thinking requires students to really understand a concept not repeat it or memorize
it. Encourage students to elaborate their answers and talk about what they are learning. Ask
parents to reinforce this at home, as well by asking the right questions that make students explain
their answers in more detail, or to answer their child’s question with a more detailed response.

10. Teach QARs


Question-Answer-Relationships, or QARs, teach students to label the type of question that is
being asked, then use that information to help them formulate an answer. Students must decipher
if the answer can be found in a text or on the Internet, or if they must rely on their own prior
knowledge to answer it. This strategy has been found to be effective for higher-order thinking
because students become more aware of the relationship between the information in a text and
their prior knowledge, which helps them decipher which strategy to use when they need to seek
an answer.

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