Higher Order Thinking Skills

There are many strategies to develop higher order thinking skills and to promote high expectations for students.  These strategies focus mostly on problem solving or decision making.  One such activity to develop these strategies is to have students question.  What are they questioning?  Anything related to the current topic.  If the current topic is whaling, have students work in groups of four to five to create a list of questions pertaining to this.  The catch is there will be no “yes or no” answers. Students will then answer two of these questions through research.  This strategy utilizes group work and diversity effectively in a critical thinking skill.

Another thinking skill that could utilize groups would be argument-based.  If the current topic is war, helping needy countries, or even Roswell, students can form “for and against” teams.  Each team can research said topic and form its own opinions.   Used in Structured Academic Controversy in Social Studies in Elementary Education, the teacher would help the students gather information on the topic and have the students research one side of the argument in pairs.  The pairs would then present their findings to the other pairs.  After this, each pair would switch opinions and give the other side of the debate.  Both pairs would then use higher order thinking to come to an arrangement or agreement on the topic (Parker, 2005).

Groupingis another thinking skill that can also be used in Social Studies.  Cards with specific information or events can be passed out to each student.  At specific areas in the classroom there will be given timelines or general events that each card fits into.  Students must find which area their card fits into and stand or sit in that area.  This will be a great tool for review for testing as well.

Another higher order thinking skill is problem solving.  In Social Studies we also study about our communities.  For a strategy with this in mind, have students research problems or troubles in the community.  Is there a lack of food and shelter for the homeless?  Is there a pollution problem in a nearby lake?  Are there too many stray dogs and cats on the streets?  Students can look into their issues and find solutions via the internet, library, journals, or television.