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Engaging Students in Higher-Order Thinking
posted by: Melissa | February 05, 2015, 10:28 PM   


There’s nothing better than entering  a classroom where all the students are engaged and actively learning.  This is the type of classroom that all teachers strive for, so what can we do in order to encourage it?

 

First, as teachers we need to be willing to take a back seat in the educational process.  While being the “sage on the stage” is tempting for us,  it rarely engages students on a deeper level.  The problem with too much teacher-driven instruction is that it lets students off the hook.  They are seldom put in the circumstance where they have to rely on their own thinking and understanding.

 

This doesn’t mean that anything students do by themselves or in groups will necessarily drive deeper thinking.  Obviously, a “drill-and-kill” worksheet does little to stimulate young minds.  Instruction that will drive students to that next level needs to be challenging at its core.  Students learn the most when engaged in something that pushes them to think about something at a deeper level or in a way that they hadn’t considered before.

 

That leaves us with a wide variety of potential instructional techniques that we can apply to our classrooms.  Time tested methods like Socratic seminars and design challenges have the ability to pull our students into thinking about the material more deeply and encouraging engagement, but even the best strategy can fall flat when implemented poorly.

 

A lesson’s rigor is equally as important.  Obviously, rigor comes into play at the assessment level.  If a student thinks that they can get away with providing a cursory answer, then that’s what they will give, even when we may be asking for something deeper.  Only when we push students by requiring them to defend their reasoning and to provide proof or cite evidence, will they start to truly engage.

 

However, rigor is also an important component of the planning process.  For example, take two similar assignments given to middle school science students.  Each assignment asks a group of students to build a bridge.  Assignment A provides the students with a reading on bridge building, a set of materials, and instructions.  Afterwards, students answer a questionnaire about the process.

 

Assignment B provides the students with several readings and asks them to create plans and blueprints ahead of time.  Students are responsible for choosing from a variety of teacher-provided building materials.  At the end, the bridges are tested with weights and the class discusses the results.  Both of these assignments are good, strong assignments but Assignment B asks students to think more deeply and to make more choices, enticing them with the promise of ‘winning’ at the end.

 

For teachers looking for ways to help their students think more deeply about their lessons, check out the following resources:

Criticalthinking.org

How to Assess Higher-Order Thinking by Susan M. Brookhart

CDL – How to Increase Higher Level Thinking

Science Teaching Techniques Associated with Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Engineering in Bloom

 

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