Lesson 1 and 2 Module PDF
Lesson 1 and 2 Module PDF
Lesson 1 and 2 Module PDF
MODULE 2
This model, also known as the ‘cemetery model,’ has been in use since
the Civil War (Tharp, in McKeena, 2001) in the United States and most
countries of the world. In the twenty-first century, this instruction mod-
el, where the students sit in rows and listen passively to the teacher, is
considered outdated and ineffective. Why? The reason is that today’s
students are expected to take on an active role in the instruction pro-
cess in the classroom. They are required to be critical thinkers, problem-
solvers, and effective communicators who are not only proficient in aca-
demic core subjects, but also in twenty- first century content and skills.
They have to acquire and master learning and thinking skills, information
and communications technology literacy skills, and life skills in order to
succeed in post secondary education, workplace, and community life.
Given these new challenges, how different will the role of twenty-first cen-
tury teachers be as compared to that of the twentieth century? Teachers
must certainly change from that of being a “sage on the stage” to a “guide
by the side” and facilitate students’ learning. Although they will still have
to deliver the content of the course material, the strategies they use will
need to motivate students’ active participation in learning tasks, stimu-
late their thinking, and provide learning opportunities for collaboration.
Are you ready now to embark on this interesting journey of exploring new
dimensions in your classroom instruction? I wish you a fruitful learning ex-
perience and hope you will gain as much knowledge and skills as possible
to enable you to effectively play the role of a twenty-first century teacher.
There are two lessons in this module that will equip you with the necessary
working knowledge and specific skills involved in higher order thinking
skills.
For questions 1-10, encircle the answer that you think is best.
6. Teacher Thelma asks her students to explain why a ripe durian falls to
the ground. Their explanation should include the Law of Gravity and
the meaning of gravitational forces that attract the durian to the earth.
Which higher order thinking skill is required of her students to complete
this activity?
a. Interpret
b. Apply a rule
c. Solve
d. Describe
7. Mr. Maniam teaches Grade Six students. He plans to use De Bono’s Six
Thinking Hats for a class discussion to decide a venue for an educational
visit. He divides his students into groups and assigns different concerns
for different hats. Choose the best answer from the four options given
below.
a. Flow chart.
b. Venn diagram.
c. Y chart.
d. Fishbone diagram.
10. Mr. Mark is the English Language panel head in his school. He is
conducting a workshop on how to design scoring rubrics for evaluating
student essays. Which of the following will he emphasize as the first
step in designing rubrics?
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
(iii) ___________________________________________________________
(iv) ___________________________________________________________
12. How would you differentiate between lower order thinking skills and
higher order thinking skills?
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14. Match the appropriate sub-skills with the corresponding thinking skills
by connecting them with lines.
A B
Drawing conclusions Interpretation
Assessing arguments Inference
Identifying arguments Evaluation
Clarifying meaning Analysis
Feedback
You may now compare your responses with those in the Key to Correc-
tion found on pages 129-136. What is your score? How well did you do?
If you answered all the questions correctly, you already have a very
good knowledge base and understanding of the contents of this
module, which is about developing higher order thinking in your
students. However, it is recommended that you study the mod-
ule to refresh your memory as well as learn some new concepts.
If you obtained 10 or less correct answers, you need to learn more about
developing higher order thinking skills in your students. Study carefully
all the topics discussed in the module, and try and complete all the sug-
gested activities as well as the reflection and self-assessment exercises.
Before you proceed to Lesson One, evaluate your current level of compe-
tency as a teacher who aims to develop higher order thinking skills in
your students. Please fill out the self-rating checklist on the next page.
3. Describe the
characteristics of
a thinking cur-
riculum.
6. Integrate higher
order thinking
skills in instruc-
tion.
7. Apply thinking
strategies to en-
hance students’
critical think-
ing, creative
thinking, logical
reasoning, and
problem-solving
and decision-
making skills.
8. Design a scoring
rubric to evalu-
ate higher order
thinking skills in
the classroom.
How did you fare? Have you identified the competencies that you need to
work on? Keep them in mind as you study the lessons in this module. You
may now proceed to Lesson One.
1
Transforming My Classroom
Into a Thinking Classroom
This first lesson will enable you to gain insights on how to operationalize
the thinking culture plan that you developed in Module One, Developing
Higher Order Thinking Skills in Teachers. As a teacher, you can do this by
starting off with your own classroom and students.
The scenarios presented in this lesson may be somewhat similar to the ones
you often find in your classroom.
There is hushed silence in the room. Then slowly, some teachers raise their
hands to ask questions. The atmosphere in the room became a little chaotic,
with many raised hands and simultaneous chatter from among the teachers.
1. In your opinion, why did the Ministry of Education issue the new
directive to schools?
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2. If you were one of the teachers in that school, what questions would you
raise in response to this new directive?
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Discuss your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
I am sure you will agree that changes usually pose new challenges to your
personal and professional life. In your endeavor to acquire the new ena-
bling competencies necessary for the change implementation, you will cer-
tainly need to invest much of your time and effort. However, you might
find it easier to manage these challenges if you know why you need to
change the existing situation. In the context of Mr. Ahmad’s teachers, they
want answers to their questions pertaining to the transformation of their
existing classrooms to thinking classrooms.
If you were Mr. Ahmad, how would you address your teachers’ concerns?
Write your thoughts on the space below.
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Share your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
In recent years, you might have read about or been directly involved in cur-
ricular reform initiatives in your country. Like Mr. Ahmad’s teachers, you
will probably also ask, “Why is curricular reform necessary?” and “Why is
there a need to transform our existing classrooms?”
Generally, the last decade has seen curricular reforms in reading, math-
ematics, science, social studies, and language arts in response to new re-
search findings and societal changes. In the twenty-first century, the need
for transformation of existing learning environments and classroom best
practices takes a further leap. As you are aware, most Southeast Asian
economies are shifting from the traditional industrial base to an infor-
mation and service base. There is now a wealth of information, either in
printed or virtual form, for us to access. Furthermore, the future economic
success of a country is heavily dependent on skills, creativity, and innova-
tion. Individuals are also now holding more than one job, and these jobs
demand rapidly advancing technology and changes in workplace norms.
Additionally, we are experiencing a growing concern for social equity in
education and politics as well as interdependence on other countries.
Therefore, schools and teachers are increasingly challenged with the task
of ensuring that our students maximize their opportunities to manage and
make sense of large and shifting bases of information, as well as adapt to
changing work environments, work collaboratively and effectively in teams,
and live harmoniously with others who come from different and diversified
backgrounds. What better way to achieve this than through a new curricu-
lum that addresses twenty-first century challenges? In accordance with this,
Given these reasons, it is no wonder that Mr. Ahmad’s teachers in the sce-
nario presented earlier felt professionally challenged. Perhaps some of them
might have felt that they lack content and pedagogical content knowledge
and skills to blend specific thinking skills into their content instruction.
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Discuss your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Secondly, you can go ahead with the second step: to plan and implement
your thinking curriculum. Thinking skills should be explicitly taught in
an authentic and meaningful context. This means that, in your instruction
delivery, you will provide significant opportunities for high-level thinking,
complex problem-solving, and open-ended responses.
Finally, consider the important element: the example you set within the
classroom context. You must promote the thinking culture by modelling
the behaviors and dispositions of a thinking teacher, be enthusiastic about
thinking, learning, and complex reasoning tasks. A thinking classroom is
the product of the harmonious interplay of a thinking environment, a think-
ing culture, a thinking teacher, and a thinking pedagogy. The end result
will be the provision of real opportunities for transfer and deep meaning-
ful learning – the final goal of all teachers and students of the twenty-first
century.
Given the above considerations, how do you propose to make further im-
provements to your earlier vision of a thinking classroom? Write down
your thoughts on the lines provided.
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Share your ideas with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
What does a thinking classroom look like? Fogarty (2009) outlines how
thinking is infused in the classroom using four elements. These are teach-
ing for thinking, teaching of thinking, teaching with thinking, and teaching
about thinking. Together, these elements make up the four-corner framework
for teaching for, of, with, and about thinking. This framework also allows
for individual teacher creativity and flexibility, besides providing a struc-
ture and focus for pedagogical improvement. The table that follows shows
the four-corner framework of teaching and the programs and methodolo-
gies that correspond to each element.
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Discuss your thoughts with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Visual tools. Various types of graphic organizers (e.g., timelines and con-
cept maps) facilitate your students’ understanding as information and ide-
as are organized, and as patterns, concepts, and ideas are linked through
the use of words or pictures.
Metacognitive skills. Students develop the ability to know what they know
and what they do not know. For example, they use self–questioning to ex-
amine if they have achieved the cognitive goal of understanding a given
reading passage (Costa, 2001).
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Share your reflections with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Let’s Study
Teaching ABOUT Thinking
What, then, is “teaching about thinking”? This third element puts the re-
sponsibility on the students to be self-reflexive, that is, not just to think
and know. Rather, they need to think about their own thinking and know-
ing, and then relate it to their goals for learning. As a teacher, you can
operationalize teaching about thinking by asking them to carry out con-
versations either in pairs (“Think-Pair-Share”) or in groups where they
“think out loud” different ways of interpreting learning experiences for
mutual benefit. When your students ask questions such as, “What am I
doing now?”, “Is it getting me anywhere?”, “What else could I be doing
instead?”, it helps them avoid holding on to unproductive approaches and
to think of more innovative ways of doing things (Fogarty, 2009).
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Lastly, can you explain what you understand by “teaching with thinking”?
If your thought is that teaching with thinking is about structuring the inter-
action with thought-provoking activities that require the intense involve-
ment of learners, you are right! Learning with the element of teaching with
thinking is shaped by an internal process and by social interaction. The in-
ternal process involves the student constructing meanings in his/her mind
through hands-on learning, the application of graphic organizers, the use
of multiple intelligences, case studies, and problem-based learning, among
others. Social interaction would include activities such as dialogue with
others and the use of cooperative learning (Fogarty, 2009).
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Share your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Do you have any idea on what Group 1 could have written as the character-
istics of a traditional curriculum? Write your answers on the space below.
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Ms. Ellen describes traditional curriculum as one that includes core sub-
jects, such as math, science, history, and English, and electives. Students
may also take courses in the social sciences and expand their curriculum
with topics like art, foreign languages, music, acting, and so forth. The
curriculum is designed in a progressive way, with each level being slightly
more challenging than the last, requiring students to build skills and use
them as they work their way through the curriculum.
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Share your reflections with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Let’s Study
Characteristics of a Thinking Curriculum
As you attempt to compare the more traditional curriculum with the think-
ing curriculum, you will realize that one central theme stands out among
others: “The thinking curriculum integrates both the content and process
of learning.” As you know, “content” refers to all the different concepts,
principles, generalizations, problems, facts, and definitions of a particular
subject area. “Process,” on the other hand, includes learning strategies and
skills, creative and critical thinking, metacognition (thinking about think-
ing), and social skills that are used to teach content.
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How do you think will Ms. Yani tackle the same sub-topic, that is, the his-
tory of pre-war buildings in a traditional classroom? In a traditional class-
room, she will very likely ask the students to name some of the pre-war
buildings and monuments that they know. Using the direct instruction ap-
proach, she will then give a lecture on the facts and figures related to some
of the pre-war buildings and monuments that are still in existence in cer-
tain parts of the country. At the end of the lesson, she will most likely give
them an oral or a written exercise on pre-war buildings.
After you have read how Ms. Yani will teach the history of pre-war build-
ings in a thinking classroom and in a traditional classroom, you will agree
that the former is better.
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Share and discuss your answer with your co-learners and Flexible Learn-
ing Tutor.
Mr. Phiene assigns his students the following task. They are to meet at the
town market situated five kilometers away in an hour’s time. They are not to
take the public bus, walk, or cycle there. Neither are they allowed to use money
to pay anyone who is willing to take them nor can they ask a family member for
a ride to the assigned destination.
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Discuss your answer with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
The example below, on how Mrs. Santos teaches her students how to write
a summary, illustrates the characteristics of a thinking curriculum.
Mrs. Santos is a high school English teacher. She wants to teach her 13-year
old students how to write a summary. She asks them to take out their Literature
book and turn to the first chapter of the story, “The Pearl.” In pairs, they
summarize the first three paragraphs. Individually, they summarize the next
five paragraphs. After this, Mrs. Santos asks each student to write a summary
of a short story of their choice.
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Share and discuss your answer with your co-learners and Flexible Learn-
ing Tutor.
Let’s Study
The fourth characteristic of a thinking classroom is that it is able to make a
connection between learning and students’ backgrounds.
If you examine the traditional curriculum, you will find that there is little
evidence to establish the importance of linking students’ family, commu-
nity, and cultural experiences with school learning. In contrast, the think-
ing curriculum places great emphasis on creating a connection between the
learning process and the students’ backgrounds. Because students come
from multicultural backgrounds, this characteristic also better prepares
students to live peaceably in a global society.
How do you think Mr. Wong would teach this same topic using the tradi-
tional approach? He would, most likely, just teach them the names of the
traditional costumes and dances of the various ethnic groups in Malaysia.
Perhaps he might just show them pictures of the Chinese traditional dress
for Chinese women, that is, the cheongsam.
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Discuss your answer with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Remember the four teachers who taught using the thinking approach and
how the topics would have been taught applying the traditional approach?
Let us now analyze how these teachers were able to integrate the content
and process of a thinking curriculum into the subject they teach.
In the second scenario, Mr. Phiene situated the content and process objec-
tives of his lesson in real-world tasks. By stating certain task limitations, he
engaged his students in out-of-school thinking that would involve creative
thinking, logical reasoning, and decision-making to arrive at a meaningful
solution to a real-world situation. They would also use effective communi-
cation skills such as bargaining, negotiating, and persuasion in order to get
a lift to town from non-family members.
In the fourth scenario, Mr. Wong’s assignment to his students built on their
diverse backgrounds and cultural experiences. He made them relate school
learning to real-life issues and encouraged them to seek the expertise of
their peers, parents, and community members. Hence, they not only con-
nected content and processes to their own backgrounds, but they also
learned how other people interpret and organize content according to their
different perspectives.
Part One of the instrument contains eight items that aim to rate your knowl-
edge about teaching HOTS. Part Two, which contains six items, allows you
to rate your pedagogical skills about teaching HOTS. Part Three consists
of eleven items that are intended to surface your attitude and beliefs about
teaching HOTS. Follow the instructions given to complete the question-
naire.
Item 1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Dis- Not Strongly
Agree
Disagree agree Sure Agree
Part I (Place a check mark [√ ] for each item)
I know:
1. how to incorporate HOTS
in the curriculum.
2. how to plan to use HOTS in
my lesson.
3. how to use different strate-
gies and techniques to
teach HOTS.
4. how to teach HOTS using
the infusion approach.
5. how to adjust the learning com-
ponents to the level of students
for HOTS.
6. how to involve students
actively in the teaching
and learning processes in
HOTS.
7. how to develop HOTS in
my students.
8. how to evaluate student
improvement in HOTS.
Total
Items 1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Dis- Not Agree Strongly
Disagree agree Sure Agree
Part III (Place a check [√ ] for each item)
I believe that:
15. my responsibilities are confined
to the school and its work-
ing hours in terms of teaching
HOTS.
16. I can gain a great deal of
satisfaction through teaching
HOTS.
17. I have an important influence
in my students’ life in terms of
teaching HOTS.
18. teaching never gets monotonous
when teaching HOTS.
19. new and better ways of teaching
are always being discovered in
HOTS.
20. it is my duty as a teacher to know
more on my own about HOTS.
21. to be a better teacher, I need con-
tinuous training in HOTS.
22. to be a good teacher, I should
adapt the curriculum to my stu-
dents’ needs even if this involves
extra work.
Scoring Key
Step 1
Count the number of check marks (√ ) in each column. As these are positive
items, you multiply the total response in each column by the correspond-
ing number. For example, if you have 1 response in Column 1, multiply 1
by 1 = 1; 1 response in Column 2 will be multiplied by 2 = 2; 2 responses in
Column 3 will be multiplied by 3 = 6; 2 responses in Column 4 will be mul-
tiplied by 4 = 8; and 2 responses in Column 5 will be multiplied by 5 = 10.
Perfect score for Part I, which has eight items, is 40. Thus, the percentage
score for Part I in our example is 27 ÷ 40 × 100 = 67.5%.
Step 2
Count the number of check marks (√ ) in each column. As these are positive
items, you multiply the total response in each column by the correspond-
ing number. For example, if you have 1 response in Column 1, multiply 1
Step 3
3.1 For items 16-23 (Beliefs and Attitudes about Teaching HOTS):
Count the number of check marks (√ ) in each column. As these items are
positive items, you multiply the total response in each column by the cor-
responding number. For example, if you have 1 response in Column 1, mul-
tiply 1 by 1 = 1; 1 response in Column 2 will be multiplied by 2 = 2; 2
responses in Column 3 will be multiplied by 3 = 6; 2 responses in Column 4
will be multiplied by 4 = 8; and 2 responses in Column 5 will be multiplied
by 5 = 10. Score is 27.
3.2 For items 15, 24 and 25 (Beliefs and Attitudes about Teaching HOTS):
Count the number of check marks (√ ) in each column. As these three items
are negative items, you multiply the total response in each column using
the reverse order. For example, if you have 1 response in Column 1, mul-
tiply 1 by 5 = 5; 0 response in Column 2 will be multiplied by 4 = 0; 1
response in Column 3 will be multiplied by 3 = 3; 1 response in Column 4
will be multiplied by 2 = 2; and 0 response in Column 5 will be multiplied
by 1 = 0. Score is 10
3.3 For items 15-25 (Beliefs and Attitude about Teaching HOTS)
Total score for Part III – Beliefs and Attitude Skills about Teaching HOTS is
the sum of the score for items 16-23 (27) and the score for items 15, 24, and
25 (10) = 37
If your score is 80% and above for Parts I, II and III, you have a sound knowl-
edge, good pedagogical skills, and a positive attitude about teaching HOTS.
Good. However, there is still room for improvement if you aim to be a HOTS
teacher in your thinking classroom. Try and source for current research find-
ings in HOTS to learn about new developments regarding this topic.
How did you fare? Share your findings with your co-learners and Flexible
Learning Tutor.
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Let’s Study
Integrating HOTS in the Classroom
You have learned in Module 1 the ways to integrate HOTS in your life as
a teacher. The questionnaire you have just completed, on the other hand,
provided you with a general idea of your HOTS knowledge, skills, atti-
tudes, and values as it applies in your classroom. These learnings — of
integrating HOTS in your daily life and in your life as a teacher— are very
important if you want your students to become ready for the requirements
of the twenty-first century.
Classrooms of this century and beyond will require your students to use a
wide range of thinking skills depending on the type of learning activities
and the instructional objectives of a lesson. You need to equip your stu-
dents with higher cognitive skills becauce many of these learning activities
will go beyond mere memorization of facts and rote learning.
Pause and think about the lessons that you have taught in the past week.
What were your lesson objectives? Can you identify which of these objec-
tives required higher level thinking in your students? Which ones required
lower cognitive skills? Write your reflections in the lines below.
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Do you know what are the differences between Bloom’s Taxonomy and the
Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy? Study the table on the next page and find out.
Please take note that the examples of verbs shown are not exhaustive. Read
Module 1 for more related words, phrases, and verbs that you can use for
each cognitive level.
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You may have observed the two main primary changes that have been
made: a change in terms, and a change in emphasis, as shown in the table
below.
Why do you think nouns in Bloom’s Taxonomy have been replaced with
verbs in the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy? Write your response on the lines
below.
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Did you notice the repositioning of the last two categories? Do you agree
with the repositioning in Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, where Evaluating
precedes Creating? Explain your ideas in the space below.
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Were your answers similar to mine? The words or phrases you used may
not exactly be the same, but as long as the ideas are similar, your answers
are correct.
Discuss your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
The self-assessment inventory on the next page contains items that will
help you assess your preferred teaching style and the extent to which you
use HOTS in your classroom. Complete this questionnaire to learn about
your orientation towards HOTS.
Remember that this is not a test; therefore, there are no “right” or “wrong”
answers.
1 2 3 4 5
Hardly Ever
Occasionally
Sometimes
Frequently
Almost Always
Item
Hardly Ever
Occasionally
Sometimes
Frequently
Almost Always
Item
TOTAL
Step 1:
Count the number of check marks (√ ) in each column. Then, multiply the
total response in each column by the corresponding number. For example,
if you have 2 responses in Column 1, multiply 2 by 1; 3 responses in Column
2 will be multiplied by 2; 4 responses in Column 3 will be multiplied by 3;
4 responses in Column 4 will be multiplied by 4; and 5 responses in Column
5 will be multiplied by 5.
Minimum score: 20 x 1 = 20
Maximum score: 20 x 5 = 100
Step 2:
Feedback
The product you obtained from Step 2 is an indication of the extent you use
HOTS in your classroom.
If your percentage score is 80% and above, you are using HOTS extensively
in your classroom. If your percentage score is between 50% and 79%, you are
using HOTS moderately in your classroom. If your percentage score is be-
tween 20% and 49%, you may be occasionally using HOTS in your classroom.
You can also compare the result you obtained with your perception to-
wards teaching HOTS to see if your knowledge, pedagogical skills, and
beliefs and attitude about teaching HOTS is the same as the extent you use
HOTS in your classroom. It will reveal if there is a relationship between
your perception about teaching HOTS and your usage of HOTS in your
instruction.
You can continue to reflect on this as you go about your day-to-day class-
room routines and instruction in a thinking classroom. You may discuss
your reflections with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Part I: Select and encircle the best answer for each of the questions below.
a. Fulfill human needs and meet the demands of the labor market.
b. Emphasize mastery of the basics in education.
c. Equip children with a range of competencies for an unpredictable
future.
d. Develop an awareness of different problems in different contexts.
In her Values and Morals class, Ms Linda asked her Grade Six students
to read the following story that she had projected on the screen using the
LCD. She allocated ten minutes for them to read it silently to themselves.
One day, a wealthy family man took his son on a trip to the country, so he
could show his son how poor country people live. They stayed one day and one
night in the home of a very humble farmer.
At the end of the trip, and when they were back home, the father asked his son,
“What did you think of the trip? Did you notice how poor they were?”
The son replied, “Yes.” The father continued asking, “What did you learn?”
The son responded, “I learned that we have one dog in our house, and they have
four. Also, we have a fountain in our garden, but they have a stream that has
no end. And we have imported lamps in our garden, but they have the stars!
And our garden goes to the edge of our property. But they have the entire ho-
rizon as their back yard!”
At the end of the son’s reply the father was speechless. His son then said,
“Thank you, Dad, for showing me how poor we really are.”
~ Author unknown~
At the end of the silent reading session, Ms Linda used oral questions to
assess her students’ understanding of the story. Identify whether each of
the questions below can be categorized as HOTS questions or otherwise.
Place a check mark (√ ) on the space provided for a HOTS question and a
cross mark (X) if the question is not a HOTS question. Give a reason for
your answer.
___ 1. Where did the wealthy family man go with his son?
Reason: ___________________________________________________
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Reason: ___________________________________________________
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Reason: ___________________________________________________
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___ 4. Enumerate the things that the son saw in the farmer’s house.
Reason: ___________________________________________________
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___ 5. Compare and contrast the father’s and son’s definition of “poor.”
Reason: ___________________________________________________
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Reason: ___________________________________________________
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Part III
1. How does Bloom’s Taxonomy differ from the Revised Bloom’s
Taxonomy?
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If you have correctly answered all the eleven questions, you already know
how to transform your classroom into a thinking classroom. If you obtained
ten points, you are still doing alright; just review the item(s) you missed.
If you managed to obtain five out of eleven correct answers, you need to
go back to all the lesson topics and discussions once more. Then write the
correct answers for the items you missed.
After completing this lesson, you may now proceed to Lesson Two which
will examine, in more detail, how you will plan to integrate HOTS in your
instruction, and apply instructional strategies to enhance your students’
HOTS. You will also construct a scoring rubric to evaluate HOTS.
2
Strengthening My Teaching
Through Thinking Strategies
The scenarios presented in this lesson may be somewhat similar to the ones
you often find in your classroom.
Mrs. Tanya: My students seem able to answer all the factual ques-
tions that I ask during the lesson. The same goes for
the worksheet exercises that examine their knowledge
about the topic that has just been taught. They are able
to finish them in ten minutes because they say that the
tasks were so easy. How can I challenge them mentally?
Ms. Sham: For my students, the problem is during the class activ-
ity. After I divide them into small groups, I give them
instructions on how to complete the task. For instance,
today, I listed the steps for folding a paper bird. Guess
what! Within five minutes, everyone had an identical
paper bird to show me. How can I make them more
creative?
(Both see Mr. Gopal, a master teacher, walking over to where they are
seated.)
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Let’s Study
Planning to Integrate HOTS in My Instruction:
The Three Elements
How did you answer the questions in Activity 2.1? If you mentioned that
the two issues that seem to pose a problem for the two teachers in the given
scenario are related to integrating learning activities that would (1.) moti-
vate and mentally challenge the students, and (2.) promote their creativity,
then, you are correct! Both Mrs. Tanya and Ms. Sham are having a diffi-
cult time in their classrooms because the learning activities are very simple
and do not encourage the use of higher thinking processes. Perhaps the
two teachers are not yet fully confident in integrating HOTS in their class-
room instruction and are merely teaching to achieve their pre-determined
instructional objectives.
There are techniques to integrate HOTS in the teaching and learning pro-
cess to develop the thinking skills and learning behaviors of your students.
These techniques, or strategies, fall under three general elements in the in-
struction process:
A. Effective Questioning
B. Instructional Approaches
C. Learning Activities
Let’s learn more about techniques in integrating HOTS in the following pages.
A. Effective Questioning
Remember the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy in Lesson One? You have learned
that thinking skills fall under two categories: lower order and higher or-
der thinking skills. Effective questioning means that during a lesson, you
will need to use both lower order questions and higher order questions.
While lower order questions test your students’ skills related to knowing
and understanding, higher order questions challenge and promote stu-
dents’ problem-solving, reasoning and analytical skills as they engage in
their own learning. Research findings have revealed, however, that a large
majority of teachers ask questions that relate to only recall, memorization,
and comprehension.
If you remember, Mrs. Tanya was complaining that her students gave re-
sponses to her factual questions very quickly and finished her worksheet
questions in a very short time. This happened probably because her oral
and written questions were questions under the remembering category
which may have included the following examples:
• What is a _________?
Analyzing
(Examining and separating the whole into
component parts, making inferences)
Examples of questions:
• How does ________ relate to …? • How would you classify …?
• How would you categorize …? • What evidence can you find
• How does ______ compare with …?
____ ? • What inference can you
make…?
Evaluating
(Making judgements about information, validity of ideas, or quality of
work based on a set of criteria)
Examples of questions:
• What is your opinion of …? • What would you
• How would you justify…? recommend..?
• How would you decide about • How would you prioritize
________________? …?
• Why was it better that …?
• Which is the most important
_____________?
(ii) Why do you think did she carry that color of bag?
(iii) How would it have made a difference if she had carried a different
color of bag?
Compared to the first question, the second and third questions are higher
order thinking questions because they stimulate students’ thinking.
Once upon a time a wolf resolved to disguise his appearance in order to secure
food more easily. Encased in the skin of a sheep, he pastured with the flock
deceiving the shepherd by his costume. In the evening he was shut up by the
shepherd in the fold; the gate was closed, and the entrance made thoroughly
secure. But the shepherd, returning to the fold during the night to obtain meat
for the next day, mistakenly caught up the wolf instead of a sheep, and killed
him instantly.
Based on the story, “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” construct two ques-
tions for each of the six levels of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Remembering:
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
Understanding:
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
Applying:
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
Analyzing:
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
Evaluating:
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
Creating:
(i) ___________________________________________________________
(ii) ___________________________________________________________
Let’s Study
B. Instructional Approaches
2. ‘Brain-based’ Approaches
3. Philosophical Approaches
Are you already familiar with these three approaches? In the following
section, we will examine each of them in order to give you a clearer picture.
We will now take a closer look at the first approach to teaching HOTS in
the classroom
5. Bridging. The students need to link the new learning with existing
experiences or apply it to daily life.
Critical Incident
Let’s Think
What activities demonstrate that Teacher Adam applies the five steps of
CASE? Write your answers in the table below.
Concrete preparation
Cognitive conflict
Metacognition
Bridging
If you recall, the activities in the “Hoop Game” are designed as a problem
that needs to be solved, thereby creating a context for developing thinking.
The students were walked through the five steps as proposed in the cogni-
tive acceleration approach in the following manner:
In the process, they had to expand their thinking to produce a new idea.
When they did this, they were better able to make sense of their learning,
thus improving their general achievement.
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Feedback
Compare your answers with those on pages 141-142. Your answers may
not be worded exactly the same as the Key to Correction. As long as the
thoughts you have expressed in your answers match with those given,
your answers are correct.
You have just learned the five steps in the cognitive acceleration approach
as well as how these steps are applied to a classroom activity that develops
thinking. Now that you have also applied this approach to teach a sample
topic, I am sure you have a better idea how this approach can be used to
teach HOTS in your classroom.
Let’s Study
Now let us examine the second type of instructional approach for teaching
HOTS, that is, “brain-based” approach. As you read about this approach,
try and see how it compares with the cognitive acceleration approach you
have just learned.
2. “Brain-based” Approaches
The findings of contemporary research about the anatomical functions
of the human brain as well as about the brain’s vastness, complexity,
and potential have inspired the types of teaching approaches that
teachers use in the classroom. Teachers begin to understand the effect of
(ii) music, such as baroque music to relax and focus, and upbeat music
to energize;
Reflect on a lesson that you taught during the past week. To what extent
did you apply the core elements enumerated above? What was the impact
on your students’ learning? Write your reflections on the lines below.
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Briefly, it consists of six levels, namely, (i) enroll, (ii) experience, (iii) label,
(iv) demonstrate, (v) review, and (vi) celebrate. Can you try and match the
six levels with their meanings?
Using the words’ meanings as cues, connect the items in the two columns
below with lines.
Column A Column B
Read on to check how well you were able to match the steps of DePorter’s
Quantum Learning Teaching Frame with their meanings.
(i) Enroll. You start off with an interesting opening statement that
arouses your students’ curiosity, makes them excited and raises
their expectations. You also present a holistic picture of the lesson,
without giving too much details.
(iii) Label. Present the content to be taught at the peak of their interest and
discuss its relevance to their daily lives. This is to draw advantage
from their natural desire to sequence and define new learning
In the critical incident on the next page, you will read the situation of a fel-
low teacher, who uses the Accelerated Learning Approach in her teaching.
The sample lesson will also help you to understand even better how to ap-
ply the Accelerated Learning approach.
As you study the critical incident, try to identify the six levels used by Mrs.
Kaur in her lesson. Write your answers on the table that follows.
Mrs. Kaur greets her Year 5 students at the door with, “Good morning! We’re
all going to enjoy today’s lesson.” The physical environment in the classroom
emanates a positive learning environment: well-lit, airy, desks and chairs
arranged in clusters of four, and instruction flow charts of previous lessons
posted on bulletin boards.
Mrs. Kaur begins her geography lesson by saying, “Imagine that your school
is situated at the foot of a hill slope. Suddenly, you hear a loud noise and
before you can say,”Hey, Pestro!”, you see mud falling down from the ceiling
– the roof has caved in and the classroom walls are collapsing on you and your
classmates. What are you going to do?”
After the game which lasts for five minutes, Mrs. Kaur proceeds by giving an
overview of the effects of weather conditions, tree-felling, and hill-leveling
on the incidence of landslides. Using simulation effects, students role-play to
figure out how they might survive in the event of a landslide. Upon completion
of the activity, Mrs. Kaur asks them, “Would you have survived anyway?”
She then shows a video clip about landslide victims and their traumatic
experiences. The students then go back to their simulation to apply their new
learning as evidence that “I did learn something!” Mrs. Kaur continues the
lesson using pictures and questions written on flash cards for students to call
out individual answers.
She then ends the lesson with a short movie about landslides. In pairs, students
share what they have learned, and shout “Hurrah!” as they celebrate their
learning.
Experience
Label
Demonstrate
Review
Celebrate
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Let’s Read
3. Philosophical Approaches
Now that you know the P4C teaching strategy and its importance, let us see
how you can apply it in your classroom.
First of all, you need to arrange the children to sit in a circle or in a horse-
shoe formation so that everyone can see everyone else. Afterwards, follow
the typical P4C stages in a lesson:
3. Thinking time. In pairs, the children think and share their thoughts
about what is strange, interesting, or unusual about the stimulus.
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Let’s Study
Socratic Questioning
The P4C “talking to think” lesson stages described above help to move the
discussion from “what” happened and “why,” to thinking about “what it
means.” Using Socratic questioning or the act of posing a series of ques-
tions, you will be able to progressively engage your students to higher lev-
els of thinking. The following are three levels of thinking and some exam-
ples of questions for each.
The Miser
A Miser sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a
hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at daily. One of
his workmen observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his
movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging
down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit,
found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations.
A neighbour, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said,
“Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole, and
fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service;
for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest
use of it.”
1. Literal
(a) ___________________________________________________________
(b) ___________________________________________________________
2. Analytical
(a) ___________________________________________________________
(b) ___________________________________________________________
3. Conceptual
(a) ___________________________________________________________
(b) ___________________________________________________________
Feedback
Compare your answers with those on page 143. Your answers may not
be worded exactly the same, but as long as the ideas you have given agree
with those in the Key to Correction, your answers are correct.
Now that you have applied what you have learned about the three levels of
Socratic questioning, I am sure you are ready to use P4C in your classroom.
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Discuss your reflections with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Let us now study the third element in the instructional process, the learning
activities, where you can plan to integrate HOTS.
C. Learning Activities
If you remember, Ms. Sham complained that her students finished the in-
dividual learning task of folding a paper bird in a short time. The reason
for this could be related to the learning activity given to them. If you real-
ize, learning activities should clearly involve thinking skills that involve
“What to do” and “How to do it.” In Ms Sham’s paper-folding activity, her
students were not given the opportunity to think of “how to do it.” Rather
than working alone according to a given set of instructions, Ms Sham could
have allowed her students to discuss in pairs about the task of folding a
paper bird. This ‘Think-Pair-Share’ strategy will provide them the oppor-
tunity to generate ideas, hear another’s views, widen their knowledge and
understanding, allow for thinking time, and articulate their thoughts.
When planning learning activities for your lesson, it is also useful for you to
bear in mind the following key questions. They serve as constant remind-
ers to you to check the level and extent to which HOTS is being integrated.
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Discuss your thoughts with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Mr. Olivero and his students are planning for their class educational field
trip. He gives them two options: either go to a hill resort to learn more about
tea cultivation, or go to an island fishing village to see how fishermen make
a livelihood from catching fish. He provides further information for them to
work on: The hill resort is situated 200 kilometers away, whereas the island is
100 kilometers away. However, to reach the island, they have to take the ferry.
He reminds them that they have limited funds for this trip. Nevertheless, the
school bus is available to take them to and from whichever venue.
Given the above conditions, how will Mr. Olivero’s students arrive at a
good suggestion for the venue of their educational visit?
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Let’s Study
Enhancing my Students’ HOTS: The Three Strategies
Go back to the above scenario. In order for his students to make good sound
decisions based on certain conditions, Mr. Olivero can make use of think-
ing strategies or tools. If you notice, there is a wealth of commercial think-
ing skills materials that are available on the Net. However, in the context of
this discussion, you will learn the following thinking tools:
Are you familiar with these three thinking tools? To begin with, let us learn
more about the first, that is, De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.
Are you aware that the Six Thinking Hats is a useful thinking tool for group
decision and individual thinking? It is based on the premise that we can
programme our brain to think in a structured way, thus enabling us to de-
velop strategies for thinking and making decisions about a specific issue.
If you want to know more about the Six Thinking Hats, refer to the Required
Readings for this GURO21 Course 2, Developing Higher Order Thinking
Skills (HOTS).
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Let’s Study
Applying Six Thinking Hats in the Classroom
Read the sample answer below and compare it with your answer. To start
off the class discussion, Mr. Olivero can divide his students into groups
and then assign them to different colored hats. Looking at the problem
from various angles, those wearing the White Hats analyze the available
data and seek for more information. For example, “Will the field trip be just
a day trip or does it require an overnight stay?”, “Are they allowed to visit
other places, such as the cactus farm and the rose garden situated in the hill
resort? Or go on a fishing boat out to sea to see how fishermen catch fish?”
Using Black Hats thinking, the students worry that given the continuous
rainy weather over the last week, travelling to a hill resort will expose them
to the danger of landslides. Moreover sea conditions may also be rough
and make the ferry ride to the island unpleasant for those students who are
prone to sea-sickness.
With Yellow Hat thinking, they may look into the option of a home-stay
with some of the fishermen families to cut down expenses as compared to
staying in a hotel.
The Green Hats may also propose the idea of a home-stay. In addition to
cutting cost, it will give them the opportunity to experience how the fisher-
men and their families live. As a token of their appreciation, they can do a
community cleaning-up project.
Using Blue Hats thinking, the students think about the various ideas pro-
posed. They may then move the motion of cancelling the trip to the hill re-
sort in view of the bad weather, which may cause potential landslides. They
help the class review the various suggestions made regarding the kind of ac-
commodation and seek the consensus of the class based on a majority vote.
As you can see, applying the Six Thinking Hats can make classroom discus-
sion rich and alive! Once your students have learned the skills behind the
Six Thinking Hats, they will be better able to:
Given the benefits of the Six Thinking Hats, briefly describe how you would
use this thinking tool in a class discussion to review a particular problem
and arrive at a decision to develop a suitable solution or solutions for it.
Write your answers on the lines provided.
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Share your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
B. Thinker’s Keys
Thinker’s Keys was first developed by Tony Ryan in the 1980s. It is a set of
questions or task starters that are presented as keys aimed at unlocking the
analytical, critical, and creative thinking abilities of students. Today, this
thinking tool is still considered relevant to facilitate learning as inquiry;
enable students to link with prior learning; apply their learning to new con-
texts; advance their key competencies of thinking; promote innovation and
curiosity in students; and to act as a support and challenge as they develop
higher order thinking skills.
• Group discussion;
• Classroom task;
• Assessment tool.
The table on the next page briefly describes the 20 Thinker’s Keys (Ryan,
1990) as well as the justification for each of them. Read to understand how
each of these keys can help enhance HOTS in your students.
Some consequences:
All the students really enjoy using the Thinker’s Keys to improve their higher
order thinking skills. They are now more creative in their approach to daily
tasks.
The academically-better ones really enjoy pushing their boundaries and testing
what they can do. Even my weak students have proven to be very creative in
their thinking. For instance, I introduced the Reverse Key for teaching the topic
on “Dinosaurs,” and I asked them to invent at least 10 names for dinosaurs
which have not yet been discovered.
One of the boys created the “Piranhasaurus Rex,” a mixture of piranha and
T- Rex. He was even able to talk to the class about its features, habitat, diet,
and so on. The more-able students extended the project independently, making
detailed diagrams, researching dinosaurs, and creating leaflets to inform people
of the dinosaur.
Based on the teacher’s feedback in the above snippet, you can see that
Thinker’s Keys can be developed around any topic for any subject, and are
designed to engage and motivate learners in a range of thinking tasks.
When using this thinking tool, you can, first discuss them together as a
whole class before allowing your students to write/draw their ideas in
their Thinker’s Keys book. You may use one or more of the keys for each ses-
sion. Use the task starters provided for each key to generate more questions
about your selected topic or theme.
For optimal use of Thinker’s Keys, introduce the concept and implementa-
tion of each key to your students. This will familiarize them with the key,
as well as have sufficient opportunities to practice the specific thinking that
is required.
How many check marks (√ ) did you get? To help you plan on applying
thinking keys that you haven’t applied in your classes yet, complete the
table below.
Share your output with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
C. Graphic Organizers
The process of creating a suitable graphic organizer requires that you fol-
low the guidelines below:
When used effectively, graphic organizers foster and aid learning. When
your students create a graphic organizer, they develop their thoughts
visually. Learning becomes more meaningful and learning outcomes are
achieved as the concepts and facts of a particular topic become clearer.
1. What topic did you choose and what graphic organizers did you use?
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Share your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
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Feedback
Did you list down pencil-and-paper tests containing objective and subjec-
tive items, portfolios, and journals, among others? Whatever assessment
technique you might have written, they would all need a scoring guide.
This guide will consist of specific criteria that will indicate whether the
HOTS has been successfully achieved or not. Rubrics are powerful scoring
guides. Do you know what a rubric is? Read on to find out more about it.
Let’s Study
Rubrics
Sample Rubric 1.
Critical Thinking Rubrics
(Adapted from http://www.nh.cc.mn.us/mydocs/1000007/ThinkRubric.doc)
What insights have you gained from Sample Rubric 1? What challenges do
you foresee in applying this type of assessment tool in your class? Write
your answer in the lines below.
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Discuss your response with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Now, proceed and study Sample Rubric 2 on the next page, which assesses
learners’ ability to apply critical thinking skills to solve problems, make
informed decisions, and interpret events.
Identifies and as- Provides a well-developed Examines evidence and Merely repeats information Does not identify or
sesses the quality examination of the evidence questions its quality. Distin- provided. Does not justify assess the quality of sup-
of supporting and questions its accuracy, guishes between position or distinguish be- porting evidence.
data/evidence relevance, and complete- fact and opinion. tween fact and opinion.
ness. Clearly distinguishes
between fact and opinion.
Identifies and Accurately identifies and Accurately identifies Does not explain Does not identify or
considers the provides a well-developed and provides an explana- contextual issues; consider any contextual
influence of the explanation of contextual tion of potential contextual provides inaccurate infor- issues.
context on the issues with a clear sense of issues. mation; or merely provides
issue scope. a list.
Identifies and Accurately identifies con- Accurately identifies con- Does not explain, provides Does not identify or evalu-
evaluates clusions, implications, and clusions, implications, and inaccurate information, or ate any conclusions, impli-
(Source: academic.pgcc.edu/~wpeirce/../Designingrubricsassessingthinking.html)
Let’s Try This (Activity 2.12)
Compare and contrast Sample Rubric 1 with Sample Rubric 2.
How are they different from or similar to each other? Write your answers
on the spaces below.
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Share your responses with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Read on for additional feedback on the similarities and differences between
the two sample rubrics.
Let’s Read
Scoring Rubrics: What? And How?
Did you notice that Sample Rubric 1 provides a single rating or score for
the whole performance using a total impression of the student’s critical
thinking skills? That makes the sample rubric a holistic rubric. If you are
using this sample rubric to evaluate your student’s HOTS on a mathemati-
cal project, first, you will have to identify the student’s mathematical abil-
ity according to the various aspects related to critical thinking, such as,
analysis, synthesis and evaluation of evidence, drawing conclusions, and
acknowledging alternative explanations/viewpoints. Next, you will have
to mentally weigh all these aspects and see how they are reflected in the
student’s project. Finally, you decide on a score that best reflects the stu-
dent’s whole mathematical project performance.
From this discussion, you can infer that when you need a fairly focused
type of response for performance tasks where there may be one or two
acceptable responses, you will use analytic rubrics. On the other hand,
when you just need to get an overall sense of the student’s proficiency or
understanding of the particular content or skills in the performance task,
you will use holistic rubrics. Holistic rubrics are also used when the task
requires students to create some sort of response, and where there is no one
definite correct answer. Examine the following sample of holistic rubrics.
There will be 19 guests plus the principal at the luncheon. There are all in all
36 small square tables you may use, although you do not have to use all of
them. Each small square table seats one person on a side. On the graph paper,
draw all possible rectangular arrangements that can be made to seat exactly
20 people.
Scoring Tool
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Let’s Study
Below is an example of an analytic rubric that a teacher may use in observ-
ing a student performing a task.
Generally, it is believed that holistic rubrics are typically used when the
purpose of the performance is summative and /or large scale assessments,
and analytic rubrics are typically used for formative assessments and for
integrating on-going day-to-day classroom assessment with instruction to
obtain specific feedback.
Another important point to note in the given samples of holistic and analytic
rubrics is that the various levels of student performance can be defined
in numerical terms (quantitative) or descriptive labels (qualitative). For
example, if you intend to define six levels of proficiency or understanding
quantitatively, then the numerical terms will range from 0 to 5. If, however,
you intend to use qualitative labels, then you can consider labels ranging
from “Beginning,” “Developing,” “Accomplished,” or “Exemplary.” Using
the second option allows you to be more flexible and creative. You can create
any type of qualitative labels, provided it “fits” with the performance task.
In using rubrics, you will have to address one issue, that is, converting ru-
bric scores to grades. A rule of thumb is to not directly convert rubric scores
into percentages, i.e., if you are using a rubric that has six levels (or points),
a score of 3 does not equate to 50%. As you have learned earlier, there are
no hard-and-fast rules in converting rubric scores into grades. However,
some teachers find it useful to assign percentages to the rubric scale used.
Please take note that the conversion table is variable and may change de-
pending on the grading system you and your school use. This will also
depend on several factors, including the number of levels in your rubric
(in the given example, 4), the number of assessment criteria (in the given
example, 7), and the minimum passing grade (e.g., 60%, 75%, and so on).
You must consider these factors for each rubric, and create a mathematical
equation, or a conversion table similar to the one above, that will allow you
to map a score on your rubric to a percent grade (or a letter grade).
1. Based on the subject you teach, which type of rubric will you most likely
use: holistic or analytic? Write your reasons on the lines provided.
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2. How will you overcome the issue of converting your students’ rubric
scores to grades?
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Share your reflections with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor.
Example 1:
Mr. Somkeit, a fifth- grade teacher, is planning a unit on the topic of eating
habits according to age groups, focusing on the skills of estimation and
interpretation of graphs.
At the end of this unit, he wants to assess his students’ mastery of the following
instructional objectives:
First of all, he identifies the following four attributes on which to focus his rubric:
estimation, mathematical computation, conclusions, and communication of
explanations (Steps 2 & 3).
Example 2:
Mrs. Sanchez is beginning a unit on the electoral process. Recalling her
past teaching experiences, she knows that some of her students experience
difficulties in understanding the concepts of sampling and election polling.
Therefore, she decides to give them a performance assessment to evaluate their
levels of understanding of these concepts.
She wants to focus on the idea that surveys can predict the viewpoints of a
population. Specifically, she wants to assess her students on the following
instructional objectives:
Considering the two examples above, briefly identify the steps involved in
designing scoring rubrics. Write your answers on the lines provided.
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Let’s Read
Designing Scoring Rubrics: Step-by-Step
Go back to the examples presented above. Each of them describes the steps
taken by Mr. Somkeit and Mrs. Sanchez in designing their respective scor-
ing rubrics for classroom use. Generally, there are several steps involved in
the design of rubrics as shown in the table below:
4a For holistic rubrics, write thor- Describe the highest and lowest
ough narrative descriptions for levels of performance com-
excellent work and poor work bining the descriptors for all
incorporating each attribute attributes.
into the description.
4b For analytic rubrics, write thor- Describe the highest and lowest
ough narrative descriptions for levels of performance using the
excellent work and poor work descriptors for each attribute
for each individual attribute. separately.
5a For holistic rubrics, complete the Write descriptions for all inter-
rubric by describing other levels mediate levels of performance.
on the continuum that ranges
from excellent to poor work for
the collective attributes.
(Score) (Description)
The bottom line is to read what experts say are the attributes of quality
performance for a particular field. This will be very useful when it comes
to determining the performance criteria for a rubric. The other thing to do
is to read rubrics developed by other people. This will give you some good
ideas for developing your own. Lastly, do not be discouraged if, at first,
there seems to be much room for improvement in your rubrics. Keep on
trying. Remember “Correct practice makes perfect.”
Let’s Remember
In this lesson, you learned that:
1. Teacher Siti has just taught her students about the rotation of the earth
and the causes of day and night. She then asks one student to stand in
the middle of the room and another to rotate and revolve around that
student. Choose the best question that reflects higher order questions
from the options below.
b. Can you explain what happens when the ‘Earth’ faces the ‘Sun’ ?
2. Ms. Trang is using the Cognitive Acceleration Approach in her art lesson
for the topic on Renaissance Architecture. At the end of the lesson, she
asks them to identify and name some buildings in town where Roman
pillars are a part of the infrastructure.
a. Cognitive challenge
b. Metacognition
d. Bridging
a. Literal questions
b. Conceptual questions
c. Factual questions
d. Analytical questions
For Questions 4-5, write the correct answer on the space provided.
4. Name the thinking state involved and possible learning outcomes when
individuals or groups “wear” the respective De Bono’s thinking hat as
given below:
f.
Red Hat ________________________________
a. Remembering ________________________________
b. Understanding ________________________________
c. Applying ________________________________
d. Analyzing ________________________________
e. Evaluating ________________________________
f. Creating ________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
7. Somalay has just learned about graphic organizers. During recess, she
shares her new knowledge with her friends in the canteen. Imagine you
are Somalay. How would you explain the concept of graphic organizers
and their use in instruction?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
If you are Mr. Mohamed, how would you explain the differences
between these two types of rubrics to Ms Vasugi?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Feedback
Compare your answers with those found in the Key to Correction on pages
146-151.
If you have answered all the questions correctly, you have truly learned
how to integrate HOTS in your instruction, apply HOTS in your class-
room, and design a scoring rubric to evaluate HOTS.
If you got nine out of the ten questions correct, you are still doing alright.
You will just need to go over the item you missed to learn it further.
If you only have five or less correct answers, you will have to go back to
the module and review all the lessons in it, paying special attention to the
questions you have answered incorrectly.
With this, we now come to the final stage of the module, that is, the module
summary, the post test, and the module assignment.
Let’s Sum Up
This module focused on developing HOTS in learners.
a. In Ms. Yani’s science class, she asks her students to identify the
different types of flowers they see in the school yard. She asked
them to sort out the flowers according to color.
b. Mr. Phiene conducted his Social Studies class at the local market,
where his students interviewed the meat vendors about their
opinion on price increases. They wrote a reflection paper on this
activity.
c. Mrs. Hoa’s math class grouped themselves into fives. Each group
played a game, which drilled them on the multiplication table.
b. Allocate time for students to think and share thoughts with others.
4. Mrs. Dara plans to use an instructional approach that will enable her
students to
a. Self-paced learning
b. Accelerated learning
c. Mastery learning
d. Self-regulated Learning
Our Promise
I Promise that I will do my best;
To love my God,
To serve my Queen and my Country,
To help other people
And
To keep the Guide Law.
Knowledge __________________________
Comprehension __________________________
Application __________________________
Analysis __________________________
Synthesis __________________________
Evaluation __________________________
8. Ms. Eugene is teaching his eighth graders how to use graphic organizers
to capture the highlights of their history lesson on “The Industrial
Revolutions.” What are some guidelines that she can give her students
in creating a suitable graphic organizer for this topic?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
What type of graphic organizer is shown above? What makes you say
so? Provide a brief description for this type of graphic organizer.
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Criteria 4 3 2 1
Plot Both plot
parts are
fully devel-
oped.
Feedback
In order to check how well you have performed in the Module post-test,
compare your answers with those in the Key to Correction on pages 152-158.
If you answered all the questions correctly, then you have a clear under-
standing of how to develop HOTS in your students.
If you answered eight out of ten questions correctly, you still have diffi-
culty understanding concepts, and need to review the parts you missed.
If you got five or fewer correct answers, you need to review the whole
module before proceeding to the next page.
All the best to you as you try to develop HOTS in your learners!
This module assignment has three parts, all of which have to be completed
and submitted to your Flexible Learning Tutor for review and feedback.
Part I
Design a floor plan of your thinking classroom showing the physical lay-
out, desk placement and seating arrangements, and classroom space de-
sign. Decide on the kind of activity setting (flexible, integrated or variable),
that is suitable for the instructional strategies that you will employ. Prepare
a written text (300-500 words) describing each of the elements in your lay-
out and explaining why they are essential for your thinking classroom. A
minimum requirement is a photo documentation or a drawing of the floor
plan. However, you can be as creative as you can, given the technological
support available.
Invite your school head, teaching supervisor, and some colleagues to visit
your thinking classroom. Provide a feedback form for them to make recom-
mendations on how to further improve the physical environment of your
thinking classroom. Based on the given feedback, formulate an action plan
to show how you will make and implement the necessary improvements.
You may need to make certain considerations such as budget allocation,
availability of classroom space, and so on.
Part III
Develop a lesson plan integrating HOTS for a selected topic for a subject
you teach. Identify how you will integrate at least one or two elements
in the instruction process, such as effective questioning, instructional ap-
proaches, and learning activities. Also indicate two or three strategies you
will use to enhance your students’ HOTS. Include in your lesson plan a
learning task for your students, for example, article review, case study,
situation analysis, and a sample assessment rubric for the task. Consult
with your teaching supervisor and ask him/her to review the lesson plan.
Prepare a reflection on the insights you have gained from the professional
consultation and what improvements you will make to integrate HOTS
more effectively in your lesson plan.
Submit the three parts of your module assignment with supporting docu-
mentation to your Flexible Learning Tutor for review and feedback.
This is not the best answer. This is already the goal of education in
our present time.
This is not the best answer. When the teaching of thinking is infused
with content, students are better able to develop thinking skills.
This is also one of the characteristics of a thinking classroom.
d. Curriculum intent moves away from knowledge acquisition to knowledge
production as an outcome.
This is not the best answer. While it is true that teachers are
required to be both content area and pedagogical content experts,
this is not their primary role in a thinking curriculum; rather, they
are facilitators in the classroom.
This is not the best answer. Evaluation and application are higher
order thinking skills (HOTS), but Comprehension is categorized as
lower thinking skills (LOTS).
This is the best answer. All three thinking skills fall in the category
of HOTS.
This is not the best answer. Evaluation and synthesis are HOTS but
comprehension is LOTS.
This is not the best answer. Synthesis and analysis are HOTS, but
comprehension is LOTS.
This is not the best answer. When one is able to construct meaning
from graphic messages, it shows understanding.
c. giving recommendations.
6. Teacher Thelma asks her students to explain why a ripe durian falls to the
ground. Their explanation should include the Law of Gravity and the meaning
of gravitational forces that attracts the durian to the earth. Which higher order
thinking skill is required of her students to complete this activity?
a. Interpret
This is not the best answer. This activity does not require the
students to do any interpretation of meaning or concept.
b. Apply a rule
This is the best answer. The students need to apply Newton’s Law
of Gravity to explain the falling of a ripe durian to the ground.
c. Solve
This is not the best answer. Students need not engage in the
problem-solving process for this activity. They just have to use the
laws governing why certain things happen.
d. Describe
This is not the best answer. The activity does not require the
students to describe; rather, they have to explain a phenomenon
from a scientific perspective.
7. Mr. Maniam teaches Grade Six students. He plans to use De Bono’s Six
Thinking Hats for a class discussion to decide a venue for an educational visit.
He divides his students into groups and assigns different concerns for different
hats. Choose the best answer from the four options given below:
a. Focus on advantages — Yellow hat
This is not the best answer. The red hat demonstrates one’s feelings,
prejudices, and intuition regarding an expressed idea, view, and so
on.
This is not the best answer. The black hat focuses on the consequences
of an action, the difficulties that may arise, precautions to take, risks
involved, and so on.
This is not the best answer. The blue hat explains how the group
members arrived at the solution, wraps up the discussion, and
summarizes the decision made.
8. Mrs. Munira has just attended a talk on “Productive Pedagogies.” The speaker
focused on the benefits of using thinking tools in instruction. Mrs. Munira
is keen to use a graphic organizer that identifies cause and effect. This type of
graphic organizer is called
a. Flow chart
This is not the best answer. The flow chart sequentially lists events
that have happened, or might happen.
b. Venn diagram
This is not the best answer. The Venn Diagram is a tool for finding
similarities and differences.
c. Y chart
This is not the best answer. The Y chart is a brainstorming tool based
on what one sees and feels. It helps clarify concepts and ideas.
d. Fishbone diagram
a. Analytic rubrics are only used when the purpose of the performance
assessment is summative in nature.
This is not the best answer. Analytic rubrics can be used for
both formative and summative feedback in assessing student
performance.
This is not the best answer. The focus of a score reported using a
holistic rubric is on the overall quality, proficiency, or understanding
of the specific content and skills.
This is not the best answer. Holistic rubrics only offer limited
feedback to students and teachers, and thus cannot be considered
significant.
10. Mr. Mark is the English Language panel head in his school. He is conducting
a workshop on how to design scoring rubrics for evaluating student essays.
Which of the following will he emphasize as the first step in designing rubrics?
This is not the best answer. This is the second step in the rubrics
designing procedure. It involves specifying characteristics, skills, or
behaviors that you are looking for, as well as common mistakes you
do not want to see.
This is not the best answer. This is the third step that identifies ways
to describe above average, average, and below average performance
for each observable attribute identified in step 2.
This is not the best answer. This is step 4 of the procedure that
describes the highest and lowest levels of performance combining
all or for each attribute separately.
This is the best answer. This first step allows you to match your
scoring guide with your objectives and actual instruction.
11. Enumerate the four characteristics of a thinking curriculum.
12. How would you differentiate between lower order thinking skills and higher
order thinking skills?
Lower order thinking skills foster thinking skills for basic knowledge
recall, understanding, or application of appropriately, previously
learned information to draw out factual answers. Higher order thinking
skills require students to break down information into parts, make
judgments according to some set of criteria, and create new ideas or put
existing ideas in a new and different way.
14. Match the appropriate sub-skills with the corresponding thinking skills by
connecting them with lines.
A B
Drawing conclusions Interpretation
Assessing arguments Inference
Identifying arguments Evaluation
Clarifying meaning Analysis
How Much Have You Learned From This Lesson? pages 50-52
Part I
This is not the best answer. Students should think before they
respond, instead of just uttering their answers. In most cases, they
are likely to give inaccurate answers or answers that lack detail and
precision.
This is not the best answer. Students who are overly cautious are
not likely to be creative and willing to try out new ways of doing
things. They will not move out of their comfort zone.
This is the best answer. Students who can think for themselves will
be better able to develop strategies for effective problem-solving and
decision-making. They will also develop important thinking skills
and mental habits that will make them better critical and creative
thinkers.
a. Fulfill human needs and meet the demands of the labor market.
This is not the best answer. Thinking skills give more importance to
human potential rather than human needs.
c. How did the fire spread to the entire block of shop houses?
This is not the best answer. The question requires students to recall
facts, terms, basic concepts, and answers.
d. How would you summarize what happened at the scene of the accident?
This is not the best answer. The question requires students to
demonstrate understanding of facts and ideas.
4. Which of the action words correspond to the given cognitive level of Bloom’s
Taxonomy?
Identify whether each of the questions below can be categorized as HOTS questions
or otherwise. Place a check (√ ) mark on the space provided for a HOTS question
and a cross (x) mark if the question is not a HOTS question. Give a reason for
your answer.
1. ___X____ Where did the wealthy family man go with his son?
Reason: This is not a HOTS question as the students merely recall the
information found in the story they have read.
2. ___X____ Why did the father take his son for the trip?
Reason: This is not a HOTS question as the students are not required
to think critically to obtain the correct answer; they just repeat the
information in the given story.
4. ___X____ Enumerate the things that the son saw in the farmer’s house.
Reason: This is not a HOTS question as students merely recall information
they have read from the story
5. ___√____ Compare and contrast the father’s and son’s definition of “poor.”
Reason: This is a HOTS question. It requires students to process the
information they have read regarding how the father and son have
defined the concept of “poor.” They are not asked to repeat or recall the
facts given in the story.
1. How does Bloom’s Taxonomy differ from the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy?
a. The names of the six levels of thinking were changed from nouns
in Bloom’s Taxonomy to verb forms in the Revised Taxonomy.
This is because the taxonomy reflects different forms of thinking
and thinking is an active process. Verbs describe actions; nouns
don’t.
Based on the story, “A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing,” construct two questions for each
of the six levels of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Remembering:
(i) Who are the characters in the story?
Understanding:
(i) Why did the wolf mingle with the sheep?
Applying:
(i) What would you have done if you were the wolf?
(ii) How would you demonstrate the beginning, middle, and ending
of the story?
Evaluating:
(i) What do you think of the story?
(ii) Why has this story been told repeatedly over the years?
Creating:
(i) How would you re-write this story with a different ending?
You may have formulated other HOTS questions which you may share
with your co-learners and Flexible Learning Tutor for additional feedback.
Using the five steps of the CASE Approach, briefly describe how you would teach
a topic on “Pollution.” Write your answer on the lines provided.
Below are suggested steps to teach a topic on pollution using the Cognitive
Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) Approach.
Select the sub-topic for oral discussion, that is, Causes of Air
Pollution
(v) Bridging - Students then review how they can help reduce the air
pollution problem in everyday life. They offer practical suggestions,
for example, “Walk to the nearby market instead of driving a car or
riding a motorcycle there,” “Car-pool or go in one vehicle to school
if they are staying in the same housing area or village,” “Cycle
instead of chartering a vehicle bus for a school excursion if the
venue is not too far away,” and so on.
Accelerated Evidence
Learning Level (Clues from the Lesson)
Enroll • Mrs. Kaur greets her Year 5 students at the door with
“Good morning! We’re all going to enjoy today’s lesson.”
(Teacher starts off the lesson with an interesting open-
ing sentence to stimulate students’ curiosity towards the
lesson).
Experience • Mrs. Kaur begins her geography lesson with a game about
their school building collapsing as a result of a landslide
(Allow students to experience the lesson using an engag-
ing activity where they role-play to figure out how they
might survive in the event of a landslide).
Label • She then proceeds by giving an overview of the effects of
weather conditions, tree-felling, and hill-leveling on the
incidence of landslides.
(The content is presented at the peak of the activity and
linked to natural disasters in their daily lives).
Demonstrate • She then shows a video clip about landslide victims’ trau-
matic experiences.
• The students go back to their simulation to apply their
new learning.
(Teacher provides opportunities for transfer of knowl-
edge).
Construct two questions for each level of Socratic questioning for the story, “The
Miser.” Write your answers on the space provided.
2. Analytic questions
b. “What advice would you have given the Miser?”, and so on.
3. Conceptual questions
Score Description
How Much Have You Learned From This Lesson? pages 115 -118
1. Teacher Siti has just taught her students about the rotation of the earth and the
causes of day and night. She then asks one student to stand in the middle of the
room, and the rest to rotate and revolve around that student. Choose the best
question that reflects higher order questions from the options below.
This is not the best answer. The question merely asks students to
recall previously learned facts, basic concepts, and answers.
b. Can you explain what happens when the ‘Earth’ faces the ‘Sun’ ?
This is not the best answer. The question asks students to solve prob-
lems by applying acquired knowledge, facts, and rules in a role play.
Based on the above classroom situation, which step of the cognitive acceleration
approach is Ms Trang applying?
a. Cognitive challenge
This is not the best answer. The task that Ms Trang has set does not
pose a challenge that is above the students’ current level of
knowledge for a solution to be found.
b. Metacognition
This is not the best answer. Ms Trang’s task for her students do not
require her students to verbalize their line of thinking or to reflect
how they tackled the task.
This is not the best answer. The task does not require the students
to work together in groups to suggest solutions, try out ideas, and
act as mediators for one another.
d. Bridging
This is the best answer. Students need to link their new learning of
Renaissance architecture to applications to daily life.
3. Teacher Porntip plans to use Socratic questioning in her science lesson. She is
teaching the topic, “Insect Metamorphosis.” During the lesson, she asks the
class questions, such as, “What is the key concept of metamorphosis?” “How
does tadpole metamorphosis differ from insect metamorphosis?”
What level of Socratic thinking are reflected in the two questions posed by Ms
Porntip?
a. Literal questions
This is not the best answer. The questions do not merely ask for
information.
This is the best answer. In order to give the correct answer, they
are required to engage in abstract thinking.
c. Factual questions
This is not the best answer. The questions are not asking students
to give facts related to the concept.
d. Analytical questions
This is not the best answer. It does not require critical or creative
thinking.
4. Name the thinking state involved and possible learning outcomes when indi-
viduals or groups ‘wear’ the respective De Bono’s thinking hat as given below:
5. For the following cognitive domain levels of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, provide
three examples of suitable action words.
(i) “What If” Key. Example: What if all elephants walked on two legs?
(iii) “Interpretation” Key. Example: The zookeeper has just sent three
elephants to your neighbor’s house.
You may have identified other Ryan’s Thinking Keys that could be
applied to teaching about elephants in your science lesson.
7. Somalay has just learned about graphic organizers. During recess, she shares
her new knowledge with her friends in the canteen. Imagine you are Somalay.
How would you explain the concept of graphic organizers and their use in
instruction?
Graphic organizers are visual representations that help our minds see
patterns and relationships as we construct knowledge and organize
information. When we use graphic organizers, we group together
complex and fragmented information and transform them into simple
and easy to understand information. Graphic organizers can also be used
to present findings. In addition, they develop higher order thinking skills
such as creative and critical thinking. Examples of graphic organizers
include fish bone, flow chart, cycle of events, and Venn diagram.
Two suitable graphic organizers that Ina can use for demonstrating
critical incidents in her life are:
(i) Timeline – Has a definite starting and ending point and a number of
divisions or spaces in between. Also known as a continuum.
9. In a short quiz based on the topic “Designing Scoring Rubrics For Your
Classroom,” the participants of a one-day workshop on “Authentic Assessment”
are asked to explain two types of labels of student performance that can be used
in holistic and analytic rubrics, with suitable examples. What are some of the
possible answers?
Two types of labels of student performance that are used in holistic and
analytic rubrics, with suitable examples:
If you are Mr. Mohamed, how would you explain the differences between these
two types of rubrics to Ms Vasugi?
With a holistic rubric, the teacher is required to score the overall process
or product as a whole, without judging the component parts separately.
For an analytic rubric, the teacher first scores separate, individual parts
of the product or performance before summing the individual scores to
obtain a total score.
With a holistic rubric, the focus of the score reported is on the overall
quality, proficiency, or understanding of the content and skills. With
an analytic rubric, students receive feedback on their performance with
respect to each individual scoring criteria.
This is not the best answer. Thinking skills do not aim to support
memory and recall, but rather creative and critical thinking,
problem-solving, decision-making, logical reasoning, and so on.
a. In Ms. Yani’s science class, she asks her students to identify the different
types of flowers they see in the school yard. She asked them to sort the
flowers out according to color.
This is not the best answer. Ms. Yani’s activity in the class did not
require the students to go beyond identifying and classifying - both
lower thinking skills.
b. Mr. Phiene conducted his Social Studies class at the local market, where
his students interviewed the meat vendors about their opinion on price
increases. They wrote a reflection paper on this activity.
This is not the best answer. Classroom drills are simply rote
repetitions and memorization of answers. This does not show a
thinking classroom.
d. Ms. Abbie’s English class memorized the poem “Invictus.” Each student
took turns reciting the poem in front of the whole class.
3. Ms Laily has read that effective questioning promotes students’ higher order
thinking in the classroom. The following statements describe how to use effective
questioning except:
b. Allocate time for students to think and share their thoughts with others.
c. Provide opportunities for students to see other’s opinions besides their own.
a. Self-paced Learning
This is not the best answer. Self-paced learning is where the learner
determines the pace and timing of content delivery.
b. Accelerated Learning
c. Mastery Learning
d. Self-regulated Learning
6. Mr. Santokh used De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats to develop HOTS in students
of his literature class. As a strategy, he wore a different color of hat for each
type of question that he asked. Match the questions below with the appropriate
hat that Mr. Santokh wore.
8. Ms. Eugene is teaching his eighth graders how to use graphic organizers to
capture the highlights of their history lesson on “The Industrial Revolution.”
What are some guidelines that she can give her students in creating a suitable
graphic organizer for this topic?
What type of graphic organizer is shown above? What makes you say so?
Provide a brief description for this type of graphic organizer.
Sample Rubric
Criteria 4 3 2 1
Plot Both plot One of the Both plot Neither plot
parts are plot parts is parts are parts are
fully devel- fully devel- addressed fully devel-
oped. oped and but not fully oped.
the less de- developed.
veloped part
is at least
addressed.
Setting Both setting One of the Both setting Neither set-
parts are setting parts parts of the ting parts
fully devel- is fully de- story are are devel-
oped. veloped and addressed oped.
the less de- but not fully
veloped part developed.
is at least
addressed.
Characters The main The main The main None of the
characters characters characters characters
are fully are devel- are identi- are devel-
developed oped with fied by oped or
with much some de- name only. named.
descriptive scriptive
detail. The detail. The
reader has a reader has a
vivid image vague idea
of the char- of the char-
acters. acters.
De Bono, E. (1990). Six Thinking Hats (3rd ed.). London: Penguin Books.
Fisher R. (2006). Talking to Think. In: D. Jones & P. Hodson (Eds.). Unlock-
ing speaking and listening London, David Fulton.
Principles, Tools, Articles and Quotes About Creativity Using Creativity. Avail-
able at http://creatingminds.org/
Holistic rubrics - require the evaluator or teacher to score the overall pro-
cess or product as a whole, without examining the component parts
separately.
Costa, A.L. (2001). “Habits of Mind.” in: A.L. Costa (Ed.). Developing Minds:
A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking (3rd ed.). Alexandria VA: Asso-
ciation for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Facione, P.A. & Facione, N.C. (2009). The Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring
Rubric A Tool for Developing and Evaluating Critical Thinking [Online].
Retrieved from www.insightassessment.com
Fisher, R. (in press). “Thinking Skills.” in: Grainger, A.J. & Wray, D. (Eds.).
Learning to Teach in Primary School. Routledge Falmer.
Kirby, G.R. & Goodpaster, J.R. (2002). Thinking (3rd ed.). New Jersey :Pear-
son Education.
Swartz, R.J. (2001). “Thinking About Decisions.” in: A.L. Costa (Ed.). Devel-
oping Minds: A Resource Book for Teaching Thinking (3rd ed.). Alexandria
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Apply a Rule: The student could be asked to explain why a shotgun “kicks”
when fired. His response would include a statement to the effect that for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (Newton’s Laws of Mo-
tion), and that the “kick” of the shotgun is equal to the force propelling the
shot toward its target. The faster the shot travels and the greater the weight
of the shot, the greater the “kick” of the gun.
Define: Given several types of plant leaves, the student could be asked to
define at least three categories for classifying them.
Note: Defining is not memorizing and writing definitions created by some-
one else -- it is creating definitions.
Diagram: The student could be asked to diagram the life cycle of a grass-
hopper.
Locate: The student could be asked to locate the position of chlorine on the
periodic table.
Note: To locate is to describe location. It is not identification of location.
Order: The student could be asked to order a number of animal life forms
according to their normal length of life.
Predict: From a description of the climate and soils of an area, the student
could be asked to predict the plant ecology of the area.
Solve: The student could be asked to solve the following: How many grams
of H2O will be formed by the complete combustion of one liter of hydrogen
at 70oC?
State a Rule: The student could be asked to state a rule that tells what the
offspring of mammals will be, i.e., they will be very similar to their parent
organisms.
Construct: Given a ruler, compass, and paper, the student could be asked
to construct an equilateral triangle.
Define: Given different kinds of coins, the student could be asked to define
some categories to classify the coins. His response would include defini-
tions such as, “All pennies, all nickels, all dimes, etc., could be put in sepa-
rate piles. Or all the coins containing silver could be put in one pile and
those that don’t into another pile.”
Distinguish: Given pairs of numbers, with one number of each pair a prime
number, the student could be asked to identify the prime number in each
pair.
Interpret: Given a bar graph showing the per unit cost of food products
when purchased in various size packages, the student interprets it by stat-
ing the lowest and highest per unit cost and by describing the relationship
between increased package size and per unit cost of the product.
Locate: The student could be asked to locate a particular desk in his class-
room by stating the row it is in and the ordinal position from the front of
the room. “John’s desk is the fourth one from the front, in the second row,
from the east wall.”
Name: What is the name of this collection of objects? Answer: “A set.” What
is the name of this type of equation? Answer: “A quadratic equation.”
Predict: The student could be asked to predict the next term in an increas-
ing arithmetic series such as 2, 5, 9, 14 ____.
State a Rule: In response to the question: “Why is the sum of two numbers
no different if the order of adding them is reversed?” The student answers:
“Because of the commutative principle,” or “Because the order makes no
difference in addition.”
Apply a Rule: Given population data that illustrates the principle that the
standard of living decreases if population increases without corresponding
increase in production, the student could be asked to analyze the data and
tell how he/she is able to determine what effects changing population will
have upon the standard of living.
Distinguish: Given the names of ancient Greek and Roman gods paired
according to function, the student could be asked to distinguish between
them.
Estimate: Given the day of the year and the latitude, the student could be
asked to estimate the length of daylight at a particular place.
Identify: Given the name of one of the U.S. presidents, and photographs of
several, the student could be asked to identify the picture of the one which
was named.
Locate: The student could be asked to locate in time, the first battle of the
American Revolution.
Measure: Given a string and a globe with a scale of miles, the student could
be asked to measure the scaled distance between any two given points.
Name: The student could be asked to name the factors that contribute to
natural population increases.
Order: Given the names of the declared wars in which the U.S. has en-
gaged, the student could be asked to order them according to the time of
occurrence.
Predict: The student could be asked to predict the type of economy that
could be supported in described geographic regions.
Solve: Given tables of prices and costs, the student could be asked to solve
problems related to the law of diminishing returns.
Source: http://teaching.uncc.edu/resources/best-practice-articles/instructional-
methods/promoting-higher-thinkin
A. Holistic Rubrics
B. Analytic Rubrics
no practical application 1
well organized 4
adequate organization 3
clarity of
thought limited organization 2
poor organization 1
Use of mate- Manages all Uses the Mishandles Does not use
rials materials materials some of the materials
responsibly responsibly materials properly
most of the
time
Source: http://www2.gsu.edu/~mstnrhx/457/rubric.htm