This is my presentation I put together for our PLG (Professional Learning Group) at Westlake Boys High School. How do we extend our students in order to engage them into deeper thinking and further discussions. Here is a Prezi I created for HOTS.
https://prezi.com/uikosj8yi1ht/higher-order-thinking-skills/#
There are several learning models, theories available to teachers. We constantly strive to implement strategies to empower students to think in depth and synthesise the knowledge in order to gain higher grades/excellent results. Along with the Blooms and Solo Taxonomies comes a new emphasis on the growth mindset. We must make a conscious effort not to use tools and organise activities just for the sake of it but for effective, purposeful, impactful teaching and learning.
How do we engage students and teach them the higher order thinking skills? How do we take them from prestructrual level to extended abstract? Are our learners able to identify their weaknesses and strengths and the areas they need to develop? The big Question is HOW? Inquiry based projects in Technology provide a perfect platform for HOTS. I often remind students to use the fishbone diagram. Teach students to take risks, to explore outside of their comfort zone, to give everything a go. Teach them about Moonshot Thinking.
The first step for teachers is to reflect and evaluate the strategies they use. If they are using lower order thinking skills what is that they can do or strategies they can use to encourage higher order thinking skills.
TED seems to be a lower order thinking resource but when we create a TED-Ed lesson suddenly we have the freedom to incorporate higher order thinking skills questions that encourage students to watch the video, think, dig deeper, initiate discussions and collaborate. So the next time you think of an activity, stop and think again. Ask yourself if it is going to spark students enthusiasm and ignite higher order thinking!