Higher Order Thinking skills

Respond to students' inquiries in a manner that encourages HOT

Parents and teachers can do a great deal to foster higher order thinking, even when responding to students' questions. According to Robert Sternberg, responses to students' questions can be classified into seven levels, from low to high, based on their ability to stimulate higher levels of thinking. While we would prefer not to answer every question on level seven, we would also prefer not to answer every question on levels one and two. The following list illustrates the various levels and their associated examples.

Reject the question at the first level.

"How come I'm required to consume my vegetables?"

"Put an end to your interrogation of me." "For the simple reason that I stated."

Level 2: As a response, rephrase or nearly rephrase the question.

"How come I'm required to consume my vegetables?"

"Because vegetables must be consumed."

"What is the reason for that man's irrational behaviour?"

"For the simple reason that he is insane."

"What's the matter with the temperature?"

"Because the outside temperature is only 15 degrees."

Acknowledge ignorance or provide information at

Level 3.

"I'm not sure, but that is an excellent question," as an example.

Alternatively, respond to the question with an accurate response.

Level 4: Encourage others to respond to your authority by speaking out.

"Let us conduct an internet search for that."

"Let's check the encyclopaedia for that."

"Do we know anyone who might be able to provide an answer?"

Level 5: Encourage brainstorming or alternative explanations at the fifth level.

"How come everyone in Holland is so tall?" is an example.

"How about we come up with some possible responses."

"Perhaps it is genetic, or perhaps it is dietary, or perhaps everyone in Holland wears elevator shoes, or..." and so forth.

It is critical to remember when brainstorming that all ideas are on the table. Which ones remain "keepers" and which ones are discarded is decided later.

Encourage the consideration of alternative explanations and the development of a method for evaluating them at the sixth level.

For instance: "How, then, are we to judge genetics' potential answer? Where might we obtain that data? What about dietary information? In Holland, how many elevator shoes are sold?"

Encourage consideration of alternative explanations and a method for evaluating them, as well as follow-up on evaluations at level 7.

For instance: "Okay, let's spend a few days gathering information — we'll peruse the encyclopaedia and the Internet, conduct telephone interviews, and so on. Then, the following week, we will reconvene to discuss our findings."

This method is equally effective when dealing with schoolwork and everyday issues such as how late an adolescent can stay out on a Saturday night or who gets to attend a concert. For instance, polling several randomly chosen or mutually chosen families may produce more objective results than either parent or child "skewing" the results by selecting respondents who agree with their point of view.

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