FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL
Roxas City, Capiz
Summer 2021

Course No. SCIENCE 416 (Selected Topics for Science Teachers)

MAGNOLIA D. BULAO DR. JUDY GIGARE

Reporter Professor

Enhancing Higher Order Thinking Skills of Learners and Its importance to

Research

Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) is a concept popular in American education. It

distinguishes critical thinking skills from low-order learning outcomes, such as those attained by
rote memorization. HOTS include synthesizing, analyzing, reasoning, comprehending,
application, and evaluation.

HOTS is based on various taxonomies of learning, particularly the one created

by Benjamin Bloom in his 1956 book, "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of
Educational Goals." Higher-order thinking skills are reflected by the top three levels in Bloom’s
Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Bloom's Taxonomy and HOTS

Bloom’s taxonomy was designed with six

levels to promote higher-order thinking. The six
levels were: knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
(The taxonomy's levels were later revised as
remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing,
evaluating, and creating.) The lower-order thinking
skills (LOTS) involve memorization, while higher-
order thinking requires understanding and
applying that knowledge.

The top three levels of Bloom's taxonomy

—which is often displayed as a pyramid, with
ascending levels of thinking at the top of the structure—are analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
These levels of the taxonomy all involve critical or higher-order thinking. Students who are able
to think are those who can apply the knowledge and skills they have learned to new contexts.
Looking at each level demonstrates how higher-order thinking is applied in education.

Analysis

Analysis, the third level of Bloom's pyramid, involves students use their own judgment
to begin analyzing the knowledge they have learned. At this point, they begin understanding
the underlying structure of knowledge and also are able to distinguish between fact and
opinion.
Evaluation

Evaluation, involves students making judgments about the value of ideas, items, and
materials. Evaluation is the second top level of Bloom’s taxonomy pyramid because at this level
that students are expected to mentally assemble all they have learned to make informed and
sound evaluations of the material.

Creating

Creating, involves students to put elements together to form a coherent or functional

whole. Creating includes reorganizing elements into new pattern or structure through planning.
This the highest and most advanced level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

HOTS in Special Education and Reform

Children with learning disabilities can benefit from educational programming that
includes HOTS. Historically, their disabilities engendered lowered expectations from teachers
and other professionals and led to more low-order thinking goals enforced by drill and
repetition activities. However, children with learning disabilities can develop the higher-level
thinking skills that teach them how to be problem solvers. Traditional education has favored
the acquisition of knowledge, especially among elementary school-age children, over the
application of knowledge and critical thinking. Advocates believe that without a basis in
fundamental concepts, students cannot learn the skills they will need to survive in the work
world. Reform-minded educators, meanwhile, see the acquisition of problem-solving skills—
higher-order thinking—to be essential to this very outcome. Reform-minded curricula, such as
the Common Core, have been adopted by a number of states, often amid controversy from
traditional education advocates. At heart, these curricula emphasize HOTS, over strict rote
memorization as the means to help students achieve their highest potential.

One of the main 21st century components that teachers want their students to use is
higher-order thinking. This is when students use complex ways to think about what they are
learning. Higher-order thinking takes thinking to a whole new level. Students using it are
understanding higher levels rather than just memorizing facts. They would have to understand
the facts, infer them, and connect them to other concepts.

Here are 10 teaching strategies to enhance higher-order thinking skills in your students.

1. Help Determine What Higher-Order Thinking Is

Help students understand what higher-order thinking is. Explain to them what it is and
why they need it. Help them understand their own strengths and challenges. You can do this by
showing them how they can ask themselves good questions. That leads us to the next strategy.

2. Connect Concepts
Lead students through the process of how to connect one concept to another. By doing
this you are teaching them to connect what they already know with what they are learning. This
level of thinking will help students learn to make connections whenever it is possible, which will
help them gain even more understanding.

3. Teach Students to Infer

Teach students to make inferences by giving them “real-world” examples. You can start
by giving students a picture of a people standing in line at a soup kitchen. Ask them to look at
the picture and focus on the details. Then, ask them to make inferences based on what they see
in the picture. Another way to teach young students about how to infer is to teach an easy
concept like weather. Ask students to put on their raincoat and boots, then ask them to infer
what they think the weather looks like outside.

4. Encourage Questioning
A classroom where students feel free to ask questions without any negative reactions
from their peers or their teachers is a classroom where students feel free to be creative.
Encourage students to ask questions, and if for some reason you can’t get to their question
during class time, show them how they can answer it themselves or have them save the
question until the following day.

5. Use Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers provide students with a nice way to frame their thoughts in an
organized manner. By drawing diagrams or mind maps, students are able to better connect
concepts and see their relationships. This will help students develop a habit of connecting
concepts.

6. Teach Problem-Solving Strategies

Teach students to use a step-by-step method for solving problems. This way of higher-
order thinking will help them solve problems faster and more easily. Encourage students to use
alternative methods to solve problems as well as offer them different problem-solving
methods.

7. Encourage Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is when students invent, imagine, and design what they are thinking.
Using creative senses helps students process and understand information better. Research
shows that when students utilize creative higher-order thinking skills, it indeed increases their
understanding. Encourage students to think “outside of the box.”

8. Use Mind Movies

When concepts that are being learned are difficult, encourage students to create a movie in
their mind. Teach them to close their eyes and picture it like a movie playing. This way of
higher-order thinking will truly help them understand in a powerful, unique way.

9. Teach Students to Elaborate Their Answers

Higher-order thinking requires students to really understand a concept, not repeat it or
memorize it. Encourage students to elaborate their answers by asking the right questions that
make students explain their thoughts in more detail.

10. Teach QARs

Question-Answer-Relationships, or QARs, teach students to label the type of question
that is being asked and then use that information to help them formulate an answer. Students
must decipher if the answer can be found in a text or online or if they must rely on their own
prior knowledge to answer it. This strategy has been found to be effective for higher-order
thinking because students become more aware of the relationship between the information in
a text and their prior knowledge, which helps them decipher which strategy to use when they
need to seek an answer.

The Importance of Higher Order Thinking Skills in Research

Higher order thinking skills is a concept that notes on the different types of learning and
on the difference in the amount of cognitive processing. It is a way to help students think and
not just memorize and also improve their cognitive ability.
 These skills not only help a child learn but helps them use the knowledge beyond the
classroom. Through these levels, the students will see why the information that they learn is
useful and helpful in their lives. They can apply the information to solve a problem at home or
at work and gain experience with their knowledge.
 

Scientific method is an approach to seeking

knowledge that involves forming and testing a hypothesis. It
is a standardized way of making researches.

Scientific method uses all of the higher order

thinking skills. You began the method by asking a question,
then doing research, constructing a hypothesis, testing the
hypothesis through an experiment, analyzing the results
with the date obtained, drawing a conclusion, and making
corrections and expanding from the hypothesis. By using
the scientific method for every lab, not only will the
students be able to think about what they might see and
apply their knowledge to construct the experiment, but can
analyze the results and create something new through the
failures or success.

One of the most important things to do is to reflect.

Example: After each lab, the students will be required to discuss the lab with fellow students
and answer follow-up questions that will help them create and evaluate such as “What changes
would you make…?”” or “Can you assess the importance of…?”. Through reflecting and asking
themselves such questions, the students will be able to see what they did right and wrong and
think beyond what they have. They will be able to use the information they have to create
something new and apply beyond the classroom. 
 
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GODBLESS EVERYONE!!!