Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills

During a Culture War

Anthony W. Palmer MA.Azusa Pacific University

Background of Paper and my Biography

Definitions and Descriptions

The Ethical Dilemma

The Perspectives of Major Players

Ethical Perspectives

A Resolution

Question and Answer

Overview

Background of this Paper

The Ethics Paper

The Perspectives of Major Players

Ethical Perspectives

A Resolution

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York: Longmans Green.

Anderson, L. W. (86). Krathwohl (Eds.). (2001). A Taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.

Higher Order Thinking Skills Versus

Lower Order Thinking Skills

No Child Left Behind - Race to the Bottom of Blooms Taxonomy

HOTS

LOTTS

Analyzing

“Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.” (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 67)

Evaluating

“Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.”(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 67)”

Creating

“Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.” (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 68)

Texas Republican Party Platform, 2012

“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking

Skills (HOTS), (values clarification), critical

thinking skills and similar programs that are simply

a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE)

(mastery learning) which focus on behavior

modification and have the purpose of challenging

the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental

authority.”

The conflict between traditionalists and progressives over beliefs, values, and public policy.

•

Image: Johnathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind via the Chronicle of Higher Education

Bishop, B. (2009). The big sort: Why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The Percentage of Citizens with College Degrees

1990 2009

Bishop, B. (2009). The big sort: Why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Texas Republican Party Platform, 2012

“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking

Skills (HOTS), (values clarification), critical

thinking skills and similar programs that are simply

a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE)

(mastery learning) which focus on behavior

modification and have the purpose of challenging

the student's fixed beliefs and undermining

parental authority.”

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Critical Thinkin

g

21st Century Skills

Common Core State

Standards

H

The Necessity of Higher Order thinking skills

The Survival of American Democracy

Survival in a 21st Century Economy

The Survival of American Democracy

“Among American adults, a mere 20% have the capacity to

understand the nuances of politics and public policy. More

than half of the population of American adults cannot make

sense of the complex information patterns that shape public

policy” (Stoller, 2012). Higher order thinking skill are

requisite for a nuanced understanding of complicated issues

such as global climate change, the war on terrorism, and the

importance of regulating financial institutions.

The Survival of 21st Century Economy

“According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these

poll results are the same as the findings of a study of

employers done in 2006. In that study, U.S. employers

indicated that today's students are ill prepared for workplace

demands and would continue to be so until 21st-century skills

are systematically taught as part of the curriculum.”

(Rosenfeld, 2007, p.6)

The Survival of 21st Century American Economy

“Knowledge workers of the 21st century must be highly skilled in

analysis, synthesis, and evaluation” (Aloysius Sequeira, 2012, p. 1).

HOTS are not just

“the icing on the cake”,

HOTS are the cake!

Ethical Positions

Jesus Christ Immanuel Kant John Stuart Mill Altruism Categorical Imperative Utilitarianism

Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative

“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.”

(Immanuel Kant; translated by James W. Ellington [1785] (1993). Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed. Hackett. p. 30).

The Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill

“What will provide the most good for the most people?”

The Altruism of Jesus Christ

“...Love your neighbor as yourself...”

Mark 12:31 NIV

Major Players

Students

Teachers

Principals

The Texas GOP and others opposed to Higher Order Thinking Skills

Christian Perspectives On Higher Order Thinking Skills

Progressive Christianity Christian Fundamentalism

Christian Fundamentalism

Versus

Progressive Christianity

- Contextual reading of the Bible- Accommodation to Science- Ethic of Altruism - Avoid Authoritarianism

("Soul Play: What Is Progressive Christianity Exactly?". The Flip Side. University of

Wisconsin – Eau Claire.)

Progressive Christianity

“A person who is a good and true

Christian should realize that truth

belongs to his Lord, wherever it is

found, gathering and acknowledging it

even in pagan literature, but rejecting

superstitious vanities and deploring and

avoiding those who 'though they knew

God did not glorify him as God...”

- Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching II.75.

Christian Fundamentalism

- Literal reading of the Bible- Reaction against Modernity - Reaction against Science i.e. evolution, age of the Earth, sex education - Authoritarian Ethic

Torrey, R. A., Dixon, A. C., & Meyer, L. (Eds.). (2003). The fundamentals: A testimony to the truth (Vol. 3). Baker Books.

Christian

Fundamentalism “Let every soul be subject unto the

higher powers. For there is no

power but of God: the powers that

be are ordained of God. Whosoever

therefore resisteth the power,

resisteth the ordinance of God: and

they that resist shall receive to

themselves damnation.”

Romans 13:1-2 KJV

Christian

Fundamentalism Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1 KJV)

“Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything” (Colossians 3:22 KJV)

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's” (Mark 12:17 KJV)

Christian

Fundamentalism “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking

Skills (HOTS), (values clarification), critical thinking

skills and similar programs that are simply a

relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE)

(mastery learning) which focus on behavior

modification and have the purpose of challenging the

student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental

authority.”

(Texas Republican Party Platform, July

2012)

The Ethical Resolution

Educators must find a way to be faithful to the academic

standards in the context of the current culture war.

Resolution

Teachers must teach these crucial

skills, administrators should

support teachers who do and

challenge and equip those who

do not.

Resolution

School boards should defend

the teaching of Higher Order

Thinking Skills and provide a

strong, articulate, and

compelling defense of the

teaching of Higher Order

Thinking Skills to the

community.

Resolution

State Legislatures should resist

any attempt to prevent the

teaching of Higher Order

Thinking Skills. The State

Legislatures should require the

teaching of Higher Order

Thinking Skills in every school

in their respective states.

Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills

During a Culture War

Anthony W. Palmer MA.