BUKU Higher Order Thinking Skills - FJ King, Ph.D.

Higher Order
Thinking Skills
 Definition
 Teaching Strategies
 Assessment
  
FJ King, Ph.D.
Ludwika Goodson, M.S.
Faranak Rohani, Ph.D.
A publication of the Educational Services Program,

now known as the Center for Advancement of Learning and Assessment
www.cala.fsu.edu
Executive Summary
Definition
Higher order thinking skills include critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive, and creative
thinking. They are activated when individuals encounter unfamiliar problems, uncertainties,
questions, or dilemmas. Successful applications of the skills result in explanations, decisions,
performances, and products that are valid within the context of available knowledge and
experience and that promote continued growth in these and other intellectual skills. Higher
order thinking skills are grounded in lower order skills such as discriminations, simple
application and analysis, and cognitive strategies and are linked to prior knowledge of subject
matter content.
Appropriate teaching strategies and learning environments facilitate their growth as do student
persistence, self-monitoring, and open-minded, flexible attitudes.
This definition is consistent with current theories related to how higher order thinking skills
are learned and developed. Although different theoreticians and researchers use different
frameworks to describe higher order skills and how they are acquired, all frameworks are in
general agreement concerning the conditions under which they prosper.
Teaching Strategies
Lessons involving higher order thinking skills require particular clarity of communication to
reduce ambiguity and confusion and improve student attitudes about thinking tasks. Lesson
plans should include modeling of thinking skills, examples of applied thinking, and adaptations
for diverse student needs. Scaffolding (giving students support at the beginning of a lesson and
gradually requiring students to operate independently) helps students develop higher order
learning skills. However, too much or too little support can hinder development.
Higher Order Thinking Skills Page 1
Useful learning strategies include rehearsal, elaboration, organization, and metacognition.
Lessons should be specifically designed to teach specific learning strategies. Direct instruction
(teacher-centered presentations of information) should be used sparingly. Presentations should
be short (up to five minutes) and coupled with guided practice to teach subskills and
knowledge.
Teacher- and/or student-generated questions about dilemmas, novel problems, and
novel approaches should elicit answers that have not been learned already.
Sincere feedback providing immediate, specific, and corrective information should
inform learners of their progress.
Small group activities such as student discussions, peer tutoring, and cooperative
learning can be effective in the development of thinking skills. Activities should involve
challenging tasks, teacher encouragement to stay on task, and ongoing feedback about group
progress.
Computer-mediated communication and instruction can provide access to remote data
sources and allow collaboration with students in other locations. It can be effective in skill
building in areas such as verbal analogies, logical thinking, and inductive/deductive
reasoning.
Assessment
Valid assessment of higher order thinking skills requires that students be unfamiliar with the
questions or tasks they are asked to answer or perform and that they have sufficient prior
knowledge to enable them to use their higher order thinking skills in answering questions or
performing tasks. Psychological research suggests that skills taught in one domain can
generalize to others. Over long periods of time, individuals develop higher order skills

(intellectual abilities) that apply to the solutions of a broad spectrum of complex problems.

Three item/task formats are useful in measuring higher order skills: (a) selection, which
includes multiple-choice, matching, and rank-order items; (b) generation, which includes short-
answer, essay, and performance items or tasks; and (c) explanation, which involves giving
reasons for the selection or generation responses.
Classroom teachers recognize the importance of having students develop higher order skills
yet often do not assess their students’ progress. Several performance-based models are
available to assist them in teaching and assessing these skills. Comprehensive statewide
assessment of higher order skills is feasible but would be expensive. Florida and a number of
other states now incorporate the measurement of higher order skills in their statewide
assessments.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................1
Definition...............................................................................................................................................1
Teaching Strategies................................................................................................................................1
Assessment.............................................................................................................................................2
Higher Order Thinking Skills.......................................................................................................7
Definition......................................................................................................................................11
Major Concepts....................................................................................................................................11
Context.........................................................................................................................................................11
Metacognition..............................................................................................................................................11
Procedural Knowledge.................................................................................................................................12
Comprehension............................................................................................................................................12
Creativity.....................................................................................................................................................13
Insight..........................................................................................................................................................15
Intelligence...................................................................................................................................................16
Problem Solving..........................................................................................................................................16
Critical Thinking..........................................................................................................................................17
Theories Related to Learning and Higher Order Thinking Skills........................................................18
Piaget...........................................................................................................................................................19
Bruner..........................................................................................................................................................20
Bloom...........................................................................................................................................................20
Gagné...........................................................................................................................................................21
Marzano.......................................................................................................................................................21
Glaser...........................................................................................................................................................25
Vygotsky......................................................................................................................................................27
Haladyna......................................................................................................................................................27

Gardner........................................................................................................................................................28
Summary of the Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills.........................................................32
Level 1: Prerequisites..................................................................................................................................38
Level 2: Bridges..........................................................................................................................................39
Level 3: Higher Order Thinking.................................................................................................................40
Teaching Strategies......................................................................................................................41
Specific Methods and Strategies to Enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills.......................................44
Instructional Communications.....................................................................................................................44
Scaffolding...................................................................................................................................................46
Learning and Thinking Strategies................................................................................................................48
Direct Instruction.........................................................................................................................................54
Questioning Strategies.................................................................................................................................56
Feedback......................................................................................................................................................57
Team Activities............................................................................................................................................58
Computer Mediation....................................................................................................................................62
Summary of Teaching Strategies.........................................................................................................63
Classroom and Statewide Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills...............................64
Validity and Generalizability of Higher Order Thinking Skills and Dispositions...............................64
Published Measures of Higher Order Thinking Skills.........................................................................71
Item/Test Formats................................................................................................................................76
Multiple-Choice Items.................................................................................................................................76
Performance Tests........................................................................................................................................78
Portfolios......................................................................................................................................................80
Classroom Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills............................................................................81
Assessment Models..............................................................................................................................82
Baker, Aschbacher, Niemi, and Sato...........................................................................................................82

Sugrue..........................................................................................................................................................84
The Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory................................................................................88
The Advanced International Certificate of Education.................................................................................90
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.....................................................................................92
Statewide Assessment Models of Higher Order Thinking Skills.........................................................93
Sternberg......................................................................................................................................................93
Paul and Nosich...........................................................................................................................................93
The Florida Department of Education.........................................................................................................96
Pennsylvania Department of Education.......................................................................................................97
Summary of Classroom and Statewide Assessments...........................................................................99
References...................................................................................................................................103
Appendixes.................................................................................................................................118
Appendix A: Sample Teaching Assignments...................................................................................118
Appendix B: Sample Tests and Test Items.......................................................................................145
Appendix C: Other Resources...........................................................................................................164
Tables............................................................................................................................................22
Table 1: Dimensions of Thinking.......................................................................................................22
Table 2: Activities and Abilities Related to Intelligences..................................................................29
Table 3: Perspectives About Intelligence............................................................................................31
Table 4: A Sampling of Terms Associated with Higher Order Thinking...........................................34
Table 5: Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills....................................................................37
Table 6: APA Summary of Basic Principles of Learning...................................................................42

HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
The challenge of defining “thinking skills, reasoning, critical thought, and problem solving”
has been referred to as a conceptual swamp in a study by Cuban (as cited in Lewis & Smith,
1993, p. 1), and as a “century old problem” for which “there is no well-established taxonomy or
typology” (Haladyna, 1997, p. 32). In addition, explanations of how learning occurs have been
viewed as inadequate, with no single theory adequately explaining “how all learning takes
place” (Crowl, Kaminsky, & Podell, 1997, p. 23).
Several factors may account for these views about thinking and learning. First, different
types of learning require different teaching strategiesCno single method works for all learning,
although specific strategies work for specific types. Second, intelligence is no longer seen as
an unchanging general ability but rather a kaleidoscope of abilities that can be affected by a
variety of factors, including teaching strategies. Third, the understanding of the thinking
process has shifted to a multidimensional view—much more like a complex network of
interactive capabilities rather than a linear, hierarchical, or spiral process. Fourth, the research
over the last two decades has focused on more specialized topics such as insight, wait time for
problem solving, visual imagery and metaphors, and schemata.
Despite the challenges related to defining higher order thinking, educators, administrators,
and evaluators in Florida and across the nation have expressed agreement about the value of
teaching it (Carrol, 1989; Cotton, 1997; Ennis, 1993; Glaser & Resnick, 1991; Haladyna, 1997;
Howe & Warren, 1989; Huberty & Davis, 1998; Kauchak & Eggen, 1998; Kerka, 1986; King,
1997; Marzano, Brandt, Hughes, Jones, Presseisen, Rankin, & Suhor, 1988; Patrick, 1986;
Siowck-Lee, 1995; Young, 1997). There is a renewed awareness that, although information
and memory provide “a refrigerator in which to store a stock of meanings for future use,” it is

judgment that “selects and adopts the one to be used in an emergency . . .” (Dewey, 1933,
p. 125). Complex real-life problems often demand complex solutions, which are obtained
through higher level thinking processes. Teaching higher order thinking, then, provides
students with relevant life skills and offers them an added benefit of helping them improve their
content knowledge, lower order thinking, and self-esteem (DeVries & Kohlberg, 1987;
McDavitt, 1993; Son & VanSickle, 1993).
The need to set standards for higher order thinking skills has been documented throughout
the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1980s, documentation came from the National Assessment for
Educational Progress (NAEP); the National Commission on Excellence in Education in A Nation
at Risk (1984); Goodlad’s A Place Called School (1984), which focused on social studies and
science; the 1985 Commission on Reading report called Becoming a Nation of Readers
(Anderson, 1985); and the 1986 Carnegie Forum on Education and the Economy’s Task Force
on Teaching (Carnegie Corporation, 1986).
Reports written in the 1990s have documented similar results. According to Kent
Ashworth, the director of dissemination for the NAEP, little has changed in the last 20 years
(Legg, 1990).
Linn (1993) reported that the state-by-state NAEP results in mathematics signaled another
“wake-up America call, along with stumbling verbal SAT scores in the fall of 1991” (p. 2). Such
deficits stem from too much focus on lower-level objectives and not enough on meaningful
learning and higher order thinking (Raudenbush, Rowan, & Cheong, 1993; Kauchak & Eggen,
1998).
Nationwide responses to these grim reports included creation of the National Council on
Education Standards and Testing (NCEST), the Bush Administration’s America 2000 proposals
(U.S. Department of Education), and the Department of Labor’s Secretary’s Commission on

Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report. In Florida, standards for learning outcomes and
the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) series were established to shift attention to
the development of higher order thinking skills. Florida expresses the goal of enabling students
“to make well-reasoned, thoughtful, and healthy lifelong decisions” (Florida Department of
Education [DOE], 1996–97, p. 3). This goal aligns with the foundation skills and workplace
competencies from SCANS, in which education will be considered successful when each student
“thinks creatively, makes decisions, solves problems, visualizes, knows how to learn, and
reasons” (SCANS, 1991). Examples of the Florida Sunshine State Standards (Florida DOE,
1996) related to higher order thinking are listed below.
 Reading: “analyzes the validity and reliability of primary source information and uses
the information appropriately”
 Math: “uses and justifies different estimation strategies in a real-world problem
situation and determines the reasonableness of results of calculations in a given
problem situation”
 Language Arts: “selects and uses strategies to understand words and text, and to make
and confirm inferences from what is read, including interpreting diagrams, graphs,
and statistical illustrations”
 Science: “understands the interconnectedness of the systems on Earth and the quality
of life”
 Social Studies: “uses maps, globes, charts, graphs, and other geographic tools,
including map keys and symbols to gather and interpret data and to draw
conclusions about physical patterns”

In the FCAT, the focus on higher order thinking skills has been particularly noticeable in
mathematics, where word problems are more complex and address real-life situations more than
previous tests.
Several recent initiatives by the DOE have also sharpened the focus on higher order
thinking skills. In November 1997, the DOE completed an assessment feasibility study on
listening and verbal communication skills, information literacy skills, and problem-solving skills
(King, Rohani, & Goodson, 1997). This current study extends the previous and ongoing
initiatives by the DOE by reporting on the analysis of research and discourse on thinking
processes. The study has identified the major theorists and provided an overview of their
concepts and theories. To assist classroom teachers, the study provides definitions, teaching
strategies, assessment strategies for both statewide and classroom assessment, sample teaching
assignments, test questions, and an extensive resource list.
The research for this paper included searching for higher order thinking skills and related
subtopics, names associated with research on these topics, and journal titles. Electronic
searches included use of the engines on the Internet in the field of education and on-line library
files, including LUIS and OCLC. Manual searches included a review of the DOE feasibility
study on statewide assessment of problem solving, including related reference materials (King,
Rohani, & Goodson, 1997).
This paper was compiled after analyzing the key articles identified from the searches. The
major sections of this paper are (1) Definition, (2) Teaching Strategies, and (3) Classroom and
Statewide Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills.

DEFINITION
Major Concepts
Several major concepts relevant to the higher order thinking processes are to follow, based
on three assumptions about thinking and learning. First, the levels of thinking cannot be
unmeshed from the levels of learning; they involve interdependent, multiple components and
levels. Second, whether or not thinking can be learned without subject matter content is only a
theoretical point. In real life, students will learn content in both community and school
experiences, no matter what theorists conclude, and the concepts and vocabulary they learn in
the prior year will help them learn both higher order thinking skills and new content in the
coming year. Third, higher order thinking involves a variety of thinking processes applied to
complex situations and having multiple variables.
Context
The level of thinking depends upon the context, with a real-world situation offering multiple
variables to challenge thinking processes. Going through a cafeteria line and making decisions
about types and amounts of food one should eat requires a much more sophisticated thinking
process than counting carbohydrates and fats in a classroom (Crowl et al., 1997). Successful
higher order thinking depends upon an individual’s ability to apply, reorganize, and embellish
knowledge in the context of the thinking situation.
Metacognition
The self-correcting nature of thinking is called “metacognition.” Metacognition includes
awareness of one’s thinking processes, self-monitoring, and application of known heuristics
and
steps for thinking. One’s success with metacognition depends, in part, on a belief in one’s
ability to get smarter as well as the beliefs of others, such as teachers, in one’s ability (Crowl et
al., 1997).
Procedural Knowledge
Procedural knowledge sometimes is misunderstood as a higher order thinking skill. While it
may be a prerequisite for higher order thinking, it actually is a type of knowledge—specifically,
knowledge of rules and their application (Crowl et al., 1997). The ability to recite a rule or set
of procedures is “information learning”; the ability to apply a rule or procedure to a routine
single- variable situation is “application.” Neither of these capabilities involves higher order
thinking.
Instead, applications of procedural knowledge that also involve analysis and synthesis of two
or more concepts would be considered higher order thinking. Examples include
“constructing map projections and grids, writing clear and concise case reports,
calculating the fixed overhead costs for a project, designing spreadsheets, drawing
conclusions about the impact of social reform on the universality of social
programs, and establishing meaningful relationships with coworkers” (Huot, 1995,
p. 2).
Comprehension
Comprehension, a part of lower order thinking skills, is integral to higher order thinking
skills development. In fact, some research and teaching strategies focus on comprehension as
if it were within the higher order domain. While it is an important prerequisite, it is not a higher
order thinking skill. Comprehension remains the process by which individuals construct

meaning from information and form new “schemata” through specific activities (Crowl et al.,
1997), including, but not limited to,
 generating and answering questions that demand higher order thinking about old
and new ideas;
 confronting conflicting ideas and information, problems, or dilemmas;
 exploring and making discoveries;
 conducting systematic inquiries;
 summarizing, reciting, and discussing new ideas and their relationships;
 relating new understandings to other concepts;
 applying new ideas and information in basic problem-solving activities; or
 reflecting and verbalizing about cognitive processes involved in comprehension.
Creativity
Although some references do not explicitly include creativity as higher order thinking, it
cannot be unmeshed from the process. The very act of generating solutions to problems requires
the creative process of going beyond previously learned concepts and rules. Creativity involves
divergent and convergent thinking to produce new ideas (Crowl et al., 1997). Its place in the
network of higher order thinking skills was well articulated in Pasteur’s observation that “chance
favors only the prepared mind” because “only a trained mind can make connections between
unrelated events, recognize meaning in a serendipitous event,” and produce a solution that is
both novel and suitable (cited in Crowl et al., 1997, pp. 192–193).

Major features of creativity are listed below.
 Creativity involves the consistent use of basic principles or rules in new situations,
such as Benjamin Franklin’s application of conservation and equilibrium (Crowl et al.,
1997); Picasso’s creation of “Guernica,” resulting from sketches and modifications of
previous work; Watson and Crick’s discovery of the DNA double helix structure; and
Edison’s invention of an electric lighting system (Weisberg, 1995).
 Creativity involves discovering and solving problems. Innovative approaches are used
to accurately evaluate shortcomings, and actions are taken to remedy those
weaknesses (Crowl et al., 1997).
 Creativity involves selecting the relevant aspects of a problem and putting pieces
together into a coherent system that integrates the new information with what a person
already knows (Sternberg & Davidson, 1995; Crowl et al., 1997). In a basic sense, it
involves a series of decision-making choices between “two or more competing
alternatives of action,” each having “several pros and cons associated with it” (Crowl
et al., 1997, p. 169).
 Creativity overlaps with other characteristics, such as “intelligence, academic
ability, dependability, adaptiveness, and independence” and can “evolve within each
of the seven intelligences” (Crowl et al., 1997, pp. 195–196).
 Creativity requires many of the same conditions for learning as other higher order
thinking skills. The learning processes are enhanced by supportive environments and
deteriorate with fears, insecurities, and low self-esteem. Creativity deteriorates with
extrinsic motivation, restraint on choice, and the pressure of outside evaluation
(Crowl et al., 1997).

Insight
Insight is the sudden unexpected solution to a problem (Schooler, Fallshore, & Fiore, 1995).
Complexity seems to be the spark for solving problems through insight. Noninsight solutions
require using rules, while insight solutions require problem-solving and cognitive strategies
as defined by Gagné, Briggs, and Wager (1988). From another perspective, noninsight
solutions require comprehension and application, while insight solutions require analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation as defined by Bloom (1956). Other research on higher order
thinking also applies directly to the concept of insight as follows:
 Insight involves many of the same features as creativity, including examining all
factors that could be causing a problem, searching for a new way to state the problem,
finding alternative approaches, persevering, taking risks, applying broad knowledge,
and recognizing analogies (Schooler et al., 1995).
 Playfulness, creativity, and an ability to unify separate elements are major parts of
insight. Causes of impasses include failure to recognize relevant cues or patterns,
overemphasis on irrelevant cues, underemphasis of relevant cues, and searches in
the wrong spaces (Schooler et al., 1995).
 Dimensions of learning support insight in (1) both pattern recognition and reasoning
(Schooler et al., 1995), (2) the second dimension of acquiring and integrating diverse
knowledge, (3) the third dimension of extending and refining knowledge through
purposefully widened observation and reasoning, (4) the fourth dimension of making
choices among alternatives, and especially (5) the fifth dimension of developing
productive habits of mind with systematic control of reasoning and scientific
methods.

A study by Beyth-Maron (cited in Cotton, 1997) found that critical thinking
underscores the ability to make good choices.
 As with creativity, the “emotional tone of the person solving problems” affects insight
(Sternberg & Davidson, 1995, p. xi). Metacognition and cognitive strategies, such as
persevering, address the attitudes and habits of mind involved in insight (Gagné,
Briggs, & Wager, 1988; Sugrue, 1994). Motivation and fear of failure influence risk
taking and persevering (Legg, 1990).
Intelligence
In the past decade, intelligence has been defined more broadly (Crowl et al., 1997;
Kauchak & Eggen, 1998; Kirby & Kuykendall, 1991). Intelligence is
 no longer limited to the idea of a single ability or global capacity to learn, adapt,
and think rationally;
 inclusive in its general and specific abilities to embrace general
knowledge, comprehension, thinking, and problem solving;
 multidimensional in mental processes involving convergent and divergent thinking; and
 multilevel, including linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-
kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal abilities that influence one’s approaches
to problem solving and thinking.
Problem Solving
A problem is “a situation in which the individual wants to do something but does not know
the course of action needed to get what he or she wants” (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 160). The
process of problem solving requires “a series of successive decisions, each of which depends
on

the outcomes of those that precede it” (p. 189). In a review of research and reports, King,
Rohani, and Goodson (1997) have identified 31 problem-solving tasks, from problem
finding through evaluation.
Critical Thinking
Some researchers and scholars use the terms “critical thinking” and “higher order thinking”
interchangeably, while others define “critical thinking” as a form of higher order thinking.
Some use the terms “critical thinking” and “problem solving” interchangeably; yet for others,
critical thinking is a form of problem solving. Still others define “critical thinking” as a part of
the process of evaluating the evidence collected in problem solving or the results produced by
thinking creatively (Crowl et al., 1997; Lewis & Smith, 1993). Critical thinking is a particular
domain that has been defined in detail through Gubbins’ Matrix of Critical Thinking (cited in
Legg, 1990), Facione, P. (n.d.), and the McREL Institute (Marzano, R. J., and others. 1992).
Critical thinking also has been described in the following ways:
 goal-directed, reflective, and reasonable thinking, as in evaluating the evidence for
an argument for which all the relevant information may not be available (Cotton,
1997; Crowl et al., 1997; Facione, 1998; Lewis & Smith, 1993; Patrick, 1986)
 an essential component in metacognitive processes (Crowl et al., 1997)
 analysis, inference, interpretation, explanation, and self-regulation; requires inquisitive,
systematic, analytical, judicious, truth-seeking, open-minded, and confident
dispositions toward critical-thinking processes (Facione, 1998)

 the disposition to provide evidence or reasoning in support of conclusions, request
evidence or reasoning from others, and perceive the total situation and change
one’s views based on the evidence (Cotton, 1997)
Theories Related to Learning and Higher Order Thinking Skills
No one has yet explained the process of thinking much better than Dewey (1933), who
described it as a sequenced chaining of events. According to Dewey, this productive process
moves from reflection to inquiry, then to critical thought processes that, in turn, lead to a
“conclusion that can be substantiated” (p. 5) by more than personal beliefs and images.
Thought can straighten out entanglements, clear obscurities, resolve confusion, unify disparities,
answer questions, define problems, solve problems, reach goals, guide inferences, shape
predictions, form judgments, support decisions, and end controversies.
According to Dewey, thinking does not occur spontaneously but must be “evoked” by
“problems and questions” or by “some perplexity, confusion or doubt.” The observations or
“data at hand cannot supply the solution; they can only suggest it” (p. 15). Furthermore, it is this
“demand for the solution” (p. 14) that steadies and guides the entire process of reflective
thinking; the “nature of the problem fixes the end of thought, and the end controls the process of
thinking” (p. 15). Dewey’s conceptualization parallels current discussion and research about
problem solving and metacognitive strategies and the importance of teaching students to think
about their own thinking processes (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). As students become aware of
their thinking processes, they realize how their own personal makeup can play a role in how they
make their choices and interpret situations (Jacobs, 1994; Tversky & Kahneman cited in Ohio
State University, n.d.; Kahneman, Slovic, & Tversky, 1982). Factors such as culture,
experience,

preferences, desires, interests, and passions can radically alter the decision-making process
(Kahneman et al., 1982). Nevertheless, with time and more experience in systematic thinking,
individuals and groups can develop the principles to guide decision making so that “a certain
manner of interpretation gets weight, authority” as long as “the interpretation settled upon is not
controverted by subsequent events” (p. 126).
The following section provides explanations of the work of key learning theorists,
practitioners, and researchers in the field of thinking and learning. Researchers and teachers
choose from a variety of frameworks for learning, with each framework approaching learning
from simpler to more complex stages. However, the frameworks are artificial—they are only
meant to be a means of defining the thinking/learning process; they can in no way capture the
intricacies of the thinking process. “The boundaries separating the forms of complex
thinking are sometimes blurred and somewhat artificial, often reflecting the particular interest
of individual investigators” (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 170).
Piaget
According to Piaget, the developmental stages are the key to cognitive development.
School-age and adolescent children develop operational thinking and the logical and systematic
manipulation of symbols. As adolescents move into adulthood, they develop skills such as
logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts, scientific reasoning, and hypothesis testing.
These skills are the foundation for problem solving, self-reflection, and critical reasoning (Crowl
et al., 1997; Miles, 1992). Recent research shows that children perform certain tasks earlier than
Piaget claimed, vary in how rapidly they develop cognitively, and seem to be in transition longer
than in the cognitive development stages (Crowl et al., 1997). However, research also shows
that

biological development, together with instructional techniques, affects the rate of movement
from one stage of learning to the next.
Bruner
According to Bruner, learning processes involve active inquiry and discovery, inductive
reasoning, and intrinsic motivation. Stages of cognitive development are not linear; they may
occur simultaneously. Bruner introduced the “spiral curriculum” in which learners return to
previously covered topics within the context of new information learned. Both Piaget and
Bruner focus on active learning, active inquiry and discovery, inductive reasoning, intrinsic
motivation, and linkage of previously learned concepts and information to new learning. Stages
include enactive (hands-on participation), iconic (visual representations), and symbolic (symbols,
including math and science symbols) (Crowl et al., 1997).
Bloom
In each of Bloom’s three taxonomies (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor), lower
levels provide a base for higher levels of learning (Bloom, 1956; Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
Comprehension and application form linkages to higher order skills; here, the learner uses
meaningful information such as abstractions, formulas, equations, or algorithms in new
applications in new situations. Higher order skills include analysis, synthesis, and evaluation
and require mastery of previous levels, such as applying routine rules to familiar or novel
problems (McDavitt, 1993). Higher order thinking involves breaking down complex material
into parts, detecting relationships, combining new and familiar information creatively within
limits set by the context, and combining and using all previous levels in evaluating or making
judgments.
There also appears to be some interaction across taxonomies. For example, the highest level of

the psychomotor taxonomy involves the use of our body’s psychomotor, affective, and
cognitive skills to express feelings or ideas as in the planning and execution of a dance
performance or song designed to convey a particular message.
Gagné
According to Gagné, intellectual skills begin with establishing a hierarchy according to skill
complexity. Within this structure, discriminations are prerequisites for concrete and defined
concepts, simple rules, complex higher order rules, and then problem solving. Cognitive
strategies may be simple or complex (Gagné, 1985; Briggs & Wager, 1981; Gagné, Briggs, &
Wager, 1988). Attitudes and motor skills, related varieties of learning, may involve lower as
well as higher order thinking—spanning from a simple application of a tool to a complex
systems analysis and evaluation. Bloom (1956) and Gagné and Briggs (1974) allow for greater
possibilities of teaching complex skills to younger learners and the possibility that learners can
be “young” at any age, starting at lower levels and connecting to higher levels of thinking. This
variation for learning capabilities does not fit as well in Piaget’s and Bruner’s frameworks.
Marzano
To Marzano, the dimensions of thinking (Table 1) feed into dimensions of learning, both
of which build upon contributions from other scholars and researchers (Marzano et al., 1988).
For example, Gagné refers to the generalizations that describe relationships between or among
concepts as “rules” (Gagné, 1974; Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1988), while Marzano calls them
“principles” (Marzano et al., 1988, p. 37). The book Dimensions of Thinking has been designed
as a practical handbook with definitions, examples, and classroom applications.

Table 1
Dimensions of Thinking
Dimension Concept Element
Metacognition knowledge and self-control commitment, attitudes, attention
knowledge and control of types of knowledge important in metacognition: declarative,
process procedural, conditional
executive control of behavior evaluation, planning, regulation
Critical and critical thinking goals, dispositions
Creative Thinking creative thinking intense desire and preparation, internal rather than external
locus of evaluation, reframing ideas, getting away from
intensive engagement to allow free-flowing thought
critical and creative thinking application
Thinking concept formation labels, levels
Processes principle formation cause-and-effect, correlational, probability, axiomatic, and
fundamental principles
comprehension processes, strategies
problem solving processes, strategies
decision making models, processes
research (scientific inquiry) describing phenomena, testing hypotheses
composition planning, translating, reviewing
oral discourse process, application
relationships between processes
and skills
Core Thinking focusing defining problems, setting goals
Skills
information gathering observing, formulating questions
remembering encoding, recalling
organizing comparing, classifying, ordering, representing
analyzing identifying attributes and components, relationships and
patterns, main ideas, errors
generating inferring, predicting, elaborating
integrating summarizing, restructuring
evaluating establishing criteria: a philosophical perspective
generalizations about thinking
and skills instruction
Relationship of content areas as schema types of schema
Content Area dependent
Knowledge to content areas as models and tasks, systems
Thinking metaphors
content areas as changing from simple to complex and diverse, hierarchical to
bodies of knowledge heterarchical, mechanical to holographic, determinate to
indeterminate, linear to mutual causality, assembly to
morphonenesis, objective to perspective
content areas as special conditions needed
approaches to investigation

Dimensions of learning (McREL, 1997) evolved from constructs expressed by scholars
and researchers in a 1988 framework on dimensions of thinking (Marzano et al., 1988) and the
follow-up experiences of educators in classroom situations (Huot, 1995). These dimensions
parallel early concepts expressed by Dewey (1933).
Rather than differentiate levels of thinking skills, the dimensions of learning establish
a learner-centered framework with
. . . a set of practical, research-based instructional strategies that infuse critical thinking
and self-directed learning into curriculum and instruction; a flexible planning approach
that allows teachers to focus on (1) knowledge to be learned, (2) broad issues and their
applications to contemporary life, and (3) the meaningful use of knowledge (Huot,
1995, p. 1)
Educators have used the dimensions of learning as a resource for instructional strategies,
managing school improvement, planning instruction and assessment, making systematic
reforms, and defining what students must be able to do in order to solve problems and make
decisions in many situations (McREL, 1997). In studies conducted by Huot (1995), Marzano et
al. (1988), and McREL (1997), the dimensions of learning are identified as follows.
 Dimension 1: fostering positive attitudes and perceptions about learning in a
supportive and safe learning environment
(Dewey [1933] emphasized open-mindedness, wholeheartedness, and responsibility
for thinking in environments of freedom, curiosity, variety, spontaneity, and novelty,
and with joyful, structured, and integrated learning about thinking in all subjects.)

 Dimension 2: acquiring and integrating knowledge, with emphasis on
procedural knowledge
(Dewey [1933] explained that thinking must include access to “past experience and a
fund of relevant knowledge” [p. 15] to unravel confusion or generate a solution; it
requires integration of character and mind through infusion of intellectual subjects
with “so-called ‘informational’ subjects” [p. 278]; students use what they already
know to attend to new knowledge [p. 68].)
 Dimension 3: extending and refining knowledge through thinking
(Dewey [1933] emphasized that changes in knowledge and belief rest upon careful
and extensive study, purposeful widening of the area of observation, reasoning out the
conclusions of alternative conceptions and “personal examination, scrutiny, and
inquiry” [p. 8].)
 Dimension 4: using knowledge in meaningful tasks, including systems analysis
(ecosystems, systems of government, number systems, etc.) and authentic tasks over
a period of time
(Dewey [1933] observed that students use the power of thought to enrich meaning
[pp. 17–23] and cannot learn to think via drill and practice on isolated tasks that have
nothing in common with or too much familiarity with their earlier life experiences
[p. 68]; students learn best “when something beyond their ken is introduced” [p. 289]
to which they can apply “the old, the near, the accustomed” [p. 290].)
 Dimension 5: developing habits of mind that help one organize new information,
think, and learn, such as seeking accuracy, avoiding impulsiveness, and persisting when
answers are not apparent

(Dewey [1933] proposed that “correct habits of reflection” are a central factor in
thinking, involving systematic movement from one thought to another, instead of an
“irresponsible stream of fancies”; noting or observing facts instead of just
“something
. . . brought to mind”; using quality proof and logic as the “basis of belief,” and
carefully looking into things, instead of reckless or impatient glances “over the surface”;
following up ideas and outcomes of discovery instead of “haphazard, grasshopper-like”
guessing; and “suspending judgments till inferences have been tested by the
examination of evidence” instead of “whim, emotion, or accidental circumstances”
[pp. 4, 910, 89, 165178].)
The McREL Institute makes the dimensions framework a practical tool by offering a
teacher’s manual, a newsletter, and other resources to teachers that link their teaching strategies
in the dimensions to standards and benchmarks. These resources show teachers how to apply the
dimensions in real classroom situations and how to integrate the dimensions in curriculum
frameworks across a variety of subject areas. Tips on how to apply the dimensions are specific
and evolve from a dialogue with teachers entrenched in the process of learning. Marzano’s 1994
book, Assessing Student Outcomes: Performance Assessment Using the Dimensions of Learning,
includes a detailed list of questions corresponding to each reasoning process.
Glaser
Much of the structure and information in “dimensions of thinking” and “dimensions of
learning” relates not just to the work of Dewey (1933) but also to Glaser (1941). Glaser
drew upon concepts articulated by Dewey and reported research from the 1930s and 1940s.
Their work, together with contemporary research, shows the stability of several major

concepts for

higher order thinking. Glaser reported that the type of thinking required for problem solving
originates in a perceived difficulty, state of doubt, or perplexity. It begins with “making
acquaintance with the particular facts that create a need for definition and generalization,” in
order to see “the correct difficulty to be overcome” (p. 23), not with “definitions, rules, general
principles, classifications, and the like” (Dewey, p. 186). Furthermore, the way a problem is
“apprehended or defined limits the kind of answers that will occur to the thinker. To get out of
the rut requires a reformulation of the issue” (Glaser, p. 25). This perspective suggests that
higher order thinking involves more than a simple hierarchy or continuum. The importance of
dispositions like attitudes and habits of mind also come into play in steering the thinking process
in the right direction or taking it off course through aberrations of analysis, selection,
association, inference, generalization, and language comprehension (pp. 26–29), such as
 ambiguity or misunderstanding of directions, word elements or language, or simple
lack of information, material, or statements beyond the educational level of the
individual;
 habits of thinking, false analogies, and logical errors; previously conceived
orientations, rigid mind sets, and the tendency to block the correct response; perhaps
egocentric perceptions of relationships, particularly by young children; or to read one’s
own beliefs or prejudices into interpretations; and
 failing to see what has to be solved; to isolate and define values of a problem; to
consider all data, fallacies of inspection, observation, generalization, and confusion;
and the influence of feelings and temporary physiological conditions.

Vygotsky
Vygotsky (cited in Crowl et al., 1997) seems to have consolidated major concepts
of cognitive development.
 Cognitive development progresses as children learn; biological maturity accounts
for “elementary processes” such as reflexive responses.
 When learning a specific skill, students also perceive the underlying principles.
 Social interaction and social culture play major roles in learning and cognitive
development; children internalize knowledge most efficiently when others, such as
teachers, parents, or peers, guide and assist them; significant people in an
individual’s life contribute to the development of “higher mental functions”; people’s
cognitive processes function differently when working on their own versus working
in groups.
 Everyone has a “zone of proximal development,” and asking certain questions or
giving suggestions will move the individual toward potentially higher levels; such
support helps students in solving problems until they can solve them independently and
may include hints, questions, behavior modeling, rewards, feedback, information
giving, self-talk, or peer tutoring (pp. 69–71).
Haladyna
Haladyna (1997) expressed the complexity of thinking and learning dimensions by
classifying four levels of mental processes (understanding, problem solving, critical thinking,
and creativity) that can be applied to four types of content (facts, concepts, principles, and
procedures). Applying a set of skills across dimensions of content fits well with the actual

complex, recursive, and systemic processes of higher order thinking. Although his
terminology often varies from other theorists’, the territory is similar:
Haladyna’s terms Gagné’s terms Bloom’s terms
facts information knowledge
concepts concepts comprehension
principles, procedures rules application
critical thinking problem solving synthesis and evaluation
creativity no direct match no direct match
Gardner
According to Gardner (1983), multiple intelligences form a major part of an individual’s
dispositions and abilities. These intelligences are independent of each other and account for
the spectrum of abilities used in different fields of work, such as teaching, surgery, athletics,
dancing, art, or psychotherapy.
Gardner’s theory, which regards intelligence as having seven dimensions (Table 2), has
been receiving recent attention related to teaching (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Schools are
shifting curricula and teaching methods to accommodate the diverse abilities and talents of
students (Crowl et al., 1997). Teachers may have a greater impact by creating lessons that “use
the various types of intelligence in classroom activities” (p. 187).

Table 2
Activities and Abilities Related to Intelligences
Types of Intelligence Forms and Textures
linguistic-verbal language, rhythms, inflections, meaning, and order of words

(stories, books, humor, rhymes, songs)
logical-mathematical reasoning with strings and patterns of symbols (pattern
blocks, activities to form numbers and letters, building,
measuring, cooking, gardening, other math-logic applications)
musical pitch, melody, tone, and sound movements in time (rhythm
sticks, varieties of music, interaction with musicians, dance
exercises)
spatial visual perception, transformation, modification, and creations
(colors, shapes, spaces, games with movement and
coordination)
bodily-kinesthetic body motion and manipulation of objects (games with
movement and manipulation, hands-on projects, dance
exercises, sports, tactile activities)
interpersonal relationships with others (cooperative games or exercises,
peer or paired activities, public performances, conversation,
exercises to focus on sensitivity to diverse needs)
intrapersonal knowledge of self (exercises to express and acknowledge
feelings, possibly journals or speeches or drawings; resources
and exercises to identify and analyze one’s own thinking
processes, skills, interests, and feelings)
Although Gardner is commonly credited with theories related to multiple intelligences,
others also have developed models of thinking that reflect the multifaceted nature of intelligence.
Table 3 shows a variety of models reflecting specific abilities: Gardner’s multiple intelligences,
Guilford’s structure of intellect, and Sternberg’s triarchic theory. Some of the abilities associated
with the different types of intelligence include forms of thinking, reasoning, and problem
solving.
Certain components of models or theories of intelligence are similar to factors identified in
models and theories of learning. For example, Guilford’s products (cited in Crowl et al., 1997,
p. 184) resemble the learning outcomes described by Gagné, Briggs, and Wager (1988). “Units”

are like the lower levels of discriminations and verbal information, “classes” are like the
classification of concepts, “relations” are like the rules formed by relating one concept to
another, and “systems” are like the systems of rules integrated into problem-solving strategies.
Similarly, Guilford’s “content areas” are ways of receiving and perceiving information and
instruction, and Guilford’s “operations” parallel the mental processes that teaching strategies
attempt to influence. There also are parallels with the notion of learning capabilities, in that
Gagné and Briggs refer to stating, classifying, demonstrating, generating, and originating as the
functions associated with different learning outcomes (i.e., stating verbal information,
classifying concepts, demonstrating rules, generating problem solving, and originating cognitive
strategies). These functional terms guide instructional designers in their specification of learning
strategies and test items and have meanings that are similar to Guilford’s terms of cognition,
memory retention, memory recording, and divergent and convergent production.

Table 3
Perspectives About Intelligence
STRUCTURE OF THE INTELLECT

(Guilford cited in Crowl et al., 1997, p. 184)
Operations (Mental Processes) Content (Type of Information) Products (Outcomes)
Cognition
Visual Units
Memory retention
Auditory Classes
Memory
Symbolic Relations
recording
Semantic Systems
Divergent production
Behavioral Transformations
Convergent production
Implications
Evaluation
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
(Gardner, Gardner & Hatch; all cited in Crowl et al., 1997, p. 185; Armstrong; Gardner; Gardner & Hatch; Sternberg;
cited in Kauchak & Eggen, 1998, pp. 27–30)
Intelligence Abilities
Linguistic-verbal
Sensitive use and awareness of language
Logical-mathematical
Reason, recognize, and manipulate logical-mathematical
Musical
patterns Appreciate and produce musical pitch, melody, and
Spatial
tone Perceive and transform perceptions
Bodily-kinesthetic
Use and control the body and objects
Interpersonal
Sense needs, thoughts, and feelings of others
Intrapersonal
Recognize and respond to one’s own needs, thoughts, and feelings
TRIARCHIC THEORY
(Sternberg cited in Crowl et al., 1997, p. 185)
Aspects of Intelligence Focus
Componential
Metacomponents to organize and monitor one’s thinking
Performance components to recognize and perform
Knowledge-acquisition to organize and comprehend information
Experiential
Ways to confront new and unfamiliar situations
Ways to cope with novel or unfamiliar situations
Automatization of familiar task behaviors to reduce demands for mental
capacity during problem-solving operations
Contextual
Ability to adapt, select, or shape the environment in order to succeed

It is often difficult to distinguish intelligence from the higher order thinking processes.
McPeck (1990), in examining the dimensions of critical thinking as defined by Watson and
Glaser, found the characteristics identified “to be very similar to what we normally mean by
general scholastic ability, or intelligence” (p. 23). This observation illustrates the type of
interdisciplinary extensions that have been occurring through dialogue and research about how
to describe “the intimate connection between the kinds of knowledge and their corresponding
kinds of skills” (p. 28). McPeck concludes that it is just as important to teach the structure of a
discipline (p. 49) as to teach thinking skills, and that “most problems are in fact
‘multicategorical’ and not domain-specific” (p. 113).
The concept of multiple dimensions of thinking has long-standing stability in teaching and
learning when viewed in a larger context. For example, Symonds, in his 1936 book Education
and the Psychology of Thinking, stated that “Thinking is not the application of independent
units, one at a time, but rather a skillfully conducted interplay of habits and skills” (as cited in
Glaser, 1941, pp. 6667). This skillful interplay of habits and skills matches the concepts of
Dewey (1933) as well as the more contemporary “dimensions of learning” of McREL (1997).
Another dimension, “content and context,” provides the individual with something to think
about, but serves primarily as “the vehicle that carries” the thinking skills (Fogarty & McTighe,
1993,
p. 161).
Summary of the Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills
Higher order thinking includes critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive, and creative
thinking. These skills are activated when students of any age encounter unfamiliar
problems, uncertainties, questions, or dilemmas. Successful applications of these skills

result in

explanations, decisions, performances, and products that are valid within the context of
available knowledge and experience, and promote continued growth in higher order thinking, as
well as other intellectual skills.
Terms used to describe higher order thinking have been diverse. Some of the key
definitions are provided in Table 4.

Table 4
A Sampling of Terms Associated with Higher Order Thinking
Terms Descriptions
cognition the “mental operations involved in thinking; the biological/neurological processes of the brain
that facilitate thought” (Alvino cited in Cotton, 1997, p. 3); “all of our mental processes, such as
perception, memory, and judgment” (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 36)
comprehension the process by which individuals “construct meaning from incoming information” (Crowl et al.,
1997, p. 149)
creative generating and producing ideas through brainstorming, visualizing, associating relationships,
thinking making analogies, inventing, inferring, and generalizing (Fogarty & McTighe, 1993)
critical an attitude of suspended judgment, logical inquiry, problem solving, evaluative decision or
thinking action (National Council on Teacher Education’s [NCTE] Committee on Critical Thinking and
the Language Arts as cited in Carrol, n.d.); skillful, responsible thinking that facilitates good
judgment, relies upon criteria, is self-correcting and sensitive to context (Lipman cited in Legg,
1990); skepticism, curiosity; questioning of beliefs, aims, definitions, conclusions, actions,
appraisal of frameworks or sets of criteria by which judgments are made (Patrick, 1986)
graphic frame an organizing pattern to visually represent relationships; serves as a medium for organizing new
information and patterns of relationships (e.g., flowcharts, cartoons, symbols, diagrams, time
lines, grids, graphs, concept maps, chains, towers, circles, pyramids, boxes) (Clarke, 1990)
higher order understanding of facts, concepts, principles, and procedures (Haladyna, 1997); analysis,
thinking synthesis, and evaluation (Bloom, 1956)
inquiry investigating beliefs or forms of knowledge, taking care to consider the grounds that support
them and the conclusions drawn from them (Dewey, 1933)
insight “seeing” a correct solution; sudden coherency or change in perceptions, feeling, thought (Gruber,
1995); the “aha” experience, from a state of not knowing to knowing (Gick & Lockhart, 1995)
metacognition mental process of being aware of monitoring, supervising, organizing, and making executive
decisions about one’s own thinking process (Crowl et al., 1997); thinking about thinking, the use
of information and strategies to solve problems (Pogrow, 1990; Pogrow & Buchanan, 1985);
mind’s management system; ability of the mind to control its own processing of how we think
(Sternberg; Gagné; Flavell; Presseisen; all cited in Costa, 1990)
problem application of more than one rule/more than four concepts to solve problems to situations
solving with multiple variables, multiple relationships (King, Rohani, & Goodson, 1997); combines
two or more rules to solve a problem (Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1988)
rational the interdependent skills of creative thinking, critical thinking, and problem solving (Ennis cited
thinking in Lewis & Smith, 1993)
scaffolding support and guidance gradually removed until one can work independently (Rogoff; Rogoff,
Malkin, & Gilbride cited in Crowl et al., 1997)
schemata systems of relationships between concepts (Crowl et al., 1997); complex networks of
related knowledge (Rumelhart cited in Costa, 1990); cluster of knowledge associated with a
type of problem; typical solution procedures (Gick & Lockhart, 1995)
scripts simple routines developed through repeated practice of elaborate reasoning procedures
(Galambos cited in Costa, 1990)
transfer “the ability to apply thinking skills taught separately to any subject” (Alvino cited in Cotton,
1997, p. 3)

Higher order thinking skills are grounded in lower order skills such as discriminations,
simple application and analysis, and cognitive strategies and linked to prior knowledge of
subject matter content (vocabulary, procedural knowledge, and reasoning patterns). Appropriate
teaching strategies and learning environments facilitate the growth of higher order thinking
ability as do student persistence, self-monitoring, and open-minded, flexible attitudes.
In higher order thinking, the path is not clear in advance, nor readily visible from any single
vantage point. The process involves interpretation about uncertainty using multiple and
sometimes conflicting criteria. It often yields multiple solutions, with self-regulation of
thinking, to impose meaning and find structure in disorder (Clarke, 1990). However, the higher
order thinking process and its value are best described by Lewis and Smith (1993).
Higher order thinking occurs when a person takes new information and information
stored in memory and interrelates and/or rearranges and extends this information to
achieve a purpose or find possible answers in perplexing situations. A variety of
purposes can be achieved through higher order thinking . . . deciding what to believe;
deciding what to do; creating a new idea, a new object, or an artistic expression;
making a prediction; and solving a nonroutine problem. (p. 136)
Table 5 is a synthesis of research related to the development of higher order thinking
skills. Despite the different names theorists have given to the elements of thinking skills
development, the fundamental process is the same. This framework describes a process in
which students are challenged to interpret, analyze, or manipulate information. It involves the
filling in of information that is missing from a logical sequence, extending an incomplete
argument or

evidence, and rearranging the information to effect a new interpretation by moving through
a series of interconnected steps (Lewis & Smith, 1993).

Table 5
Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills
LEVEL 3: HIGHER ORDER THINKING
Situations  Skills
situations of multiple categories, multidimensional skills of applying
 outcomes Outcomes
that are created through
for which the student has not more than one rule or transforming thinking processes, not generated
learned answers, preferably known concepts or rules to fit the from rote responses of prior learning
real- life context situation experiences
 ambiguities  complex analysis  arguments  performances
 challenges  creative thinking  compositions  plans
 confusions  critical thinking  conclusions  predictions
 dilemmas  decision making  confirmations  priorities
 discrepancies  evaluation  decisions  probabilities
 doubt  logical thinking  discoveries  problems
 obstacles  metacognitive thinking  estimates  products
 paradoxes  problem solving  explanations  recommendations
 problems  reflective thinking  hypotheses  representations
 puzzles  scientific experimentation  insights  resolutions
 questions  scientific inquiry  inventions  results
 uncertainties  synthesis  judgments  solutions
 systems analysis

LEVEL 2: BRIDGES—Connecting Networks and Operations
Linkages 
extension of prior learning to network,
Schemata
guidance,
organization,
Scaffolding
structure, visual and verbal
new context and higher order representation, or architecture for representations, modeling of higher
skills—may require mastery or organizing new learning order thinking
automatization of prior
learning

LEVEL 1: PREREQUISITES
Content and Context

 subject area content  Lower Order Thinking Skills  Dispositions and Abilities
 cognitive strategies  attitudes, adaptiveness, tolerance for
(vocabulary, structure,
concept definitions,  comprehension risk, flexibility, openness
procedural knowledge,  concept classification  cognitive styles (e.g., field
reasoning patterns)  discriminations dependence, locus of control, response
 routine rule using rates)
 thinking terms,
structures, strategies,  simple analysis  habits of mind (persistence,
errors, fallacies  simple application self- monitoring, self-reflection)
 teaching strategies  multiple intelligences (linguistic-
and learning verbal, logical-mathematical,
environment (safe, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic,
motivating, interpersonal, intrapersonal)
supportive)

Level 1: Prerequisites
The extent to which students develop higher order thinking ability depends upon how
content and context interplay with students’ lower order thinking skills, dispositions, and
abilities. In lesson planning, the teacher may sometimes find it difficult to distinguish the
highest level in the “lower order” category from the lowest level in the “higher order” category.
After all, thinking skills are not actually as separate as individual “building blocks,” even though
scholars and researchers often use such metaphors. Nonetheless, mastery of content and lower
order thinking are particularly important prerequisites to higher order thinking according to
Gagné, Briggs, and Wager (1988):
Any lesser degree of learning of prerequisites will result in puzzlement, delay,
inefficient trial and error at best, and in failure, frustration, or termination of effort
toward further learning at the worst.......Lesson planning which utilizes the hierarchy
of
intellectual skills may also provide for diagnosis of learning difficulties. (p. 222)
Students’ innate intelligences, learning environment, and use of lower order thinking skills
can affect their cognitive development. In Table 5, cognitive strategies, which might have been
placed in the connecting network (Level 2), appear as part of lower order thinking skills
(Level 1). They “often intrinsically possess a simple structure,” such as underlining main ideas,
outlining, and paraphrasing (Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1988, p. 70). Other examples include the
use of mnemonic devices, imagery, analogies, or metaphors to simplify recall of information.
Dispositions and abilities play key parts of the thinking process. Marzano (1993)
describes one set of dispositions as “habits of mind.” These include seeking accuracy and
clarity, being open-minded, restraining impulsiveness, and taking a position or direction, as

well as self-

regulation, critical thinking, and creative thinking. Other researchers treat self-regulation as part
of metacognition, and critical and creative thinking as separate dimensions (Fogarty &
McTighe, 1993).
Level 2: Bridges
Connecting networks and operations help provide the bridge to higher levels of thinking.
Altogether, the dimensions of content and context, lower order thinking, and dispositions and
abilities help to develop the schemata, connections, and scaffolding for the connecting
networks and operations. When students link prior learning to new contexts, tap into their own
schemata, and have the proper scaffolding for new information, they move toward higher order
thinking. Students “broaden their knowledge of the world by building relationships among
different concepts” (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 148), and when combined, these relationships form
rules that are the major prerequisites for higher order rule using and problem solving (Gagné,
Briggs, & Wager, 1988).
Bridges from lower to higher order thinking are created by interweaving thinking activities
with content through “elaborating the given material, making inferences beyond what is
explicitly presented, building adequate representations, analyzing and constructing
relationships” (Lewis & Smith, 1993, p. 133). For example, in understanding reading material,
students become involved in making inferences and using information that goes beyond what is
written, thus interweaving lower and higher order thinking with the content of the material.
Linkages from the connecting networks are critical because “in very simple terms, we remember
those things for which we have made many linkages” (Marzano, 1993, p. 156). “It is mainly the

content that begins in relatively simple forms and grows towards complexity. . . the nature of
thinking does not change . . . but adapts to increasing challenge” (Clarke, 1990, p. 24).
Level 3: Higher Order Thinking
Situations, skills, and outcomes are the components that challenge the thinker to do higher
order thinking. Some interpretations might have placed metacognitive thinking as part of the
connecting network; however, in Table 5 it appears as one of the higher order thinking skills.
The contemporary concept of metacognition actually comes from Sternberg’s (cited in Crowl et
al., 1997) triarchic theory of intelligence. This theory includes the components of thinking,
approaches to experiences, and context of responses to problem-solving situations. The three
parts of the triarchic theory are the componential aspect, the experiential aspect, and the
contextual aspect.
Metacognitive strategies are complex. They include problem finding, defined by Bruner
(cited in Gagné, Briggs, & Wager, 1988) as a task requiring the location of incompleteness,
anomaly, trouble, inequity, and contradiction. They link problem finding and creativity through
activities of planning, self-monitoring of progress, and self-adjustments to problem-solving
strategies (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995, p. 276; Young, 1997).

TEACHING STRATEGIES
Some fundamental principles of learning should guide all teaching strategies, whether
focused on higher order or lower order thinking. The American Psychological Association
(APA) summarized recent changes in perspectives on learning in a report entitled Learner-
Centered Psychological Principles: Guidelines for School Redesign and Reform (Presidential
Task Force on Psychology in Education, cited in Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).

Table 6
APA Summary of Basic Principles of Learning
Nature of Learning Learners freely and actively pursue personally meaningful goals and
construct meaning through internal mediation, discovery, perceptions,
thoughts, and beliefs.
Goals of Learning Learners seek meaningful, coherent representations of knowledge.
Construction of Knowledge Learners link new information and its meaning with past and future-
oriented knowledge.
Higher Order Thinking Metacognition facilitates creative thinking, critical thinking, and
development of expertise.
Motivational Influences Motivation for learning results from individual beliefs about personal
control, competence, and expectations for success or failure; ability;
clarity and saliency of values, interests, and goals; and general feelings
and mental states.
Intrinsic Motivation Learners have natural enthusiasm, curiosity, and joy for learning that
can be undermined by fear of failure, insecurity, self-consciousness,
fear of punishment, or ridicule.
Motivational Learning Tasks Relevant and authentic learning tasks of optimal difficulty and novelty
for the individual student will stimulate curiosity, creativity, and higher
order thinking.
Constraints and Genetic and environmental factors affect physical, intellectual,

Opportunities emotional, and social development.
Social Acceptance and Respectful, caring relationships that express belief in individual
Self-Esteem potential, appreciation of individual talents, and acceptance of
individuality will lead to greater learning and self-esteem.
Individual Differences Learners have different capabilities and ways of learning due to
environment and heredity; basic principles of learning, motivation, and
effective instruction apply to all learners.
Cognitive Filters Learners construct reality and interpret life experiences filtered through
their personal beliefs, thoughts, and understandings.
These principles suggest that learning is a very individual activity—goals and learning tasks
that are meaningful for one teacher or learner may not be meaningful for another. In the learning
process, individuals seek coherent representations of knowledge that both fit into what they

already know and also have future usefulness. How well they progress depends in great part
upon the teacher; the climate the teacher establishes and the instructional strategies the teacher
uses can motivate students to learn and think on higher levels.
A major factor in the growth of higher order thinking capability is a student-centered
classroom. It supports the open expression of ideas, provides active modeling of thinking
processes, develops thinking skills, and motivates students to learn. Without it, students will not
persist in higher level thinking processes. In this open environment, a teacher’s awareness of
student motivation can dramatically affect a student’s progress. A teacher who incorrectly
assumes that a student lacks motivation to think at a higher level may miss the real reason for
nonperformance—a lack of prerequisite knowledge and skills or lack of interest in the content or
activities; or the teacher may not understand that a learner’s motivation is sometimes influenced
by cultural differences of values placed on learning (however, motivational differences are not
due to race, ethnicity, or economic status) (Crowl et al., 1997).
In the student-centered environment, great expectations lead to greater achievement.
Teachers who expect more of their students express more positive interactions; smile more
frequently; use more eye contact; have closer proximity to students; provide clearer and more
thorough explanations; give more enthusiastic instruction and follow-up questions; require more
complete and accurate answers; provide more prompting and encouragement; allow more time
to answer questions; and give more praise, less criticism, more complete feedback, and more
conceptual evaluations (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
The teacher avoids comparing students with each other. Constructive critical responses
to student work are meant to provide strategies to overcome a student’s learning difficulty—
“procedures such as displaying students’ grades, exhibiting student assignments, or sharing in

other ways the accomplishments of successful students decrease rather than increase the
motivation level of low-achieving students” (Crowl et al., 1997, pp. 246, 248). The successful
teacher conveys the message that “making mistakes is okay; in fact, it is an important part of
learning” (p. 273).
In lesson planning, the teacher sets appropriate short- and long-term instructional goals
because unrealistic expectations can increase anxiety. Students will persist in achieving goals
that are “challenging, specific, and attainable in the near future” through reasonable effort and
persistence (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 241). There is no busywork in this student-centered,
thinking classroom, and student progress is monitored using several methods—not just tests.
Specific Methods and Strategies to Enhance

Higher Order Thinking Skills
Once the teacher establishes the student-centered classroom and creates a framework for
incorporating thinking skills into lessons, he or she can then consider strategies and methods
that can enhance students’ thinking ability.
Instructional Communications
To reduce the risks of ambiguity and confusion and improve student attitudes about
thinking tasks, the teacher should provide students clear instructions for assignments as
suggested in the studies by Hines, Cruickshank, and Kennedy; and Snyder et al. (all cited in
Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). For this reason, careful lesson planning is essential. Factors to
consider in lesson planning include organization of activities, clarity of explanations, modeling
of thinking skills in action, examples of applied thinking, feedback on student thinking
processes, instructional alignment of objectives and activities, and adaptations for diverse
student needs.
Kauchak and Eggen (1998) found that the following strategies contribute to the
particular kinds of instructional communications necessary for developing higher order
thinking skills.
1. Align learning goals, objectives, content ideas and skills, learning tasks,
assessment activities, and materials and aids.
2. Establish organized activities and routines.
a. Prepare a task analysis of the thinking skill to be learned: identify the particular
thinking skill to be learned, the prerequisite knowledge and skills, the sequence
of related subskills, and the readiness of students to learn (diagnosis of
prerequisite knowledge and skills).
b. Prepare sample problems, examples, and explanations.
c. Prepare questions that go beyond simple recall of factual information to focus
on advanced levels of comprehension, such as How? Why? and How well?
d. Plan strategies for diagnosis, guidance, practice, and remediation.
e. Explain and follow established routines, such as starting on time and following
the planned sequence of activities.
f. Convey enthusiasm, genuine interest in a topic, warmth, and a businesslike
approach with thorough preparation and organization, minimal transition
time between activities, clear expectations, and a comfortable, nonthreatening
atmosphere.
3. Explain the task clearly.
a. Set goals at the beginning of an assignment.
b. Provide examples of finished products.

c. Avoid vague, ambiguous terminology such as “might,” “a little more,”
“some,” “usually,” and “probably.” These terms suggest disorganization, lack
of preparation, and nervousness.
d. Introduce tasks with a clear and simple organizing framework such as a
diagram, chart, preview, or one paragraph overview.
e. Introduce key concepts and terms before further explanation and study.
f. Use questions that focus attention on important information.
g. Give emphasis with verbal statements, nonverbal behaviors, repetition, and
written signals.
h. Make ideas vivid with pictures, diagrams, examples, demonstrations, models,
and other devices.
4. Give transition signals to communicate that one idea is ending and another is beginning.
5. Provide feedback at frequent intervals with a corrective feedback to clarify incorrect
or partially incorrect responses.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding involves giving students support at the beginning of a lesson and then
gradually turning over responsibility to the students to operate on their own (Slavin, 1995). This
limited temporary support helps students develop higher order thinking skills. It functions in
much the same way that scaffolding does when providing safety and access for a window
washer or painter. However, scaffolding must be limited to “only enough support so that
learners make progress on their own” (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998, p. 313). Too much or too little
support can interfere in the development of higher order thinking skills. For example, when
teachers give

students help even though the students do not ask for it, as reported in a study by Graham
(cited in Crowl et al., 1997), students get the message that they cannot do the task on their
own.
Students differ in the ways that they organize knowledge and events in their memories (also
known as their “schemata” or “script knowledge”). These differences influence how they
understand current information and events and are “partially explained by cultural background”
(Crowl et al., 1997, p. 98), but are not fixed. Scaffolding can change the schemata and scripts
by which students learn new information and skills (Crowl et al., 1997). The following strategies
provide the type of structural support needed for developing thinking skills.
1. Use scaffolding at the following times (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998):
a. During initial learning, use scaffolding along with a variety of examples to
describe the thinking processes involved.
b. Use scaffolding only when needed, by first checking for understanding and,
if necessary, providing additional examples and explanations.
c. Use scaffolding to build on student strengths and accommodate weaknesses.
2. Provide structured representations and discussions of thinking tasks.
a. Visually represent and organize problems in concrete examples such as drawings,
graphs, tables, hierarchies, or tables (Clarke, 1990; Crowl et al., 1997; Kauchak
& Eggen, 1998).
b. Demonstrate how to break up a thought problem into convenient steps, using
a number of examples and encouraging students to suggest additional
examples (Glaser, 1941).

c. Discuss examples of problems and solutions, explaining the nature of problems in
detail and relating the worked-out solutions to the problems. This practice
reduces the student’s need for additional teacher assistance (Kauchak & Eggen,
1998).
3. Provide opportunities for practice in solving problems (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998;
Howe & Warren, 1989).
a. Provide teacher-directed practice before independent practice, spot-checking
progress on practice and providing short responses of less than 30 seconds to
any single request for assistance (Fisher et al.; McGreal; both cited in Kauchak
& Eggen, 1998).
b. Assign frequent, short homework assignments that are logical extensions of
classroom work (not more than 20 minutes for elementary students; 10 problems
a night works better than 50 a week) (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
c. Link practice in the content area to complex, real-life situations (Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998).
Learning and Thinking Strategies
Learning strategies, sometimes referred to as cognitive strategies, include rehearsal,
elaboration, organization, and metacognition to assess and regulate one’s own thinking (Crowl et
al., 1997). They may involve skills such as highlighting, diagramming, visualizing, or using
mnemonics. Some learning strategies are more complex, such as “multipass,” a strategy used to
improve reading comprehension. Multipass also would apply to the initial learning of new
concepts, rules, and principles by means of written information. In the first “pass,” students
survey material for a general idea of what the information covers and how it fits together. In the

second “pass,” students size up the important points, looking for “contextual cues to important
information.” In the third “pass,” students attempt to answer questions about a passage.
The following strategies have been known to help develop individual learning and
thinking capabilities.
1. Deliberately design lessons or programs for the express purpose of teaching
specific learning and thinking strategies (Darmer, 1995, abstract; Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998, p. 310).
2. Teach self-reflection and self-evaluation about thinking processes (Cotton, 1997, p.
4; Easterwood, 1996, abstract). The following effective approaches were reported in
several studies by Crowl et al., (1997):
a. Challenge preexisting ideas (beliefs, concepts, and misconceptions) by
presenting situations that students are unable to explain—paradoxes, dilemmas,
and perplexities.
b. Guide students in how to do systematic inquiry, allowing them to think
independently, but preventing them from pursuing dead ends and
simplistic answers.
c. Encourage students to reflect upon and make sense of new information by
making judgments in writing or discussions about its relevance, telling in their
own words how to integrate their findings with their previously existing ideas,
opinions, or approaches.
d. Encourage and guide students to formulate hypotheses, speculate on
consequences, guess, brainstorm, and discuss how their thinking processes have
worked to change their ideas.

e. Monitor and correct inefficient strategies.
f. Encourage continuous reflection of beliefs about thinking, thinking processes,
and evaluation of effectiveness.
3. In approaching different learning and thinking tasks, use cognitive maps and
advance organizers to show the major steps or parts (Cotton, 1997; Crowl et al.,
1997).
4. Teach the initial and rehearsal strategies for complex tasks (Crowl et al., 1997).
a. Teach how to preview, question, read, reflect, recite, and review (PQ4R)
when learning from written materials (Crowl et al., 1997).
b. Provide instruction in “abstracting, analyzing, outlining, summarizing, and
generalizing”; this improves “both reasoning and reading ability” (Glaser,
1941, p. 70).
c. Emphasize broad problem-solving strategies, algorithms (specified set of steps for
solving problems), or heuristics (widely applicable problem-solving strategies such
as using means–end analysis for ill-defined problems, working backward when
parameters are known, and drawing analogies for unfamiliar problems) (Kauchak
& Eggen, 1998).
d. Provide practice for routines of different strategies, algorithms, and heuristics
until they are overlearned, so that their use becomes fast, effortless, and consistent
(Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
e. Teach specific learning strategies by talking about the strategy, modeling it
while thinking out loud, and providing opportunities for practice (Crowl et al.,
1997; Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Show persistence in thinking things through
and confidence in the thinking process; students who hear teachers express self-
confidence in reasoning actually develop greater confidence in themselves. The
following strategies were reported in a study by McTighe (as cited in Crowl et al.,
1997).
 Provide names and definitions for each thinking skill.
 Ask students for synonyms and examples.
 Model steps for using each skill.
 Explain appropriate and inappropriate contexts for using each skill.
 Arrange practice of skills in cooperative learning groups.
5. Strengthen comprehension and skills in applying related concepts, rules (principles
and procedures), decision-making processes, and problem-solving strategies.
a. Diagnose students’ existing schemata (conceptions and misconceptions) by
asking probing questions (Crowl et al., 1997).
b. Provide hands-on situations for students to “mess around” with interpreting
raw data or generating new explanations (Crowl et al., 1997).
c. Provide examples of questions or stems of questions that require higher
order thinking and encourage students to answer them independently, in
pairs, or in groups (Crowl et al., 1997).
d. Redirect, probe, and reinforce the development of critical and creative
thinking skills (Cotton, 1997).
e. Provide practice, without the expectation of extrinsic rewards, grades, or tests, in
making choices, brainstorming, finding problems, experimenting with chosen
themes and approaches, and developing tentative solutions to a variety of
problems

involved in areas such as painting, music, storywriting, and other art challenges,
as well as scientific and mathematical undertakings (Crowl et al., 1997).
f. Provide practice on how and when to apply procedural knowledge, including
rules and facts (Crowl et al., 1997).
 Provide opportunities for discovery of procedural knowledge.
 Explain the goals of the procedure.
 Define problems/situations for which the procedure is appropriate.
 Explain why particular strategies are appropriate for
the problems/situations.
 Demonstrate the step-by-step application of a procedure.
 Provide students with practice in choosing appropriate procedures
and carrying out the steps of procedures.
 Provide feedback on student performance of procedures.
g. Include individualized options in lesson plans designed to teach higher
order thinking.
 Provide choices among assignments, such as having 70% required
and 30% optional (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998; Crowl et al., 1997).
 Create multidimensional classrooms with learning tasks that encourage
intellectual diversity, using modalities for several kinds of
intelligences, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, or
spatial (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Vary sequence of instruction and application. Students with low
induction aptitude benefit from receiving training before performing an
application
task, while those with high induction aptitude benefit from performing
the application task first (Donnelly, 1996, abstract).
 Use cultural/community resources and information to express the
acceptance and valuing of different perspectives that are necessary
for successful learning by all students (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Use participation tasks that are open-ended, involving several ways to
solve problems, such as tasks that include opportunities for students to
make different kinds of contributions, call on a variety of knowledge
and skills (including reading, writing, constructing, and designing), and
incorporate multiple media (Cohen; Bowers; both cited in Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998).
 Use multiability tasks with varied activities to accommodate differences
in language proficiency, abstract thinking, and influence of emotion.
 Help students see themselves as effective learners so they can develop
a greater internal locus of control (Katkovsky, Crandall, & Goods,
1967; Lefcourt, 1966; Strickland; all cited in Crowl et al., 1997).
 Provide alternate learning materials with additional support and
guidance for those who need it and additional enrichment activities for
the others (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Use mastery skills test management: Students who pass the quizzes are
allowed to continue; those who do not pass are moved into additional
activities (Guskey & Gates; Slavin; all cited in Kauchak & Eggen,
1998).

 Use peer tutoring to allow more able students to work with other
students on specific skills (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Use cooperative learning such that each member investigates
independently and later explains a different concept, process, or skill to
the others (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Use collaborative problem solving for problem analysis, not for
problem solution (Kewley, 1996, abstract).
 Use team-assisted individualization that combines cooperative and
mastery learning. Students in mixed-ability learning teams receive
direct teacher instruction on how to proceed, work on individual
assignments with assistance and support from other members, and
receive rewards for team performance (Slavin cited in Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998).
 Use computer programs that target specific concepts and skills
(Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
Direct Instruction
Direct instruction, involving teacher-centered presentations of information, generally does
not work well for developing higher level thinking skills (Crowl et al., 1997). Nevertheless, the
following strategies can make direct instruction more effective.
1. Limit direct teaching methods to the introduction of strategies and skills (Patrick, 1986).
2. Combine direct instruction with guided practice to teach students well-
structured subskills and knowledge, such as teaching the learning strategies of
rehearsal, elaboration, organization, monitoring, or metacognition (Crowl et al.,

1997).

3. Avoid long lectures and use minilectures instead. Keep lectures very short (up to five
minutes). The amount learned from a lecture decreases as the length of the lecture
increases. Minilectures should be even shorter for younger, slower, or poorly
motivated students or for complex or abstract content. A study by Kauchak & Eggen
(1998) offered the following suggestions:
 Introduce new content with a familiar frame of reference. Analogies work
well for this purpose. “The closer the fit of the analogy, the more learning is
facilitated.......Red blood cells are our bodies’ oxygen railroad” (pp. 295–296).
 Express briefly what will be learned, why it is important, when it will
be useful, and how it should be applied.
 Break up segments with questions, discussions, and other devices
because attention increases when a question is asked (Crowl et al., 1997).
 Keep student responses to questions short because attention decreases when
a student is called on.
 Use visual displays to organize information—networks, hierarchies,
schematic diagrams, and matrices show relationships among ideas or
concepts.
 Include demonstrations, debates, and student-initiated questions.
These improve student attention and involvement.
 Develop and link content to the overall section or purpose of learning.
 Include transition signals between topics.
 Provide review and closure through summaries, both verbal and visual.

Questioning Strategies
To generate higher order thinking processes, questions must elicit answers that have not
already been presented. Planning the questions in advance of actual learning time helps assure
questions go beyond simple recall of information. Recalling the steps in a major procedure or
skill may be useful, but memorization of steps does not help the learner understand why or
how the steps should be used, nor does it help the learner apply the steps in a problem
situation.
The following strategies for asking questions have been shown to improve the
development of thinking skills.
 Ask questions of all students equally, calling on nonvolunteers as well as
volunteers (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 To stimulate curiosity or demand problem solving, ask questions about paradoxes,
dilemmas, and novel problems and approaches (Crowl et al., 1997; Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998).
 Have students generate their own questions about topics (Crowl et al., 1997).
 Start with lower-order questions, remediating as needed, and lead up to higher-
order questions (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Provide wait time after a question because students differ in the rate at which
they respond (Crowl et al., 1997; Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).

Feedback
Feedback informs learners of their progress. The following strategies for providing
feedback are effective.
 Use informal checks such as thumbs up or thumbs down to show who got a
problem right (Rosensine & Stevens cited in Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Provide immediate, specific, and corrective information, using a positive emotional
tone (Brophy & Good; Rosenshine & Stevens; all cited in Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
 Avoid expressions of low expectations such as “That was a good first effort” (Crowl
et al., 1997).
 Avoid insincere feedback or excessive praise because they do not work except for
very young children (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Praise is effective only when students
believe they have earned it. Use praise to help students “develop their own standards
for success” (Crowl et al., 1997).
 Adjust feedback to response. For correct quick, firm answers, use short, general praise
(e.g., “good answer”). For correct but hesitant answers, respond with encouraging
feedback and explanation (e.g., “Yes, the apostrophe in this case indicates a contraction,
not a possessive. We see there is no possession suggested in the sentence”) (Kauchak
& Eggen, 1998, p. 280). For incorrect answers due to carelessness, simply correct the
error. For incorrect answers due to misunderstanding, provide more explanation and
questioning, but do not overexplain. Take this approach with every student. For a
number of incorrect errors by several students, reteach the material. When a student is
unable to respond, prompt the student until an acceptable answer is given—do not
redirect the question to another student (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Reinforce desired

behaviors, and at the same time, use appropriate behavioral strategies to
eliminate undesirable behaviors (Crowl et al., 1997).
Team Activities
Group size must be limited to six or fewer for group work to remain manageable and
focused. Before they can work well in teams or groups, students must learn skills such as
listening carefully, maintaining focus, and providing support and encouragement (Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998). Students must also receive challenging tasks, encouragement to stay on task
when grappling with open-ended questions, and ongoing feedback about their progress (Crowl et
al., 1997).
Team or group work facilitates knowledge construction through social interaction. Team
and group work profit from careful strategic planning, including development of tasks, group
procedures, materials, and assessment methods (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Student
performance improves with monitoring of student activities and minimized transitional periods
from one activity to another (Brophy; Crawford; both cited in Crowl et al., 1997).
The forms of group work found to be effective for the development of thinking skills
include student discussions, peer tutoring, and cooperative learning. In any of these situations,
using introductory activities to develop rapport or “warm up” for the team or group can facilitate
group interaction (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). At the start of a group, use some team-building
activities such as name-learning games with follow-up quizzes on naming partners. Use
additional time for students to do getting-to-know-you interviews (interests or hobbies) or
“something that no one else knows about me” activities for group members. Use this information
to introduce group members to the rest of the class.

Student Discussions
Student discussions “stimulate thinking, challenge attitudes and beliefs, and develop
interpersonal skills” (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998, p. 250). When organized and managed well,
discussions allow students “to develop critical thinking abilities and investigate questions that
don’t have simple answers” (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998, p. 250). For best results, assure the
presence of student background knowledge before using discussions. Begin with moral
dilemmas to develop understanding and clarification of values or use other types of dilemmas
to develop other critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Arrange groups for face-to-face
discussion, such as in semicircles or circles, so that the teacher is included as part of the
semicircle or circle (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998).
Peer Tutoring
Peer tutoring pairs up students of different abilities to increase understanding and skill
learning (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Make sure tutors are trained; untrained tutors sometimes
imitate the worst from their teachers, such as punitiveness or a lack of helpful feedback.
Students should learn how to explain objectives, stay on task, encourage their peers to talk about
the lesson, and provide supportive comments, praise, and positive feedback. Place cross-age or
same-age students in one-to-one pairs and supply them with structured learning materials for
practice and feedback. Provide clear structure through student worksheets, including a focused
agenda for tutor and tutee. Provide teacher monitoring, feedback, and guidance during peer
tutoring to check progress and correct mistakes or misunderstandings. Restructure whenever a
peer tutoring pair is not working.

Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is effective for developing cognitive, affective, and interpersonal skills
through individual accountability. It involves more students and teamwork than peer tutoring
and capitalizes on student diversity by placing students on learning teams and rewarding the
group’s planning and inquiry performance. Cooperative learning increases motivation, time on
task, and student involvement and improves student self-esteem. Learning tasks should require
cooperation and communication. Provide useful resources for study such as the Internet,
textbooks, and reference books. Use student-generated charts or worksheets to support the
organization of inquiry results and rotate student roles (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Cooperative
learning includes group investigation, student teams-achievement divisions (STADs), and
Jigsaw II.
Group investigation involves placing students in study groups to investigate a common
topic. Group investigation gives students “the chance to wrestle with ill-structured tasks, which
are the kinds of problems we face in real life” and to “clarify and then structure the problem”
(Kauchak & Eggen, 1998, p. 245). To help students engage and stay involved, introduce the
topic and ask students to identify subtopics that each group will investigate; divide students into
groups according to student interest and balance of achievement, gender, and cultural
background; arrange for group presentations to share the information gained; and provide
feedback to groups and individuals on results and presentations.
STADs group students into teams and subteams as study groups. STADs study groups use
four- or five-member teams, subdivided into pairs or trios, to study and master basic skills
topics. These are more structured than group investigation teams. Using STADs can support the
learning of concepts and rules in areas such as language arts, math, science, social studies, and

health (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Plan activities by identifying content and skills to be
mastered, presentation and practice activities, assignments to groups, improvement points, and
group rewards. Prepare worksheets (and answers) that require direct application of the concepts,
principles, or rules taught. Create quizzes for each student to parallel the worksheet information
but with changes to prevent students from merely memorizing and providing rote responses.
Before organizing into groups, teach students “quiet talk” and explain how to use it
during discussions. The following are strategies for STADs:
 Organize teams in work spaces and divide each team into two pairs or a trio and a pair.
 Provide one worksheet to each pair or trio and focus attention on the use of the
worksheets for studying, so that everyone on the team can explain each item on
the worksheet.
 Focus on improvement points from quiz scores so that groups compete against
themselves rather than each other and explain the purpose of this process to
the students.
 Instruct students to work individually and discuss their problem-solving
strategies within each pair and trio.
 During teamwork time, focus on promoting cooperation and providing
encouragement and praise.
 Calculate team improvement points from individual scores and give team
rewards; improvement can be reflected in individual team grades.
Jigsaw II is more structured and involves group goals, individual accountability, and
equal opportunity for success. In Jigsaw II, assignments require individual members to
investigate

specific areas of expertise and then to return to the group to share results (Kauchak &
Eggen, 1998). Jigsaw II strategies are as follows:
 Divide content into roughly equal subtopics and organize them into worksheets or
charts. Assign topics in which individuals are expected to obtain expertise and
reflect assignments on worksheets.
 Locate and organize resources.
 Divide students into groups for balance of achievement, gender, and
cultural background.
 Explain procedures.
 Monitor study activities and make appropriate rescues available.
 Convene groups to discuss and compare information.
 Administer and score quizzes using improvement points.
 Provide feedback on group performance.
Computer Mediation
Computer-mediated communication provides opportunities for access to remote data
sources, collaboration on group projects with students in other locations, and sharing of work for
evaluation or response by other students (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998). Computer-assisted
instruction (CAI) and computer-based instruction (CBI), when combined with regular
instruction, “improves students’ attitudes, motivation, and academic achievement” (Crowl et al.,
1997, p.
35). The following applications of such computer-mediated communication have been shown
to be effective in improving learning of prerequisite and higher order thinking skills:
 practicing inferencing skills and problem-solving strategies (Kauchak & Eggen, 1998);

 skill building in areas such as verbal analogies, logical reasoning,
and inductive/deductive thinking (Cotton, 1997); and
 drilling and practicing, which incorporate probes or tests (Crowl et al., 1997).
Summary of Teaching Strategies
Lessons involving higher order thinking skills require particular clarity of communication
to reduce ambiguity and confusion and improve student attitudes about thinking tasks. Lesson
plans should include modeling of thinking skills, examples of applied thinking, and adaptations
for diverse student needs. Scaffolding (giving students support at the beginning of a lesson and
gradually requiring students to operate independently) helps students develop higher order
learning skills. However, too much or too little support can hinder development.
Useful learning strategies include rehearsal, elaboration, organization, and metacognition.
Lessons should be specifically designed to teach specific learning strategies. Direct instruction
(teacher-centered presentations of information) should be used sparingly. Presentations should
be short (up to five minutes) and coupled with guided practice to teach subskills and
knowledge.
Teacher- and/or student-generated questions about dilemmas, novel problems, and
novel approaches should elicit answers that have not been learned already.
Sincere feedback providing immediate, specific, and corrective information should
inform learners of their progress.

CLASSROOM AND STATEWIDE ASSESSMENT OF
HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
Higher order thinking skills include critical thinking, problem solving, decision making,
and creative thinking (Lewis & Smith, 1993). They encompass the skills defined in Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Bloom, 1956); the hierarchy of learning capabilities
propounded by Briggs and Wager (1981), Gagné (1985), and Gagné, Briggs, and Wager (1988);
and a number of other less well-known conceptualizations. An example is Gubbins’ Matrix of
Critical Thinking Skills (as cited in Legg, 1990), which includes (1) problem solving, (2)
decision making, (3) inferences–inductive and deductive reasoning, (4) divergent thinking, (5)
evaluative thinking, and (6) philosophy and reasoning.
Assessment methods for measuring higher order thinking include multiple-choice items,
multiple-choice items with written justification, constructed response items, performance tests,
and portfolios. These methods can be used in both classroom and statewide assessments, but
for convenience, consider the two kinds of assessments separately.
Validity and Generalizability of

Higher Order Thinking Skills and Dispositions
Assessing the validity of measures of higher order thinking skills is more difficult than
assessing those of lower order thinking skills. It is necessary to verify that higher order processes
were used in arriving at correct answers. For example, some items (especially multiple-choice)
must be answered through the use of higher order thinking by students who have not previously
encountered the problems presented. Other students can arrive at correct answers to the same
items by calling on prior knowledge. In addition to those related to the influence of prior

knowledge, questions concerning the generalizability of higher order skills remain to
be answered.
A comprehensive definition of validity was formulated by Messick (1995).
Validity is an overall evaluative judgment of the degree to which empirical evidence
and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of
interpretations and actions based on test scores or other modes of assessment
(Messick, 1989b).
Validity is not a property of the test or assessment as such, but rather of the meaning of
the test scores. The scores are a function not only of the items or stimulus conditions,
but also of the persons responding as well as the context of the assessment. In
particular, what needs to be valid is the meaning or interpretation of the scores as well
as any implications for action that this meaning entails (Cronbach, 1971). The extent
to which score meaning and action implications hold across persons or population
groups and across settings or contexts is a persistent and perennial empirical question.
This is the main reason that validity is an evolving property and validation a continuing
process. (p. 5)
Norris (1989) considered two questions of importance in determining the validity of tests of
critical thinking: “(a) Is critical thinking generalizable? and (b) What is a critical thinking
disposition?” (p. 21). He also raised the question of whether critical thinking dispositions are
generalizable. Students may have the skills to think critically but may not employ them in
testing situations because of other factors such as lack of subject-specific knowledge or their
religious or political beliefs.

Generalizability of critical thinking skills has two aspects—epistemological and
psychological. Epistemological generalizability holds that there are skills such as inductive
reasoning that apply to all subject matter contents. Critics of this point of view argue that each
subject matter area has a unique epistemology and that each area has its own set of critical
thinking skills. Psychological generalizability presumes that epistemological generalizability
exists and that skills acquired in one subject matter can be applied in others.
An important goal of education should be the production of critical thinking dispositions
in students.
Critical thinkers are disposed to seek reasons, try to be well informed, use credible
sources and mention them, look for alternatives, consider seriously points of view
other than their own, withhold judgment when the evidence and reasons are
insufficient, seek as much precision as the subject permits, among other activities.
(Norris, 1989, p. 22)
Much of the evidence for generalizability of higher order thinking skills comes from
psychological studies of transfer. Perkins and Salomon (1989) summarized a considerable
amount of research conducted during the last 30 years that indicated that cognitive (higher
order) skills are context bound. However, they pointed out that
. . . recent research shows that, when general principles of reasoning are taught
together with self-monitoring practices and potential applications in varied contexts,
transfer often is obtained (e.g., Nickerson, et al., 1985).
In summary, recent research and theorizing concerning transfer put the negative
findings cited earlier in a different light. These findings do not imply either that people
have little ability to accomplish transfer or that skill is almost entirely context bound.
Rather, the negative results reflect the fact that transfer occurs only under specific
conditions, which often are not met in everyday life or laboratory experiments
(Brown, Kane, & Long, in press). When the conditions are met, useful transfer
occurs. (p. 22)
The work of Perkins and Salomon suggests that instruments can be constructed that are
both valid for the measurement of higher order skills and sensitive to instruction.
Lohmann (1993) argued that while intelligence test scores have most often been used as
predictors of educational attainment, their most important use may be as measures of
educational outcomes. Many studies have shown that intelligence and educational attainment are
positively correlated and it is reasonable to conclude that increases in education cause increases
in intelligence. “Intelligence tests (particularly the so-called performance variety) often measure
something Cattell (1963) and others call fluid ability (Gf). General academic achievement tests,
on the other hand, usually measure something Cattell calls crystallized abilities (Gc)” (p. 13).
Lohmann pointed out that transfer of old learning to new situations is greater for fluid than for
crystallized intelligence. Thus, both kinds of abilities are the products of education, but fluid
abilities are more closely akin to higher order thinking skills than crystallized abilities. He cited
the results of the Follow-Through Study in which highly structured projects were more
successful in producing crystallized abilities than more unstructured ones, while the reverse was
true for fluid abilities. Similar results were cited for other investigations.
Haladyna (1997) and Sternberg (1998) adopted much the same view as Lohmann (1993).
Haladyna characterized abilities (Gf) as being developed over long periods of time compared
to achievement (Gc), which can be developed in a shorter time frame. He defined abilities as
“complex combinations of what we have called knowledge and skills, but they also include

affective components like motivation and attitude” (p. 14). Examples of abilities are critical
thinking, problem solving, and creativity.
Sternberg (1998) conceptualized abilities as being forms of developing expertise. He
pointed out that ability tests measure achievement of content that students encountered in
previous grades. He viewed abilities as educational outcomes and not as the causes of
such outcomes.
Individual differences in developing expertise result in much the same way they result
in most kinds of learning—from (a) rate of learning (which can be caused by amount of
direct instruction received, amount of problem solving done, amount of time and effort
spent in thinking about problems, and so on) and from (b) asymptote of learning (which
can be caused by differences in numbers of schemas, organization of schemas,
efficiency in using schemas, and so on; see Atkinson, Bower, & Crothers, 1965). (p. 14)
Peterson (1986) employed a real-life problem in each of 3 academic content domains
(social sciences and humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, and social sciences and
psychology) crossed with 6 generic problem-solving skills (decision making, communication,
analysis, synthesis, valuing, and execution) to conduct a multitrait-multimethod study of the
structure of these 18 skill/task observations. Subjects were university students: lower level, 20;
upper level, 26; and graduate level, 16. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate a
model that contained a general second-order factor, 6 skill factors, and 3 subject content factors.
This model provided a moderately good fit to the data, but most of the common variance was
accounted for by the general factor. A model containing only skill and subject matter factors
did not provide a good fit. Peterson concluded that a general reasoning test, a vocabulary test,
or a

general knowledge test would provide as much information as a test of generic problem-solving
skills. However, he pointed out that because all variables were measured by written responses,
a general writing ability could have inflated the influence of the general problem-solving factor.
Whimbey (1985) reported correlations of three reasoning tests (the Cornell Critical Thinking
Test, the Whimbey Analytical Skills Inventory, and the New Jersey Test of Reasoning), with
achievement scores from the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT).
NJCBSPT Achievement Cornell Whimbey NJ Reasoning

Reading Comprehension .68 .76 .82
Sentence Sense .62 .75 .81
Computation .49 .76 ..67
Elementary Algebra .40 .70 .59
Essay .44 .56 .69
Correlations of achievement with the Cornell test were lower than with the other two
tests, perhaps because it measures some special ability or possibly because of its low
reliability (reported to be below .70). Whimbey concluded that special tests of higher order
abilities are unnecessary because they have so much overlap with achievement tests. “There
are numerous time-proven, standardized academic aptitude and achievement tests, such as the
Degrees of Reading Power, California Achievement Tests, Differential Aptitude Tests, and the
Scholastic Aptitude Test, which are practical indicators of students’ analytical skills” (p. 39).
Kosonen and Winne (1995) studied the effects of teaching statistical laws of reasoning
in two experiments with college undergraduates and one with 7th- and 10th-grade students.
Students were taught abstract rules of probability and asked to apply them to everyday problems.
Statistical results in all three experiments indicated that the posttest means of instructed students

were significantly higher than those of the control students. Standardized treatment effect sizes
were all above .5 and most were above 1.0 (one standard deviation larger). With respect to the
question of whether formal statistical rules are domain-specific, the authors state
A larger claim that statistical reasoning transfers or generalizes across domains is more
difficult to support because the definition of domain is unclear. Students in our studies
addressed problems that ranged over various everyday activities including hiring people
with particular qualifications, conducting a survey of attitudes, playing a recreational
board game, choosing restaurants with good food, judging people’s nature on the basis
of brief social interactions, generating a marketing strategy on the basis of business
competitors’ profits, monitoring equipment in a fast-food restaurant, predicting a
child’s aptitude for sports, and so forth. We believe that these topics represent a broad
spectrum of domains and, on this interpretation, we conclude that our and other studies
demonstrate that students who receive effective instruction in abstract, formal rules of
reasoning can transfer those rules across domains. (pp. 44–45)
The psychometric generalizability of performance tasks was studied by Shavelson, Baxter,
and Gao (1993). They used one data set in elementary science and two in math to study the
effects of different tasks, methods of measurement, and raters on the assessment scores of
elementary students obtained from the same subject matter domain. They found that the greatest
inconsistency in student scores was due to task variability. Depending on the data set, they
estimated that in order to reach acceptable levels of generalizability, between 8 and 23 tasks
would be required. They also found that student performance was dependent, in part, on

different methods (expert observation, student notebooks, computer simulation, and short
answer questions) of measuring student performance in the same subject matter content.
Linn (1994) also studied the psychometric generalizability of performance tasks in math at
grades 4 and 8. Twelve tasks were used at the 4th-grade level and 16 at the 8th-grade level.
Tasks were administered to students in “bundles” of 2 to 4 tasks. Administration times for
bundles ranged from 4 to 6 hours. Linn's results were in agreement with those of Shavelson et
al. (1993). Approximately 15 tasks or more, depending on the grade level and data set, would
be required to achieve an acceptable level of generalizability.
Published Measures of Higher Order Thinking Skills
Ennis (1993) listed 7 possible purposes for which published tests of critical thinking may be
used. These purposes are listed as follows:
1. Diagnosing the levels of students’ critical thinking.
2. Giving students feedback about their critical thinking prowess.
3. Motivating students to be better at critical thinking.
4. Informing teachers about the success of their efforts to teach students to
think critically.
5. Doing research about critical thinking instructional questions and issues.
6. Providing help in deciding whether a student should enter an educational program.
7. Providing information for holding schools accountable for the critical
thinking prowess of their students.
(pp. 180–181)

Ennis suggested that published tests could be used for the first 5 purposes but not the last 2
because they are not comprehensive in their coverage of critical thinking skills and they are not
secure. He listed 10 published tests that measure a variety of skills and 4 that measure only one
aspect of critical thinking. He provided no validity or reliability information for these tests but
suggested that potential users should take and score tests under consideration and examine their
contents before selecting them for any of the first 5 purposes listed above. A list of these tests is
provided in Appendix B.
The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) is based on a definition of critical
thinking skills identified as a result of a two-year Delphi study conducted by the American
Philosophical Association (Facione, P., 1990a). It consists of two forms, each containing
multiple-choice questions that measure five subskills (analysis, evaluation, inference, deductive
reasoning, and inductive reasoning) and an overall critical thinking score. Internal consistency
reliabilities for the total scores of Forms A and B were reported to be .70 and .71 respectively
(Facione, P., cited in Jacobs, 1994). Jacobs’s study yielded total score alpha reliabilities of .56
and .59 for Forms A and B, respectively. Subscore reliabilities ranged from .04 to .53. Facione
and Facione (1994) reported results of a quasi-experimental validation study of college students
who were enrolled in a critical thinking course and control students who had not fulfilled that
requirement. Significant pre- and postcourse gains were reported for the experimental students
but not for controls. Significant pretest correlations were found between the CCTST and SAT
Verbal (.550), SAT Math (.439), Nelson-Denny Reading (.491), and college grade point
average (.200). These results were also reported by Facione (1991).
The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) (Facione, Sanchez,
Facione, & Gainen, 1995) is a 75-Likert item measure derived from the American Philosophical

Association study (Facione, P., 1990a). It produces several scale scores and a total score.
The scales are “discipline neutral” (i.e., they can be used in liberal arts, sciences, and
professional disciplines). Descriptions of scales follow (italics theirs).
 The Inquisitiveness scale on the CCTDI measures one’s intellectual curiosity, and
one’s desire for learning even when the application of the knowledge is not
readily apparent.
 The Open-mindedness scale addresses being tolerant of divergent views
and sensitive to the possibility of one’s own bias.
(Facione, Sanchez, Facione, & Gainen, 1995, p. 6)
 The Systematicity scale measures being organized, orderly, focused, and diligent
in inquiry.
 The Analyticity scale targets prizing the application of reasoning and the use
of evidence to resolve problems, anticipating potential conceptual or practical
difficulties, and consistently being alert to the need to intervene.
(p. 7)
 The Truth-seeking scale targets the disposition of being eager to seek the
best
knowledge in a given context, courageous about asking questions, and honest and
objective about pursuing inquiry even if the findings do not support one’s self-
interests or one’s preconceived opinions.

 The CT Self-Confidence scale measures the trust one places in one’s own
reasoning processes. CT self-confidence allows one to trust the soundness of one’s
own reasoned judgments and to lead others in the rational resolution of problems.
(p. 8)
 The Maturity scale targets the disposition to be judicious in one’s decision making.
The CT-mature person can be characterized as one who approaches problems,
inquiry, and decision making with a sense that some problems are necessarily ill-
structured, some situations admit of more than one plausible option, and many times
judgments must be made based on standards, contexts, and evidence which preclude
certainty.
(p. 9)
Internal consistency reliabilities for the seven scales were reported to be between .71 to .81.
The reliability for the total score was .91. In separate studies, correlations between the CCTDI
and the CCTST were .67 for 20 highly motivated college students, .21 for 106 nursing
students, .38 for 238 high school students, and .14 for 191 native Spanish-speaking high school
students.
The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test was used by Davidson and Dunham (1996) to
assess the effectiveness of a yearlong instructional program in intensive English with Japanese
students. Treatment students (n = 17) received training in critical thinking skills while control
students (n = 19) received only intensive English instruction. Total scores on the test can range
from -9 to +29. The mean of the treatment students was 6.6, which was significantly higher
(p < .001) than the 0.06 mean of the control students.

Reed and Palumbo (1987, 1988a) and Reed, Palumbo, and Stolar (1987, 1988b) used
sections of the Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes (Analysis of Relevant and Irrelevant
Information and Analysis of Attributes) and sections of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking
Appraisal (Deduction and Interpretation) as pre- and posttests to evaluate the effects of
computer programming instruction on problem-solving ability. The first investigation involved
23 college students who were given 81 hours of instruction in BASIC over an 8-week period.
Significant pre- and postdifferences (pretest mean = 44.00, SD = 8.22; posttest mean = 45.65, SD
= 7.74) were found. A significant reduction in computer anxiety was also found. The second
investigation involved 21 college students enrolled in a BASIC programming course and 8
students in a Logo class. Statistically significant gains were found for both the Logo and BASIC
groups. For the Logo group, the pretest mean was 43.75, SD = 9.74; the posttest mean was
46.63, SD = 10.25. In the BASIC group, the pretest mean was 45.40, SD = 6.13; the posttest
mean was 47.15, SD = 5.39. No differences were found between the 2 groups. Failure to
include control groups in these studies makes it impossible to rule out effects due to testing.
However, the authors of the first study interviewed randomly selected students to determine
whether or not they could recall, at posttest time, the exact answers they had given on the pretest.
In all cases, students indicated that they could not recall previous answers.
Gadzella et al. (1996) reported results of a 14-week study in which college students were
pre-tested with Form A of the Watson-Glaser, received instruction in critical thinking skills and
in analyzing critical thinking examples, and were posttested with Form B of the Watson-
Glaser. Significant pre- and posttest differences were found for the total score and 2 of the
subscores (Interpretations and Evaluation of Arguments) but not for the 3 other subscores
(Inference,

Recognition, and Deductions). Pre- and posttest means and standard deviations were 47.69,
10.03 and 51.00, 7.88, respectively.
Item/Test Formats
Higher order thinking skills can be measured by a variety of item and test formats. Sugrue
(1994, 1995) integrated information from three research-based, domain-specific problem-
solving models and identified three response formats for measuring higher order thinking skills:
(1) selection (multiple-choice, matching), (2) generation (short answer, essay, performance), and
(3) explanation (giving reasons for selection or generation of a response).
Multiple-Choice Items
Prominent investigators of critical thinking have endorsed the use of the multiple-choice
format in measuring at least some higher order skills. Paul and Nosich (1992) recommended
the use of multiple-choice, multiple-rating, and short-essay items in constructing an instrument
for the national assessment of higher order thinking. Multiple-choice items could be used for
assessing “micro-dimensional critical thinking skills, like identifying the most plausible
assumption, recognizing an author's purpose, selecting the most defensible inferences, and such
like” (p. 7).
Facione (1989), Norris (1989), and Ennis (1993) all recognized that subjects can select
keyed responses to multiple-choice items for the wrong reasons and distractors can be chosen
for valid reasons. Facione (1989) and Norris (1989) recommended that a think-aloud procedure
be employed to investigate the construct validity of multiple-choice items during test
construction. Subjects are asked to tell what they are thinking as they select their answers. When
correct responses were chosen through faulty thinking or incorrect responses through valid
thinking,
items could be modified or discarded. Norris and King (1984) used this methodology
in constructing the Test on Appraising Observations.
Simpson and Cohen (1985) used a think-aloud procedure in connection with item analytic
data to demonstrate the validity of multiple-choice items categorized as knowledge or
thinking items based on Bloom's taxonomy. A medical pathology course was the context for
their procedure.
Ennis (1993) suggested that answer justification be incorporated into the actual test.
Subjects would be asked to select correct responses and then to provide written justifications for
their choices. An advantage of this procedure is that subjects could be given credit for
nonkeyed responses if they provided adequate justification. Answer justification for higher
order thinking items was first recommended by Bloom (1956), who cast both item and
justification in multiple- choice format.
Hancock (1994) cited a number of empirical studies in which multiple-choice and
constructed-response tests measured the same higher order skills. He constructed multiple-
choice and constructed-response items to measure the knowledge, comprehension,
application, and analysis skills of undergraduate and graduate students in introductory
educational measurement and research statistics courses. His findings indicated that the two-
item formats were generally comparable for all four skill levels.
Killoran (1992) illustrated a variety of ways that multiple-choice items can be used to assess
both lower and higher order thinking skills in social studies. Standard multiple-choice items can
be developed to measure (1) recognition of important terms and persons, (2) comparisons and
contrasts, (3) cause and effect, (4) generalizations, (5) chronology, and (6) special item types,
such as fact and opinion and use of sources. Data-based questions, including maps, tables,

outlines, cartoons, etc., can measure (1) comprehension, (2) explanation, (3) conclusion or
generalization, and (4) prediction (pp. 106–107). Examples of stems for constructing items
are given in Appendix B.
Writing Test Items to Evaluate Higher Order Thinking Skills (Haladyna, 1997) is an
important resource for teachers who want to construct items for measuring higher order skills.
The book gives instructions on how to write and score multiple-choice and constructed-response
items, performance tasks, and portfolios in three domains—cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor. Procedures for item review and statistical analysis of item responses are
presented.
Performance Tests
Performance tests, including hands-on tasks (e.g., laboratory problems), essays, short-
answer constructed-response measures, and portfolios, have been widely recommended for
measuring higher order thinking skills. They have been proposed as replacements for multiple-
choice tests (Shepard, 1989; Wiggins, 1989, 1993), which have been criticized as placing “too
much emphasis on factual knowledge and on the application of procedures to solve well-
structured, decontextualized problems” (Linn, Baker, & Dunbar, 1991, p. 19). With few
exceptions (e.g., the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test), performance tests are domain-
specific measures. They can be “authentic” in that they can be highly related to instruction and
serve as good examples of teaching procedures. They can deal with complex, real-life problems
that require students to employ several higher order skills in their solution. They can generate
student interest and motivation.
Performance tests also have limitations. They can be costly and time consuming and
they can lack generalizability (Linn, Baker, & Dunbar, 1991; Shavelson, Baxter, & Gao,

1993;

Shavelson, Baxter, & Pine, 1992). In addition, Facione (1990) noted that the application of
many critical thinking subskills, particularly inference and evaluation, may not be apparent in the
final version of an essay or report.
By its very nature the essay omits claims considered and judged irrelevant, arguments
evaluated as not of sufficient significance to the issues at hand to warrant mention,
evidence queried but not used in the final form of the essay, alternatives conjectured
but ultimately abandoned, and conclusions drawn but ultimately reconsidered and
disregarded. (p. 7)
Newmann (1990) constructed an essay test of higher order thinking skills in social studies
that required students to write persuasively about constitutional issues. Its purpose was to
assess students’ interpretation, analysis, and use of knowledge in the social sciences rather than
to measure “discrete thinking skills such as hypothesis testing or evaluating the reliability of
sources” (p. 369). It was designed to permit “comparisons of students over time, and between
teachers, schools, districts, and states” (p. 369). The task consisted of (1) a two-page narrative,
which described a court case involving the search of a student’s purse and locker by a high
school principal who suspected her of smoking and selling marijuana, (2) background
information on constitutional rights, and (3) instructions for responding. Each essay was
assigned one of five scores: (1) unsatisfactory, (2) minimal, (3) adequate, (4) elaborated, or (5)
exemplary. The narrative, background, instructions, and scoring criteria are presented in
Appendix B. The test was used in
fifty-one classrooms of thirty-eight teachers of the diverse social studies subjects in
grades 9–12 in seven high schools. Although the classes covered U.S. history,
world
history, politics, sociology, economics, etc., we tested all students on the constitutional
exercise. In spite of the fact that none of the classes focused teaching on this particular
civic competence, we found that teachers’ promotion of thinking in their daily lessons,
regardless of the subject taught, had a strong positive relationship to students’
persuasive writing on the constitutional issue, even after controlling for student writing
ability and general social studies knowledge. (p. 370)
Newmann (1990) concluded that the exercise requires higher order thinking and
understanding of relevant content. Success on the test is related to the extent to which
higher order thinking is stressed in the classroom.
Enright and Beattie (1992) developed a five-step model called SOLVE for assessing critical
thinking skills in mathematics. The five steps are Study the Problem (S), Organize the Data
(O), Line Up a Plan (L), Verify the Plan (V), and Evaluate the Match (E).
Portfolios
Portfolios are collections of student assignments and projects (essays, performance tasks,
etc.), which are gathered over an extended period of time, usually one academic year.
Depending on its purpose, the portfolio may also contain teacher evaluations, standardized test
scores, and student reflections on their accomplishments. Portfolios that are intended to
demonstrate growth and proficiency are often limited to single subject matter areas. Lankes
(1995) cited an example of one school at which students were required to complete 14 portfolios
in various content areas. However, portfolios may also contain real-world assignments that cut
across many subject areas and allow students the opportunity to employ higher order skills in
completing them. Portfolio performances are different from the performance tasks cited above in
that they may occur over

long periods of time and may be revised by students as a result of teacher input or self-
reflection. Disadvantages of portfolios for formal assessment include high costs of scoring
(McRobbie, 1992) and questions about the authorship of portfolio entries (Gearhart, Herman,
Baker, & Whittaker, 1993).
Haladyna (1997) provided a template to aid teachers in designing an evaluation portfolio. It
should contain (1) a table of contents; (2) a provision for a reflective letter that allows the
student to summarize his or her successes, frustrations, insights, feelings, etc.; (3) the specific
tasks to be accomplished and evaluated; (4) the page limit; (5) the extent of collaboration
allowed with other students; (6) a statement of the permissibility of editorial assistance; (7) an
indication of whether or not an appendix containing preliminary drafts, etc., is required; and (8)
grading criteria (the scoring rubric) that make the student aware of how points will be assigned
to the various sections of the portfolio.
Classroom Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills
Stiggins, Griswold, and Wikelund (1989) summarized a number of studies, which suggest
that assessments based on teacher observation and judgment and teacher-made tests are not
generally of high quality and that teacher assessment of higher order thinking skills is rare. Few
items written by teachers measure skills above the three Bloom taxonomy levels of knowledge,
comprehension, and application and a high percentage of them are recall (knowledge) items.
Stiggins et al. studied the assessment practices (use of oral and test questions) of 36 teachers
who taught mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts at grade levels 1 to 12.
Excluding math items, over one-half of the test questions at all grade levels were recall measures
(55%) followed by inference (19%), analysis (16%), comparison (5%), and evaluation (5%). In
math,

72% of the questions measured inference, 19% measured recall, and 9% measured comparison.
Oral questions followed the same pattern, with slightly less than half of them measuring recall.
Teachers who had received training in teaching and/or testing higher order thinking skills tended
to use fewer recall questions than teachers who had no training.
More recently, Bol and Strage (1993) studied the relationships between the instructional
goals and the assessment practices of 10 high school biology teachers. Individual interviews
with the teachers indicated that they wanted students to acquire an understanding and
appreciation of biology and its real-world applications. They also stressed the importance of
having students develop higher order thinking skills (distinguishing important from
unimportant information, integration and interpretation of information, critical thinking and
problem solving, and time and effort management). Examination of test items used by the
teachers revealed that more than half required only factual information and almost none
required application skills.
Assessment Models
Baker, Aschbacher, Niemi, and Sato
Baker, Aschbacher, Niemi, and Sato (1992) developed a performance-based model for
assessment of student understanding of subject matter content. They suggested that it may assist
others who need to develop similar measures. They illustrated the model through the
development of instruments on the Civil War era of U.S. history and the analysis of an unknown
substance in chemistry. The history writing prompt used in the example is given in Appendix
B. A major purpose of the model is to generate tasks that are comparable by design rather than
by statistical equating. The structure of the measures and the production of scoring rubrics are

thought to reduce variability from topic to topic. The model consists of four
assessment components:
 a prior knowledge measure, which assesses (and activates) students' general
and topic-relevant knowledge;
 provision of primary source materials (text), that is, new information in written
text for students to read;
 a writing task in which students integrate prior and new knowledge to
explain subject matter issues in response to a contextualized prompt; and
 the scoring rubric for the writing task.
(p. 7)
The prior knowledge measure consisted of 20 short-answer constructed-response items.
They measured basic concepts, principles, and background knowledge related to the task. In
the history example, items included “states rights” and the “Kansas-Nebraska Act.”
Text materials are primary sources that students must use in responding to the prompt. In
the example, the texts used were the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.
The writing task was an essay written in one class period by a student who had no help from
peers, parents, or teachers. The task could be modified to extend over longer periods of time
and include collaboration with others.
The essay scoring rubric consists of six dimensions, a General Impression of Content
Quality scale that focuses on the overall quality of the content understanding, and five analytic
scales, which are listed as follows.

 prior knowledge (facts, information, and events outside the provided texts used
to elaborate positions)
 number of principles or concepts (number and depth of description of principles)
 argumentation (quality of the argument, its logic and integration of elements)
 text (use of information from the text for elaboration)
 misconceptions (number and scope of misunderstandings in interpretation of
the text and historical period)
(pp. 4–5)
Students are allowed 15 minutes to respond to the prior knowledge items, 25 minutes to
read primary sources, and 50 minutes to read the prompt and write the essay.
Baker et al. (1992) provided detailed specifications for developing assessments (prior
knowledge test, essay task, and text materials) and for rater training, scoring, and reporting.
They also provided samples of training materials and student responses at different performance
levels.
Sugrue
Sugrue’s (1994, 1995) problem-solving model contains three major interacting
components: knowledge structures, cognitive functions, and beliefs about oneself. For good
problem solvers, knowledge structures are well organized. Concepts and principles are
integrated and linked to applications by conditions and procedures.
Concepts are categories of things, people, events, etc., that are similar with regard to some
important attributes. They share the same name. According to studies by de Kleer and
Brown, Genter and Stevens, Glaser, and Merrill (as cited in Sugrue, 1994),

A principal is defined as a rule, law, formula, or if-then statement that characterized
the relationship (often causal) between two or more concepts. Principals can be used to
interpret problems, to guide actions, to troubleshoot systems, to explain why
something happened, or to predict the effects a change in some concept(s) will have on
other concepts as reported in studies by de Kleer and Brown, Gentner and Stevens,
Glaser, and Merrill. (p. 9)
Procedures and conditions are links from concepts and principles to applications.
A procedure is a set of steps that can be carried out to achieve some goal. Conditions
are aspects of the environment that indicate the existence of an instance of a concept, or
that indicate that a principle is operating or might be applied, or that a particular
procedure is appropriate. Good problem solvers should be able to recognize situations
where a principle is operating; they should also be able to recognize situations where
procedures can be performed to identify or generate instances of a concept; and they
should be able to carry out those procedures accurately. Good problem solvers should
be able to assemble a procedure based on a principle to engineer a desired outcome in
an unfamiliar situation. (p. 10)
The cognitive functions assessed by the model are planning and monitoring. Planning
consists of laying out the steps to be followed in solving the problem. Monitoring refers to
being aware of different parts of one's performance, including time spent and time available,
progress toward the solution of the problem, and changes in tactics when necessary.
Three beliefs about oneself and the task are important in problem-solving assessment.
Perceived self-efficacy (PSE) refers to the student's assessment of his or her ability to solve the

problem. Perceived demands of the task (PDT) involves the student’s belief about the
difficulty of the task. Perceived attraction of the task (PAT) refers to the student’s interest and
motivation in completing the task. Assessment of these beliefs is necessary to complete a
profile of problem-solving performance.
Sugrue (1994, 1995) recommended that multiple item formats for measuring multiple
aspects of the content domain to which the task belongs be used to assess problem solving.
Tasks presented to students should not be ones they have encountered previously. A student
profile based on multiple formats and multiple aspects could help determine the extent to
which the overall assessment is novel for individual students.
Content Analysis
A content analysis is a major requirement for developing an assessment. The
Overview Content Analysis Form that follows was developed by Sugrue (1994) and
completed for problem solving in solution chemistry.

OVERVIEW CONTENT ANALYSIS FORM
Content/topic area:
solution chemistry
Important concepts (names only):
solution; solute; solvent; concentration; evaporation; density; buoyancy; temperature;
boiling point; freezing point
Procedures/techniques/tests for identifying instances of the concepts (names only):
Tyndall test; use balance to measure mass per unit volume (density); buoyancy test; glass tube
test; use of heat and thermometer to find boiling points of the liquids; evaporation
Procedures/techniques for generating instances of the concepts (names only):
stirring; heating; plus procedures for identifying/checking that the product is, in fact, an instance
of the concept
Principles that link any of these concepts (brief statements):
The greater the concentration of a solution, the lower its freezing point.
The greater the concentration of a solution, the higher its boiling point.
The greater the concentration of a solution, the greater its density.
The greater the concentration of a solution, the greater its buoyancy.
The higher the boiling point of a solution, the lower its freezing
point.
Procedures/techniques for applying any of these principles (names only):
same as for identifying and generating instances of concepts (goal would be to change state of one
concept by manipulating another; therefore, one would need to test for changes in concentration,
buoyancy, etc.)
(p. 26)
Sugrue (1994) provided sample multiple-choice, open-ended, and hands-on items
for solution chemistry. They are presented in Appendix B.

The Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory
The Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) authentic assessment model
(Marzano et al., 1992) is organized around 14 complex reasoning processes within 6 general
competencies. The competencies are listed below.
1. Knowledge of concepts, generalizations, processes, and strategies that
are considered critical to specific content areas.
2. Ability to utilize complex reasoning processes.
3. Ability to gather and utilize information from a variety of sources in a
variety of modes.
4. Ability to communicate effectively through a variety of products.
5. Ability to regulate one's own learning and development.
6. Ability to work in a cooperative/collaborative manner.
(p. 4)
A number of subcompetencies are contained within each competency. The 14
complex reasoning processes and questions that students could ask in relation to them are
as follows.
Comparing: How are these alike? How are they different?
Classifying: What groups can I put things into? What are the rules
governing membership in these groups?
Structural Analysis: What is the main idea or what is the most important
information? What is the dominant pattern? What are the
supporting patterns? What are the supporting pieces? How
are the pieces related?

Supported Induction: What conclusions/generalizations can you draw from this and
what is the support for these conclusions? What is the
probability for this and what is the support for that
conclusion?
Supported Deduction: What has to be true given the validity of this principle? What
is the proof that this must be true?
Error Analysis: What’s wrong with this? What are specific errors that have
been made? How can it be fixed?
Constructing Support: What is the support for this argument? What are the
limitations of this argument?
Extending: What's the general pattern of information here? Where else
does this apply? How can the information be represented
in another way (graphically, symbolically)?
Decision Making: What/whom would be the best or worst? Which one has the
most or least?
Investigation: What are the defining characteristics (definitive)? Why/how
did this happen (historical)? What would/would have
happen/ed if (projective)?
Systems Analysis: How does this operate? What are the relationships among
components? What effect does one part have on another?
Problem Solving: How can I overcome this obstacle? Given these conditions,
what can I expect the answer to be?

Experimental Inquiry: What do I observe? How can I explain it? What can I predict
from it?
Invention: How can this be improved? What new thing is needed here?
(pp. 36–37)
Although the competencies and reasoning processes apply to all subject matters, Marzano
et al. (1992) emphasize that they always apply to domain-specific content. It is important that
students acquire sufficient declarative knowledge (e.g., concepts and facts) and procedural
knowledge (e.g., strategies and algorithms) within a specific content domain before they can be
expected to engage in the complex reasoning processes that may be required by performance
measures. They provide details for (1) constructing authentic classroom tasks and examples of
them, (2) securing tasks to maximize reliability for districtwide or state-level assessment, and
(3) generalizing rubrics for rating declarative and procedural knowledge and complex
reasoning skills. Examples of classroom tasks for supported deduction, error analysis, and
constructing support for elementary students are given in Appendix B.
The Advanced International Certificate of Education
The Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) (University of Cambridge,
Local Examinations Syndicate, 1997a) is an assessment model for college-bound students who
are 18 years of age or older. Schools that fully participate in the program offer courses in 3
broad areas: mathematics and sciences (9 courses), languages (8 courses), and arts and
humanities (9 courses). To receive an AICE certificate, students must take examinations in at
least 5 courses (all courses include critical thinking and other higher order thinking skills). One
course from each broad subject area must be included. Assessment requirements for each course
typically

include some combination of externally scored examinations and school-based assessments,
which can include essays, performance tests, and portfolios. Successful students may
receive college credit or be eligible for advanced courses at many colleges and universities.
As an example, the assessment objectives of the AICE course in economics (University
of Cambridge, Local Examinations Syndicate, n.d.) cover all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
The curriculum on which the assessments are based include
 resources and the economic problem (factors of production and scarcity, choice
and opportunity cost);
 allocative mechanisms (market system, command economy, mixed economy);
 the circular flow of national income (the circular flow model, consumption
and saving, economic fluctuations);
 specialization, trade, and exchange (the open economy: trade and exchange);
 international trade (protection, commodity agreements, exchange rates,
international monetary system, balance of payments, multinational
companies);
 economic development (living standards, developing economies); and
 policy objectives and instruments (full employment, price stability,
economic growth).
(pp. 4–6)
A sample of test items (University of Cambridge, Local Examinations Syndicate, 1997b)
from the externally scored 1997 economics examination are given in Appendix B.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program
The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program (International Baccalaureate North
America, n.d.) is a curriculum and assessment model for high schools. Students will acquire
knowledge in the areas of language, literature, mathematics, science, and social studies with
particular recognition and emphasis on the interrelatedness of the various disciplines by
 developing a proficiency in the communication skills of reading, writing,
and speaking and listening;
 developing a proficiency in the process of calculating, problem solving,
observing, measuring, and estimating;
 developing a proficiency in the intellectual skills of analysis, synthesis,
induction, deduction, and critical and aesthetic judgment; and
 developing the skills and attitudes that contribute to intelligent and productive
participation in the economic system as well as developing an appreciation for
both unique and common characteristics of other individuals and cultures.
(Escambia County School District, n.d., p. 4)
The curriculum and examinations consist of six subject matter areas, a special course
entitled Theory of Knowledge, the Creative Action and Service project, and an extended
essay. The six subject matter areas are (1) Language A1, the student’s native or strongest
language;
(2) Language A2, a second modern language; (3) Individuals and Societies, social studies,
philosophy, business, etc.; (4) Experimental Sciences; (5) Mathematics; and (6) the Arts and
Electives. The Theory of Knowledge course is taken by students in their senior year to help
them integrate the knowledge, skills, and understandings attained from all their IB course work.

The

Creative Action and Service project can emphasize sports, theater, community service, or
other extracurricular activities. The extended essay “offers the opportunity to investigate a
topic of special interest and acquaints students with the kind of independent research and
writing skills expected at a university” (p. 12).
Both internal and external assessments are made of a student’s course work.
Teacher assessments (internal) can make up to 20% of a student’s grade.
The IB program is offered by a number of Florida high schools. IB graduates are eligible for
advanced placement or course credit at a large number of American universities.
Statewide Assessment Models of Higher Order Thinking Skills
Sternberg
Sternberg and Baron (1985) indicated that the measurement of students’ thinking abilities
should be accompanied by a curriculum that included thinking skills instruction. He concluded
that collaboration by state department personnel, cognitive psychologists, and testing
organizations provided a good model for future efforts to develop statewide assessment of
higher order thinking skills. Examples of items from the fourth-grade Connecticut test are given
in Appendix B.
Paul and Nosich
Paul and Nosich (1992) were commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education and
the National Center of Educational Statistics to develop a model for the national assessment
of higher order thinking. Their report (a) identified 21 criteria for higher order skills testing,
(b) developed a concept of critical thinking that meets these criteria, (c) identified 4 domains
of critical thinking, and (d) recommended ways to measure the 4 kinds of critical thinking
skills.
The 21 criteria are given as answers to the following questions (italics theirs):
1. Can it be used for information processing skills?
2. Can it be used to test flexible skills and abilities that can be used in a wide variety
of subjects, situations, contexts, and educational levels?
3. Can it account for important differences among the subject areas?
4. Can it be used to focus on fundamental abilities fitted to the accelerating pace of
change and embedded in intellectual history?
5. Can it be used to improve instruction?
6. Can it make clear the interconnectedness of our knowledge and abilities, and why
expertise in one area cannot be divorced either from findings in other area or
from a sensitivity to the need for interdisciplinary integration?
7. Can it be used to assess those versatile and fundamental skills essential to being a
responsible, decision-making member of the workplace?
8. Can it generate clear concepts and well thought-out, rationally articulated goals,
criteria and standards?
9. Can it account for the integration of adult-level communication skills, problem-
solving, and critical thinking, and legitimately assess all of them without
compromising essential features of any of them?
10. Does it respect cultural diversity by focusing on the common-core skills,
abilities and traits useful in all cultures?

11. Does it test for thinking that promotes (to quote the September 1991 Kappan)
“the active engagement of students in constructing their own knowledge and
understanding?”
12. Does it concentrate on assessing the fundamental cognitive structures
of communication?
13. Can it be used to assess the central features of making rational decisions as a
citizen, a consumer, and a part of a world economy?
14. Can it avoid reducing a complex whole to oversimplified parts?
15. Can it articulate what is central to basic skills for the future?
16. Can it provide the kind of skills that are seen as valuable outside the school as well
as inside it?
17 and 18. Can critical thinking be assessed in a way that requires evaluation of
authentic problems in realistic contexts where the abilities assessed include those
of formulating the problem and initial screening of plausible solutions?
19. Can critical thinking be assessed nationally in a way that is financially affordable?
20 and 21. Can critical thinking be assessed so as to gauge the improvement of students
over the course of their education and to measure the achievement of students
against national standards?
(pp. 5–8)
Paul and Nosich (1992) proposed an assessment that could meet the criteria implied by the
21 questions. It would consist of multiple-choice, multiple-rating, and essay items. Multiple-

choice items are limited to reasoning skills such as recognition of assumptions, inferences,
and detection of faculty reasoning. Some abbreviated examples are given in Appendix B.
Paul and Nosich (1992) proposed that a higher order skills examination be composed of
both interdisciplinary and subject-specific items. The interdisciplinary items would be
constructed by experts in the field of critical thinking, who would collaborate with subject matter
experts on the subject-specific items. Students would choose the subject matter area in which
they would be examined. All students at grades 6, 9, and 12 would take the objective parts of the
exam. For economic reasons, the essay assessment would be administered only to representative
samples of the student populations.
The Florida Department of Education
The Florida Department of Education (1997a–g) created the Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test (FCAT), which measures achievement in mathematics at grades 5, 8, and 10
and reading at grades 4, 8, and 10. Both mathematics and reading contain items at two
cognitive levels based on Bloom’s taxonomy. Level I items are intended to measure knowledge,
comprehension, and application, where application is similar to that encountered in the
classroom. Level II items are intended to measure application, analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation, where application is unique to the situation described in the item. Level II items
comprise 50%, 60%, and 70% of the 4th-, 8th-, and 10th-grade reading exams, respectively.
They make up 50%, 60%, and 65% of the mathematics exam for the three grades. The
mathematics assessment contains multiple-choice, gridded response, short response, and
extended response items. The reading assessment contains multiple-choice, short response, and
extended response items. The Sunshine State Standards define the content knowledge and skills

for item development in both reading and mathematics. Higher order thinking skills are required
by many test items as specified by Standard 4 of Goal 3 of Blueprint 2000: “Florida students
use creative thinking skills to generate new ideas, make the best decision, recognize and solve
problems through reasoning, interpret symbolic data, and develop efficient techniques for
lifelong learning” (Florida Department of Education, 1997d, p. 5).
A separate assessment, Florida Writes! (Florida Department of Education, 1996), is
administered in grades 4, 8, and 10. Florida Writes! is a holistically scored direct writing
measure in which students at grade 4 write on narrative or expository topics, and students at
grades 8 and 10 write on expository or persuasive topics. Scoring is based on focus,
organization, support, and use conventions. Examples of mathematics, reading items, writing
prompts, and rubrics may be obtained from the Florida Department of Education.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
In 1997, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (1997a) began to employ statewide
mathematics tests at grades 5, 8, and 11 that contain both open-ended (performance) tasks
and enhanced multiple-choice questions. Open-ended tasks
require students to read a problem or task description and to write out their answers.
Major components of such answers are both students' clear presentations of their
computations and their explanations of the steps they followed in solving the
problem. The types of tasks utilized do not always require solving a problem
involving computations (p. 3).
Enhanced multiple-choice questions generally involve higher order thinking skills and refer
to situations in real life or the classroom, give information to the teacher about the processes

involved in problem solutions, and integrate process and knowledge. The five content
areas involved in the test are (1) number sense, properties, and operations; (2)
measurement;
(3) geometry; (4) data analysis, statistics, and probability; and (5) algebra and functions. A
general rubric is used for scoring open-ended tasks. The five-point rubric contains levels
ranging from “Advanced Understanding” to “Excellent” to “Incorrect Response.” Detailed
scoring explanations and sample student responses are provided. The intermediate levels can
accept incorrect answers if the student provides the necessary information for solving the
problem. Sample enhanced multiple-choice and open-ended tasks for each grade level are shown
in Appendix B.
Pennsylvania also administers a direct writing assessment to students in grades 6 and 9
(Pennsylvania Department of Education, 1997b). Three kinds of writing are assessed:
1. narrative/imaginative, which encourages creativity and speculation;
2. informational, whose function is “to present information through reporting, explaining,
directing, summarizing and defining; to organize and analyze information through
explaining, comparing, contrasting, and relaying cause/effect; or to evaluate
information through judging, ranking or deciding” (p. 4); and
3. persuasive, because “(a) it requires thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and
evaluation; (b) it requires writers to choose from a variety of situations and to take
a stand; and (c) it is a skill frequently used in school and the workplace” (p. 4).
Students randomly receive one of nine prompts on which to write. The assessment is
administered in two 40-minute sessions on two consecutive days. In the first session, students
think about the topic, make notes, and write a first draft; in the second, they reread the
prompt, review their drafts, and produce a final copy. Each paper is holistically scored on a
six-point

scale by two trained raters. A scoring rubric and anchor papers for each of the six points
are provided to the raters. Sample prompts are given in Appendix B.
King, Rohani, and Goodson (1997) investigated the feasibility of assessing the real-world
problem-solving skills of samples of Florida’s elementary, middle, and high school students.
They identified 31 problem-solving skills that almost completely overlap with the skills listed
by various authors previously cited in this report. Also, in agreement with previously cited
investigators, they recommended that the proposed assessments should contain multiple-choice
(select) and constructed-response (generate) items and possibly computer-administered
performance tasks (generate). Explanation of solutions could be required with all three kinds of
items or tasks. Items would be constructed to measure the 31 skills in ways consistent with the
Sunshine State Standards.
King, Rohani, and Goodson (1997) suggested that the administration of a multiple-choice
and constructed-response instrument to a Florida statewide sample of about 3,500 students at
each of three chosen grade levels would be feasible. Activities involved in the assessment
would include formation and training of item writing and review committees; preparation of test
booklets, answer documents, answer keys, and rubrics; conducting a pilot study and validation
committee meeting; and producing final editions of all materials.
Summary of Classroom and Statewide Assessments
The measurement of higher order thinking skills requires that students be unfamiliar with the
questions or tasks they are asked to answer or perform and that they have sufficient prior
knowledge to enable them to apply their higher order thinking skills to answer the question or
solve the problem. Meeting these requirements is problematic in dealing with either real-life or

subject-matter domain problems. A recommended solution (Sugrue, 1994) is to examine
students using multiple-item formats to measure multiple aspects of a domain. Student profiles
of correct answers can help to determine the extent to which the overall assessment is novel for
individual students.
Psychological studies of transfer of higher order thinking skills suggest that skills taught in
one context generalize to other contexts if explicit teaching for transfer and self-monitoring is
included in the instruction. Other studies suggest that over long periods of time individuals, as
a result of educational and other personal experiences, develop higher order skills (intellectual
abilities) that apply to the solutions of a broad spectrum of complex problems. Conversely,
psychometric studies of the generalizability of higher order thinking skills when measured by
hands-on performance tasks show great method and task variability in student performance; that
is, individual student achievement is highly dependent on the tasks and methods used in the
assessment. Estimates of the number of tasks needed in an assessment to achieve generalizable
(reliable) results range from 8 to 23.
Published tests of higher order thinking skills have been found to be sensitive to instruction.
Three studies of such tests involved single group pre- and posttest comparisons and two used
quasi-experimental treatment and control groups. In all studies, results were statistically
significant, but treatment effects were small. A recommended procedure (Ennis, 1993) for
those who might want to use a published test to assess student levels of critical thinking or for
evaluating programs or courses is to examine the test items for content validity, then to take the
test themselves and examine their own performance critically.

Three item/task formats have been identified for use in assessing higher order
thinking skills: (1) selection, which includes multiple-choice, matching, and rank order
items;
(2) generation, which includes short answer, essay, and performance items or tasks; and
(3) explanation, which involves giving reasons for selection or generation responses. All three
formats are valid for measuring some aspects of higher order thinking, but all three have some
disadvantages. Multiple-choice and constructed-response items can be used for separately
measuring many specific higher order skills such as deduction, inference, and prediction but are
less successful for measuring synthesis and evaluation. Some validity problems can be avoided
by using answer justification, where subjects select responses and then justify in writing their
reasons for the choices they made. Multiple-choice items can sample many aspects of the
subject matter, and performance tasks and essays can deal with complex real-life problems that
require students to employ a number of higher order skills in solving them. However, final
solutions to performance tasks and essays may not reveal the application of many higher order
skills. Performance tasks and essays usually sample only a few aspects of the subject matter.
Portfolios are useful in promoting and informally assessing reflective thinking skills.
Even though classroom teachers recognize the importance of having students develop
higher order thinking skills, teacher-made tests are often heavily weighted with recall questions.
Teachers who have received training in teaching and testing higher order thinking skills use
fewer recall questions than those who have not received such training.
Three comprehensive performance based models for assessing higher order skills have
been constructed. They contain detailed procedures for constructing performance assessments
in specific content domains. Two international curricula and assessment systems are available
to
instruct advanced students in both subject matter content and higher order thinking
skills. Students are assessed by both local school personnel and external examiners.
Statewide assessment systems for elementary, middle, and high school students may contain
measures of higher order thinking skills. Two states, Florida and Pennsylvania, include select,
generate, and select and explain items or tasks in their mathematics, reading, and writing
assessments. In Florida, higher order skills comprise at least 50% of the items or tasks, and the
Pennsylvania assessments also emphasize higher order skills.
A proposal for a nationwide test of higher order thinking skills and a report of a statewide
pilot project for measuring such skills both emphasized the need for collaboration of subject
matter experts and cognitive psychologists and/or critical thinking experts in preparing such
assessments. The nationwide proposal contained a provision for multiple-choice and
multiple- rating items to be administered to all students and essay items to be given to
representative samples of students. The pilot project contained only multiple-choice items.
One study for the Florida Department of Education demonstrated the feasibility of statewide
assessment of the real-world problem-solving skills of samples of students. Instruments for
implementing the proposed assessments of the skills of elementary, middle, and high school
students would consist of multiple-choice, constructed-response, and possibly computer-
administered performance tasks.
Example items and tasks reveal a wide variety of ways that have been used to measure
higher order skills. They also demonstrate the difficulties inherent in the construction of
instruments to assess these skills for students at all educational levels. It should be possible to
construct measures for them through the use of carefully developed item/test specifications and
adequate pilot testing and analysis.

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APPENDIX A: SAMPLE TEACHING ASSIGNMENTS
The following samples of teaching assignments were discovered in materials reviewed
during the course of this project. They have been selected or adapted to show a variety of
approaches. These types of assignments can be adapted further to more fully support the
development of higher order thinking skills. It is recommended that teachers review and plan
how to adapt assignments to their own teaching strategies and context prior to implementation.

Riddles and Puzzles for a Thoughtful Classroom
Beyer (1997), pp. 6768
Item 1
When outsiders first came to Tobuk, they found two kinds of people down there. The Amok
always lied. All the other natives always told the truth. One day an outsider met three natives.
She asked the first if she were Amok. The first native answered the question. The second
native then reported that the first native denied being Amok. The third native then said that the
first native really was Amok. How many of these natives were Amok?
Item 2
In y = 3x + 5x -
2 If
x = 0 then y = - 2
So
if x = 1 then y = ?
Item 3
These are trikes: 606 718 246 011
These are not: 56 618 441 306
What are trikes?
Item 4
Two cyclists start at the same time from opposite ends of a 100-mile-long road. Each bicycle
moves at a speed of 40 miles per hour. At the moment they start, a fly leaves one of the
bicycles and starts flying back and forth between the two cyclists until they meet. If the fly
travels at 60 miles an hour, how many miles does it fly before the cyclists meet?
Item 5
If one greyhound can jump over a ditch two yards wide, how wide a ditch can six
greyhounds jump across?
Item 6
I spring to the saddle, and Joris and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all
three. What is the name of “he”?
Item 7
One rabbit eats 2 pounds of food in a week. There are 52 weeks in a year. How much
food would five rabbits eat in a week?
Item 8
Message (in code): Dpnf up Mpoepo bu podf.
The same translated: Come to London at once.
What is the secret letter for “x” in this code?
Item 9
What will be the day after the day after tomorrow,
if the day before the day before yesterday was Wednesday?

Item 10
Marc, Ana, Julia, and Daniel decide to have a checkers tournament at school. They want to be
sure that each of them gets a chance to play each of the others one time. They ask you to
make a schedule for the tournament. Here is the information you need to make a plan that
works.
 They want to finish the tournament in one week. They can play from Monday
to Friday.
 They will only play at lunchtime. There is enough time during lunch period to play
a game of checkers.
 The students have two checkers sets, so two games can be going on at once.
 Marc can’t play checkers on the days he is a lunch helper (Mondays and Wednesdays).
 Each player must play every other player
once. Make a schedule for the tournament.

Critical Thinking
Wellness and Teacher Education Centre, University of Regina,
Canada http://hlthed.uregina.ca/cni/instres/pourri/118
Family DecisionsGrade 6
Read the following item to the classroom:
Chris wanted to go to camp. His father promised Chris could go if he saved up the
money. Chris worked hard on the paper route and saved the $75.00 it cost for the camp.
But just before camp was going to start, Chris’s father changed his mind. Some of his
friends had decided to travel to Toronto to see a hockey game, and Chris’s father didn’t
have enough money. His father asked Chris to give him the money he had saved. Chris
didn’t want to give up going to camp, so Chris thought of refusing.
Now decide whether or not Chris should give the money to his father.
If you answer YES, look at the sentences that follow and choose the one you think to be
the best reason for saying YES, and put a one (1) in the box provided. Then choose the
second best reason and put a two (2) in the box provided, and so on until all the sentences
have been ranked.
If you answer NO, look at the sentences that follow and choose the one you think to be
the best reason for saying no and put a one (1) in the box provided. Then choose the
second best reason and put a two (2) in the box provided, and so on until all of the
sentences have been ranked.
YES
1. Because if Chris did refuse, in the future, he might not ever get to go to the camp.
2. The father has a responsibility for Chris’s growth and welfare. If he decides that it is
better for Chris not to go to camp and to give Chris’s father the money for a hockey
trip, then the father is acting responsibly.
3. Chris’s father may not always keep his word, but he is trying to help Chris in the
best way he knows. Chris should respect his father for trying to be a good
father.
4. Because it is Chris’s father, Chris should listen to what his father says.
NO
1. Chris has had the experience of working hard and saving money, and this will foster
industry, initiative and responsibility, all of which are necessary if society is to
remain stable.
2. It’s Chris’s money, so he should be able to do whatever he wants with it.
3. The father should recognize Chris as a person who is different but equal to himself;
Chris has a right to make personal decisions.
4. Chris’s father made a promise. The father is behaving selfishly and is inconsiderate
for asking Chris for the money.
Discuss in groups or pairs the reasons for the students’ personal choices.

Critical Thinking (continued)
Wellness and Teacher Education Centre, University of Regina,
Canada http://hlthed.uregina.ca/cni/instres/pourri/115
Safety FirstGrades 4 and 5

Have the students list 5 things that they did before school started this morning that were
safety conscious activities. Discuss with the students why they believe that they acted safely and
what would have been in jeopardy if they had not acted that way.
Ask the students to draw a poster of themselves doing a safety conscious activity. Have
them title their work with a logo such as Safety Sally or Conscientious Cindy, etc. Evaluate the
posters on creativity, clarity, and artistic expression.
Activities to Promote Critical Thinking: Classroom Practices in Teaching English

Jeff Golub, National Council of Teachers of English, (1986)
Estimation/Front-EndingGrade 4
1. Introduce the concept of the front-ending process. Provide a brief demonstration of
the process, followed by a practice session.
2. Ask students to come up with a list of words they need in order to explain front-ending.
List the words on the blackboard.
3. Ask students to write letters to friends in other classrooms describing what they have learned.
4. Work on the revision of the drafts with students (guide students through
questioning strategies rather than instructions).
5. Ask students to edit their letters.
6. Proofread each letter.

Newspaper Activities for Young Consumers
Adapted from Tess Greenup, Albuquerque Journal/Tribune: Newspapers in Education
Item 1
Look in today’s newspaper and see if you can find advertisements for 3 items you
have consumed or used in the past 24 hours. Complete the table below for each item.
Name of Item Page # Where Ad Advertised Price for

Appeared Product
Answer the following questions in group discussion or on a separate sheet of paper.

1. How did the use of each of the three items make you a consumer?
2. Why did you or your parent decide to purchase each item?
3. What is the definition of the word “consumer”?
Item 2
Definition A: Goods are things you can buy. A notebook is a good. So is a newspaper.
Activity A: Look in today’s newspaper and find 3 separate advertisements for 3 consumable
goods. Clip the ads. (Some newspaper advertisements have many items in them. Clip the
whole ad and circle with a crayon or colored marker one consumer good.) Paste each of your ads
on a separate piece of paper. On the back of each paper, answer the following questions:
1. What is the common name for the good you selected?
2. What is the price of the good?
3. When, if ever, would this good really be needed? When would it be wanted, but not really
needed?
4. What age group would be most likely to use this good?
a. young people b. teenagers c. adults d. older people e. all ages
5. What firm or store advertised this good in the newspaper? Write the name.
Definition B: A service is a job you pay someone else to do. Hair dressers provide a
service. Doctors provide a service. Can you name some other workers who provide
services?
Activity B: Find advertisements for 3 services. Clip the ads and paste them on a sheet of
paper. Then answer the following questions on the back of each paper.
1. What service is advertised?
2. What firm is advertising the service?
3. Is this service a want or a need for most people?
4. What is the price of the service?
5. Who would be most likely to want or need this service?
a. young people b. teenagers c. adults d. older people e. all ages
Activity C: Find an advertisement in today’s newspaper for a good you think your teacher needs.
Then find an advertisement for a service you think your teacher wants, but does not need.

Item 3
Caveat emptor is a Latin phrase which means “Let the Buyer
Beware.” Why do you think the words “Let the Buyer Beware” are
significant?
Look in today’s newspaper and find an advertisement for a good or service which you
consider NOT to be a good buy. Clip the ad and paste it on a piece of paper. Write “caveat
emptor” on the top of the page. Underneath the ad or on the back of the page write two
reasons to explain why you think the good or service may not be a good buy.
Item 4
When consumers or sellers feel the law has been broken and the dispute cannot be settled, they
must ask a third, independent party to settle the argument. One such party to settle
disagreements is the court. The court is asked to settle a disagreement by means of a “law-suit.”
Read the newspaper every day for a full week. Look for news articles or notices that tell about
people or firms suing someone else because of a problem they have had. Clip the news stories
and paste them on pieces of paper. Then tell in your own words what seems to be the problem
by answering the questions below.
1. Who is suing whom?
2. Why?
3. What does the person or firm filing the suit want?
4. Who do you think should win this dispute? Why?
5. Why are laws necessary to protect the consumer and sellers?
Item 5
Activity A: Eggs usually are described as “USDA Grade A” or “USDA Grade AA.” This
labeling follows the requirements of a federal regulation under the Pure Food and Drug
laws. Clip ads from the newspaper that refer to federal controls of foods, drugs, chemicals,
and cosmetics.
Activity B: Pretend you are a reporter and interview 5 adults in your family, community, or
school. Ask each adult this question: “What do you think is the most beneficial law or
regulation which protects our food and drugs?” Write down the answer given by each person
or record the answer on a tape recorder. Compare all 5 answers to each other. Then write a
news story about what you find out.

Item 6
Activity A: Write 1 of the 5 laws listed below on the top of a poster. In the newspaper,
find advertisements for goods to which the law would apply. Paste the ads on your poster.
Laws:
1. There must be truthful and accurate information about the contents of foods, and the
contents must be listed in order of the amount contained in the product. If a “standard”
has been established for a food, such as milk, ingredients need not be given.
2. Poisonous and dangerous household items must contain warnings and be packaged in
containers that young children cannot open easily. Containers should give instructions
for emergency information or care if the product is swallowed or gets into someone’s
eyes.
3. Labels must give the exact quantity contained in the package, using words that people
can understand easily. They must be written in print large enough to read easily.
4. Nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, and protein, must be listed on all diet foods and on
all foods which claim to be enriched or in some way to improve health.
5. Labels on clothes, furs, and furniture must give truthful information about the items
from which they are made and about how to care for the material.
Activity B: Clip an illustration from an ad and write your own label for that good.
Item 7
Activity A: Find the words CONSUMER, GOODS, SERVICE, WANT, NEED, LAW, VALUE,
and REGULATE in ads and headlines in the newspaper and paste them on a sheet of
paper. Beside each word, write what the word means.
Activity B: Fill in the blanks in the “news article” below with the words CONSUMER, GOODS,
SERVICE, WANT, NEED, LAW, VALUE, and REGULATE.
Terry Bradface, owner of Flim Flam Records and Recording Studio, responded in Municipal
Court today to charges that he had violated a ’s rights by breaking a
labeling . Bradface is accused of labeling his tapes and records falsely
with stars’ names although his records and tapes are performed by unknown singers and
musicians. Bradface said the law does not the
and in his store. Bradface said that the records and tapes he sells are
not a necessity, but a desire. In other words, he said his products are a
not a in most people’s lives. He argued then that mislabeling would
not affect the of the record or tape. Judge Jones disagreed with
Bradface and ordered him not to put false information on his labels.

Item 8
The following survey and interview activity is one of the most useful for producing original
newsletters. Refer to your students as reporters. Also, plan a reasonable unit of time for the
publication of the newsletter. One day will probably not be enough time to complete the
project, but you probably will not want to extend it over a week.
Assign surveys and interviews outside the classroom as homework assignments. Choose
questions which come up in class or questions about a consumer topic being covered in the daily
newspaper. These types of questions will give students a sense of being involved in “real”
issues of importance. Start with questions which can be answered with “yes,” “no,” or “I don’t
know.” Before sending students out for their interviews, have them construct an interview
answer sheet like the one below. Instruct students to use this form to record their interviews.
Question: (WRITE QUESTION IN THIS SPACE. It is important that all students copy the
question exactly alike.)
Respondent’s Name Yes No I don’t know

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Instruct each student to interview 5 people and to fill out the interview answer sheet. From these
answers, the class can compile the data in class. Write “Yes,” “No,” and “I don’t know” on the
chalkboard and ask each student to list the number of responses for each answer. Add the
responses and then have students discuss the results and generalize from the data. After this
discussion, have each student write a news story and select the best article for publication in
your newsletter.
Assign editors for the newsletter. Stress the importance of accuracy, fairness, and balance in the
handling of information.
Keep layout and design simple at first. For example: a 2-column newsletter is easier to produce
than a 3-column one.

Item 9
We keep a privately-owned free press simply because merchants are willing to pay for
advertising to tell people about the goods and services they have to sell. More than 70 percent of
a newspaper’s revenue comes from advertising. Without advertising, the same newspaper which
costs $.25 or $.50 would cost several dollars. Two main kinds of advertising appear in a
newspaper: display and classified. Display ads usually are large enough to display an
illustration of one or more products. Retail stores, manufacturers and service companies usually
buy display ads. Classified ads are small ads at low cost, usually without illustrations.
Individuals or businesses such as car companies usually buy these types of ads.
Both types of ads usually are supposed to do four things: (1) catch a reader’s attention;
(2) provide facts and information; (3) use persuasive techniques; and (4) convince a reader to
buy a product or service or to agree with a particular viewpoint.
Activity A: Select a display ad that “catches your eye” and answer the following questions:
1. What is the name of the firm or company doing the advertising?
2. What is being sold? (If more than one good is advertised, count the number of items in the
ad and tell what kind of merchandise is advertised.)
3. Is the price listed? What is the price?
4. Is the price asked a fair price to pay? Why? Why not?
5. What is the stated or implied reason for someone to buy what the ad is selling?
6. Copy any persuasive or “appeal” words from the ad.
7. Measure the entire ad. How many columns wide is the ad? How many inches deep is the
ad? [Note: Some students when first looking at newspaper ads may focus on only one part
or the inner block of an ad rather than approach the ad as a whole unit. This activity is
useful in developing skimming skills to differentiate separate ads in a newspaper.]
8. Why did this ad catch your eye?
9. What symbols are used in the ad?
10. To which gender does this ad appeal? Males only? Females only? Both males
and females?
11. To which age group does this ad appeal? To parents only? Children and parents?
Teenagers only? Grandparents and older people?
12. What income range do you think the buyer of this product is in?
13. What one thing would influence you to buy this item?
14. What one single thing would influence you NOT to buy this item?
15. Will the product still be around in 5 years?
16. What will the product be used for? What is the intended use of the product? For work? For
play? Study? Something else?
17. How accurate do you believe the ad is?
18. Where was the ad located in the newspaper? Does ad location have anything to do with
the people who will read the ad?
Activity B: Select three classified ads placed in the newspaper by individuals and answer the
following questions:
(1) What is being sold? (2) How is the item described? (3) Is the price listed? If so, what is the
price? (4) How do you get in touch with the advertiser?

Item 10
Activity A: Find display ads which use one or more of these appeals: Testimonial AppealSlogan Appeal
Bandwagon AppealPatriotism
Sex AppealHumor
Appeal to Your Well Being or EgoGlamour Bargain or Economy Appeal
Clip an ad using a different appeal. Identify how the ad appeals to the reader.
Activity B: See how many of the following appeal words you can find in today’s newspaper. Put a check mark b
free magic brand new amazing unbelievable bargain

offer sensational compare current soothing modern
reduced latest improved suddenly remarkable sale
popular miracle easy
Activity C: Pretend you are an ad director for your school. You need to attract students to enroll in a new recreati

Item 11
In advertising, the term “puffing” means exaggerating. Examples include “the finest in the
world,” “best of all,” “sensational,” and “fantastic.” Puffing is not against the law since the
exaggeration is a form of opinion.
However, there is a difference between “puffing” and deliberately giving false information.
Lying about a product is dishonest and unlawful. An advertiser cannot claim that a product
is something it is not, or that a product can do something it cannot do. That is dishonest and
against the law.
Activity A: Pretend you are an ad writer for a newspaper. Write an ad for a product
using “puffing.” Create another ad for the same product, using dishonest claims and
untruthful information.
Activity B: Look in today’s newspaper and find an example of “puffing.”

What words and phrases are puffing? Rewrite the ad, using other ways to describe the product.
Item 12
Activity A: Look for any news articles in the newspaper which mention the Federal
Trade Commission. Clip and share them with your teacher.
Activity B: Lottery prizes, such as a free trip or free auto, must be open to the public. This
means anyone can win the lottery prize whether or not a person makes a purchase from a store
offering the prize. Look for a newspaper ad which has a lottery prize advertised. Can you
find the phrase, “No Purchase Necessary” to reflect this ruling?

Imagemaking in the Classroom
Adapted from Nancy King, Inner Visions/Outer VersionsGrades 11 and 12
Students read more productively when they understand that their personal identities and
the times in which they live affect the way they interpret what they read.
1. Instruct students to think about any images, questions, or other responses that come to
mind as they listen to a short passage. Then read the passage aloud or have them read a
longer passage on their own.
2. Ask the students to respond to the text in one or more of the following ways:
 Paint an image of a passage that compels (angers, irritates, intrigues, amazes) you.
 Write down words, ideas, and/or phrases that came to mind during the reading.
 Sculpt an image of the protagonist at the beginning in relationship to a significant
place, person, or event in the protagonist’s life. Choose a specific passage as your
reference point.
 Paint an image of a character in a moment of crisis.
 Choose one character and write an internal monologue (character talks to himself
or herself) of about one minute long, exploring your character’s thoughts and
feelings.
 Select a passage that symbolizes an important moment in the character’s life.
Reread the passage aloud as if you are the character, using appropriate
character motivation and intention.
 Sculpt an image of a character at a particular point. The sculpture can
represent non-human sources such as water, heat, hunger, dust, need, etc.
 Pretend you are a character and write a brief autobiography.
 As if you are the character, ask yourself a question of great importance to you at
a specific point in the story.
 Write a journal entry describing a character’s actions, thoughts, and feelings at
a certain point in the story.
 Pick a character at a particular point. As your character, write a letter to an
important person in your character’s life. Identify this person and her/his
relationship to your character. Tell about an aspect of your life (as your
character) and ask this person a question of great importance to you.
3. Have the students share what they created, either by going around the room or having
the student who is presenting pick the next student. Facilitate class discussions by asking
students why they chose to create what they did or why a particular character or passage
moved them. If students choose to write in the voice of the character, ask them
questions and have them answer as if they are still the character.

Thinking Writing Tables
Pritchard (1993)—Grades 6, 7, and 8
ED 363 623
1. Have students analyze the following critical thinking assignment. Ask students to
answer two questions:
 What critical thinking task does this assignment require?
 What topic does this assignment ask me to think critically about?
Assignment: Categorize the advertisements for cars profiled by your group and tell
what these categories suggest about the messages the ad writers wish to
send.
Thinking Task:
Topic:
2. Using rewriting strategies, help students gather information and ideas about the
assignment topic.
3. Negotiate with students the thinking steps they will use to carry out the assignment’s
critical thinking task.
4. Help students learn the basic format for thinking writing tables. Use a three-column table
as the basic format.
Questions Answers Details

1.
2.
3.
5. Help students convert thinking steps for the critical thinking task into questions.
6. Have students answer questions with information and ideas they generated during prewriting.
7. Have students write first drafts directly from their tables.
8. Involve students in peer review that reinforces understanding of the critical thinking
skills they have learned.
9. Assign students new applications of the critical thinking tactics they have learned.

Deductive Thinking
Clarke (1990)—Grades 4 and 5
Item 1
As an exercise in problem analysis, ask your students to identify a task they have mastered and
then to write a set of instructions showing an inexperienced person how to complete that task.
When the instructions are written, you may ask the students to identify points in the procedure
where problems can easily arise. For each problem, you can show them how to write out
if/then conditional rules for solving these problems.
Item 2
If you have a flair for the dramatic, consider posing as an intergalactic space traveler who
recently arrived on this planet with little more than English instruction via the AM/FM radio.
Request written help with common tasks, such as
A. opening a can of tuna
B. making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich
C. buying a can of Drano
D. contacting NASA
E. catching a bus to Denver
F. dressing appropriately for a visit with the president
G. moving undetected through a school day
Item 3
Consider introducing the symbols and techniques of flowcharts or scripts as a way to
represent procedures for a task. Working on common daily routines such as brushing teeth is
both easy and enjoyable. Have other students troubleshoot the completed charts and then
suggest alternatives if needed.
Item 4
Identifying events or issues as problems is the first step in problem solving. To give your
students practice in isolating problems from the surrounding landscape, consider using history,
literature, or science texts as sources. Ask them to identify problems from the text. (Newspapers
also supply an endless flow of description rich in problems.)

Item 5
Problems for Research Teams
1. You and your research team are given two caterpillars, both in first instar. From one
you remove the corpora allata. The other one you leave alone. What happens to each
caterpillar? Why has this happened?
2. You and your research team are given two more caterpillars in their first instar. From
one you remove the thoracic gland. The other you leave alone. What happens to each
caterpillar? Why has this happened?
3. You and your research team are given two caterpillars in their last instar. One is 7 days old;
the other is 10 days old. You tie a knot around the center of both. You wait 14 days.
What has happened to each half of the caterpillars? Why has this happened?
4. You and your research team are given lots of caterpillars, each in its first instar. After
cutting off their heads and tails, you connect the abdomens together with glass tubing. You
take another caterpillar in its last instar7 days oldand you cut off its head. You take
the head and attach it to the abdomens of the other caterpillars. You wait two weeks. What
has happened to the abdomens? Why has this happened?

Item 6
1. For a unit you are planning to teach, list the causal relationships that exist or may be
implied by the context. Devise a simple pretest that will show how aware your students are
of these relationships.
2. For a unit you plan to teach, make a list of the events or ideas you want your students to
be able to explain. Design a small-group assignment that requires students to backmap
those events or ideas.
3. Are there any events coming up in the school year for which student planning is
required? (The prom is one possibility. Term papers, large tests, field trips and projects
are more common.) To create a planning chart
a. note the main goal or outcome at the right side of the page.
b. ask the question, What is it going to take to accomplish this goal?
Develop subgoals in a column to the left of the main goal.
c. for each subgoal, map out the events in the order that will lead to the
accomplishment of the subgoals. Work backwards from the subgoal toward
the present moment.
d. create a time line along the bottom of the page and note critical dates within
the map itself.
e. assign small groups the responsibility for each subgoal and all the steps
along the causal path for that goal.
4. All of us try to predict the future. However, not many use an approach to prediction that
makes our thinking visible. For an important event coming up in the near future, ask
your students to work together to develop prediction chains. As incidents occur related to
the event, allow your students to use new information to change their predictions. After
the event occurs, ask them to explain any differences between what they predicted and
what transpired.
5. What decisions are included in or implied by the content you plan to teach? Do these
decisions offer your students a chance to think hypothetically? Teach your students to
forward map the causal chains that would track different choices they might make.

Item 7
Basic Steps in Concept Mapping
1. Identify the major concepts. In a text, the dominant concepts often appear in the titles,
subtitles, and lead sentences in paragraphs. In an interview, dominant concepts can be
identified by asking: “What do you mean by this word?” or “What can you tell me about
this concept?” Look for major subcategories in the concept, definitions, causes, or effects.
2. Place the concepts on paper from most inclusive (abstract) to most specific (concrete).
Dominant concepts are most often placed at the top of a page, subordinate concepts further
down the page and explanatory or illustrative concepts at the bottom. Mapping may have
to go through several drafts to achieve a hierarchical (or other) shape.
3. Link the concepts and label each link. Linking lines between concepts explain their
relationship. In English, the linking words are most often verbs. Active and passive verbs
usually indicate cause/effect relationships. Variations of “to be” verbs usually indicate
membership in a category. Conjunctions (e.g., and or but), subordinating conjunctions
(e.g., since or although), and prepositions (e.g., by, from, in or to) can all serve as useful
linking words.
4. Branch out from each concept to include definitions, illustrations, and factual evidence.
Generally speaking, the more specific information that can be included in a concept map the
more useful the map will be as a study guide and writing guide. Names, dates, statistics,
and specific instances prove more memorable when linked to an organizing concept. Maps
as guides to lectures or presentations usually contain less information.
5. Use cross-links to analyze additional relationships. Working “top down” usually explains
the main relationships. Other relationships (links) appear when one looks at any two
concepts on an evolving map and asks, “Is there a connection between these concepts?”
Often there is. Significant cross-links can be labeled.

Item 8
1. Make a list of the vocabulary necessary for success in a unit you plan to teach.
Consider different drawings or other visual organizers that would include all the words
on the list:
a. Develop a large drawing to hang in your room and add the words one at a time.
b. Have students draw a picture that will anchor the words as they progress
through the unit.
2. Develop a focusing question for a class you plan to teach. Use a two- or three-minute free-
write that asks the students to look at the question and assess what they already know
about the subject. Consider each of the following processing possibilities:
a. To begin a class, have students read their free-writes and record what they know
on a transparency or blackboard.
b. To begin a class, have pairs of students read their free-writes to each other
and identify similarities and differences so they can explain them to the class.
c. After the free-write, introduce new information through lecture, film, or reading.
Then
d. ask the students to revise what they wrote to accommodate the new information.
e. At the end of a class period, ask students to free-write their questions and
comments. Make transparencies of a few and use them to open the next
class.
3. For any text handout, show students how to “web” a text. Ask them to identify a major idea
in the next and to trace that trend or theme by circling words and connecting them with
lines. Can they use the webbed words to generate questions?
4. Ask groups of students to extrapolate a trend or theme from a chapter, put it on
separate paper as a time line, and then explain it to the rest of the class.
5. For any aspect of content that falls in serial order, pin a roll of paper on the wall and
show students how to map out critical events in a time line.
a. As the time line grows, ask them to make connections between events with a
pen. Can they label the connections?
b. Use colored pens or crayons to label different trends, themes, or causes.
6. Divide a story, fable, myth, or other short narrative into small segments and put each
segment on paper. Give one to each student. Ask the group to reconstruct the narrative
by taping the pieces to a wall. Can each member of the group explain how he or she did
it? What ideas give coherence to a story?
7. Are there recurring events in any unit you teach? Would counting and graphing
clarify important issues? Redesign a unit plan to emphasize focused scanning and
organizing information for analysis. Design graphs or grids that will help students
organize and measure recurring events.

Problem Solving
Hammerman and MusialGrades 4 and 5
ED 395 764, pages 52–62
A set of performance assessments that enables the student to “demonstrate knowledge and
multiple science abilities through communication, problem solving, inventiveness,
persistence, and curiosity.”
Performance assessments are a set of tasks that include hands-on activities, criterion-referenced
test items, and open-ended writing prompts.
Item 1
Can You Dig It?
Materials:
1. Large rectangular baking pans or cardboard trays filled with about two to three centimeters
of sand or cat litter (cardboard trays from canned food may be obtained from grocery
storesapproximately 26 cm x 36 cm x 5 cm)
2. Plastic spoons or other small tools to use to dig through the sand
3. Plastic fossils (or other real fossils, if possible) of crinoid, brachiopod, pelecypod,
and petrified wood
4. Fossil kits from Creative Dimensions, P.O. Box 1393, Bellingham, WA 98227 (optional)
Students will be given a fossil-rich site. They will be asked (helped) to make a scale drawing
one-half the size of the site and label the coordinates on a grid. Using sample tools, students will
excavate four different fossils from the site. They will describe the fossils and use coordinate
symbols to indicate the location of the specimens on the scale drawing. Fossils may be
presented in the pans so that the findings for each student will be identical. Each student or
student group can generate individual data by varying the fossil positions from pan to pan.
Teachers may decide which situation is best.
Tell students they have been invited by the local museum paleontologist to assist with an
exploratory dig at a fossil-rich quarry. Their task is to assist the paleontologist in identifying the
site by drawing a map one-half the size of the site. Students should mark off two centimeter
sections along the top and sides of the map. They can label the top of the grid with letters and
the sides with numbers. Students will search for the fossils, describe them, and record the
location where they were found on the map. (By varying the positions of the fossils for each
student, students can generate their own data.)

Practice Dig
After weeks of preparation with the paleontologist, you have arrived at the site for the “dig.” It
is an abandoned sedimentary rock quarry that, over time, has been covered with loose material.
Buried in the material are fossils. To begin, you must record observations of the site, including a
description and the size of the area to be investigated.
Description (material, color, landscape features, etc.)
Size of area (in centimeters)
Make a scale drawing of the area on a separate sheet of paper, one half the size of the actual area
you are investigating. Mark off the drawing in 2 cm blocks so it looks like a grid. Label the
grid with letters across the top or bottom and numbers along the side.
Be sure to draw the lines of the grid on your scale drawing so you can identify the location of
your fossils when you find them. Fossil locations will be identified by letter and number. For
example, C 2 would be the third square from the left or the right intersecting with the second one
from the bottom or the top (depending on how you label your grid).
Using the digging tools provided, carefully probe the landscape until you find four fossils. Write
a description of each fossil and give its coordinate location on the data table below.
Description Coordinates
W
X
Y
Z
Next put each letter W, X, Y, and Z or a drawing of each fossil on the grid to show the location
where each was found. Your scale drawing becomes a map of your dig. How could your map
be used by another explorer to find the location where your fossils were found?

Item 2
Now, Picture This
Materials:
1. fossils 3. drawing pencils 5. metric rulers
2. hand lenses 4. balances 6. sets of weights
Students are asked to make a drawing of each of the four fossils. This is an important skill
researchers need in order to record the intricate features of their find. Students will measure the
length, width, and mass of each fossil. Then, they will study each fossil’s characteristics to
determine if any resemble organisms that are alive today.
Discuss with students the fact that scientists record as much information as possible when doing
research in the field. Making careful drawings is an important way of recording characteristics
and unusual details of the fossils. Recording the size and the mass provides additional
information. As an aid in identifying the fossils, it is important to note whether the fossil
resembles anything that the students (or researcher) is already familiar with, such as
characteristics of known organisms.
Practice Dig
The four specimens you excavated from your site are fossils of organisms that lived long ago.
Draw each specimen in the space on the data table below. Measure the length and width (at the
longest and widest points) of each fossil and record your findings on the table. Use the balance
and weights to find the mass of each specimen in grams and record the results. Some of the
fossils resemble currently existing organisms. Make inferences as to what organisms the fossils
look like.
Drawing of Specimen Length Width Mass Organisms

(cm) (cm) (g) Fossil
Resembles

Item 3
Here’s Looking at You, Kid
Materials:
fossils hand lenses
reference books for fossils fossil kits (optional)
Comparing similarities and differences among fossils and between fossils and other known organisms gives scien
Students are often interested in knowing the names of fossils. Ask them to begin by comparing the fossils to one
Challenge students to find at least one way two of the fossils are alike.
Next give students access to field guides and reference books for fossils and let them find the type and name of e

Practice Dig
Comparing Specimens to One Another

Use a hand lens to study your specimens. Compare them and list a way any two are alike.
Comparing Specimens to Other Organisms

You may use reference books to help you find the names of fossils and any similar present-
day organisms. Record the fossil specimen names, the names of organisms they resemble, and
the characteristics that are similar to the present-day organisms.
Fossil Specimen Name Similar Organism Similar Characteristics

W
X
Y
Z
Optional Task
What interesting information do scientists know about various fossils? (For use with
Creative Dimensions Fossil Kit or another fossil kit)
For each of the fossils you found, locate the information card or research information about
different fossils in your fossil kit. Use the information to find the following data for each
fossil:
Name Age Origin Type of Fossil
Two Items of Interest
(continued on next page)

(Practice Dig continued)
In what ways can information from the past help us understand the present?

Thinking Skills
Excerpt from Big Ideas, a curriculum design overview developed by ESE Program Development
and Services, Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services, Florida Department of
EducationGrades 6, 7, and 8.
Item 1
Application of Advanced Proportion Strategy to a Mixture Problem
A mix contains peanuts and almonds in a ratio of 4 to 3. If 35 pounds of mix are made, how
many pounds of almonds will be used?
Step 1: Ratio Pounds
The students map the units and write the Peanuts 4

known values: Almonds 3
Total 35
Step 2:
The students use their knowledge of Peanuts 4

missing addends to come up with the Almonds 3
unknown value in the ratio column: Total 7 35
4+3= 7
Step 3:
The students write and solve the proportion Peanuts 4 20

to determine the number of pounds of Almonds 3 15
almonds: Total 7 35
3/7 = 15/35

Item 2
Data Gathering, Advanced Proportions, and Probability-Statistics Strategies
Step 1: Data Gathering
The students conduct a survey in their There are 32 students in the class; 22 prefer
class to determine the preferences for chocolate milk and the rest prefer white.
white and chocolate milk. The students
also find out from the office the total There are 479 students in the school.
enrollment for the school.
Step 2: Advanced Proportions Fifth Grade Entire
Class School
The students map the units for the Chocolate 22
advanced proportions strategy and White 10 479
insert the relevant application. Total 32
Step 3: Probability and Statistics
The students solve a proportion to estimate Chocolate 22 329

the number of chocolate milk cartons to White 10 479
purchase for the entire school: Total 32
22/32 = 329/479
Step 4: Missing Addends
The students determine the estimate for Chocolate 22 329

white milk using their knowledge of White 10 150
missing addends: Total 32 479
479  329 = 150

APPENDIX B: SAMPLE TESTS AND TEST ITEMS
Standardized Higher Order Thinking Skills Tests (Ennis, 1993)
Tests Covering More Than One Aspect of Critical Thinking

The California Critical Thinking Skills Test: College Level (1990) by P. Facione
The California Academic Press, 217 La Cruz Ave. Millbrae, CA 94030. Aimed at
college students but probably usable with advanced and gifted high school students.
Incorporates interpretation, argument analysis and appraisal, deduction, mind
bender puzzles, and induction (including rudimentary statistical inference).
Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level X (1985) by R. H. Ennis and J. Millman
Midwest Publications, PO Box 448, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Aimed at grades 4–14.
Sections on induction, credibility, observation, deduction, and assumption
identification.
Cornell Critical Thinking Test, Level Z (1985) by R. H. Ennis and J. Millman
Midwest Publications, PO Box 448, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Aimed at advanced or
gifted high school students, college students, and other adults. Sections on induction,
credibility, prediction and experimental planning, fallacies (especially equivocation),
deduction, definition, and assumption identification.
The Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test (1985) by R. H. Ennis and E. Weir
Midwest Publications, PO Box 448, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. Aimed at grades 7
through college. Also intended to be used as a teaching material. Incorporates getting
the point, seeing the reasons and assumptions, stating one's point, offering good
reasons, seeing other possibilities (including other possible explanation), and
responding to and avoiding equivocation, irrelevance, circularity, reversal of an if-then
(or other conditional) relationship, overgeneralization, credibility problems, and the use
of emotive language to persuade.
Judgment: Deductive Logic and Assumption Recognition (1971) by E. Shaffer and J.
Steiger
Instructional Objectives Exchange, PO Box 24095, Los Angeles, CA 90024. Aimed at
grades 7–12. Developed as a criterion referenced test, but without specific standards.
Includes sections on deduction, assumption identification, and credibility;
distinguishes between emotionally loaded content and other content.
New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (1983) by V. Shipman
Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, Test Division, Montclair
State College, Upper Montclair, NJ 08043. Aimed at grades 4 through college.
Incorporates the syllogism (heavily represented), assumption identification,
induction, good reasons, and kind and degree.

Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes (1976) by J. D. Ross and C. M. Ross
Academic Therapy Publications, 20 Commercial Blvd., Novato, CA 94947. Aimed
at grades 4–6. Sections on verbal analogies, deduction, assumption identification,
word relationships, sentence sequencing, interpreting answers to questions,
information sufficiency, relevance in mathematics problems, and analysis of
attributes of complex figure skills.
Test of Inquiry Skills (1979) by B. J. Fraser
Australian Council for Educational Research Limited, Frederick Street, Hawthorn,
Victoria 3122, Australia. Aimed at Australian grades 7–10. Sections on using
reference materials (library usage, index, and table of contents); interpreting and
processing information (scales, averages, percentages, proportions, charts and tables,
and graphs); and (subject-specific) thinking in science (comprehension of science
reading, design of experiments, conclusions, and generalizations).
Test of Inference Ability in Reading Comprehension (1987) by L. M. Phillips and C.
Patterson
Institute for Educational Research and Development, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada 3X8. Aimed at grades 6–8. Tests
for ability to infer information and interpretations from short passages. Multiple-
choice version (by both authors) and constructed-response version (by Phillips only).
Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (1980) by G. W. Watson and E. M. Glaser
The Psychological Corporation, 555 Academic Court, San Antonio, TX 78204.
Aimed at grade 9 through adulthood. Sections on induction, assumption identification,
deduction, judging whether a conclusion follows beyond a reasonable doubt, and
argument evaluation.
Tests Covering Only One Aspect of Critical Thinking

Cornell Class Reasoning Test (1964) by R. H. Ennis, W. L. Gardiner, R. Morrow, D.
Paulus, and L. Ringel
Illinois Critical Thinking Project, University of Illinois, 1310 S. 6th St., Champaign,
IL 61820. Aimed at grades 4–14. Tests for a variety of forms of (deductive) class
reasoning.
Cornell Conditional Reasoning Test (1964) by R. H. Ennis, W. L. Gardiner, J. Guzzetta,
R. Morrow, F. Paulus, and L. Ringel
Illinois Critical Thinking Project, University of Illinois, 1310 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL
61820. Aimed at grades 4–14. Tests for a variety of forms of (deductive) conditional
reasoning.
Logical Reasoning (1955) by A. Hetzka and J. P. Guilford
Sheridan Psychological Services, PO Box 6101, Orange, CA 92667. Aimed at high
school and college students and other adults. Tests for facility with class reasoning.

Test on Appraising Observations (1983) by S. P. Norris and R. King
Institute for Educational Research and Development, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, A1B 3X8. Aimed at grades 7–14.
Tests for ability to judge the credibility of statements of observation. Multiple-
choice and constructed-response versions. (p. 183)
Killoran (1992)
Developing Standard Multiple-Choice Questions

Multiple-choice questions come in two formats: standard and database.
Standard multiple-choice questions can in turn be grouped into several basic types.
Recognition of Important Terms and Persons

We can phrase recognition questions in a variety of ways. Questions about a term
ask for recognition of its main features; questions about people ask for their
achievements, failures, or ideas; questions about a concept ask for its definition or for
an example. Questions testing recognition of important terms, persons, and concepts
require students to analyze information—to recognize significance and to understand
the relationship between the general and the particular. Questions might appear as
follows:
 The purpose of [the Open-Door Policy] was to . . .
 Which statement was or is true of [nativism]?
 Which statement best reflects the ideas of [Booker T. Washington]?
 The concept of [manifest destiny] is best illustrated by . . .
 [Marbury v. Madison] was important because . . .
 Which statement about [the Spanish-American War] is most accurate?
In creating questions about terms, persons, and concepts, we can use the following as
a guide:
 Questions about terms ask students if they know what it is
— its purpose, its causes, its effects, or its significance.
 Questions about persons ask students to identify the time periods in which
they lived, their backgrounds, or their accomplishments or failures.
 Questions about concepts ask the student to either define the concept or give
an example of it.
Compare and Contrast

Comparing and contrasting two things improves our understanding of both. It
highlights and separates events, ideas, and concepts from other data. Compare and
contrast questions might be phrased as follows:
 [Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, and Martin Luther King, Jr.]
were similar in that they all . . .
 A study of [World War I] and [World War II] shows that both were . . .
 Which belief is common to both [imperialism] and [nationalism]?

 A major difference between [urbanization] and [frontier life] is that in
[frontier life] . . .
Cause and Effect

History is a seamless web of events leading to other events. Causal explanation
give history much of its meaning. Cause-and-effect questions test students’
understanding of the relationship between an action or an event and its corresponding
effect. To answer these questions, students must be able to identify causes, effects,
and the links between them. We might phrase this type of question as follows:
 Which was a significant cause of [United States’ entry into World War I]?
 Which best explains why [U.S. labor unions] were [first organized in the
late 1800s]?
 Which situation led to the [blockade of Cuba in 1962]?
 Which is a direct result of the Supreme Court decision in [Roe v. Wade]?
 Which is a long-term result of [the Monroe Doctrine]?
Generalization
To form a generalization, students must examine a group of facts, statistics, and
trends. From this specific information students draw out a general principle, rule,
opinion, or conclusion. Generalization questions must ask students to associate specific
events or facts with a general idea. Examples of multiple-choice questions that test
generalizations are:
 Which is the most accurate statement about [social mobility] in the
United States?
 In an outline one of these is a main topic and the other three are
subtopics. Which is the main topic?
 The idea that [a nation’s domestic policy can determine its foreign policy]
is best illustrated by . . .
Chronology
Arranging events in chronological order allows us to see patterns, order, or
sequences in the events taking place. Chronological questions may appear as
follows:
 Which historical time period occurred [first]?
 Which sequence of events best describes the historical development of
[the Women’s Movement in the United States]?
 Which group of events is in the correct chronological order?
 Which event took place during [the Woodrow Wilson administration]?

Special Types
A number of standard multiple-choice questions test specialized knowledge
and skills.
Fact or opinion
Statements of fact are the raw material of historians and social scientists. Students
should be tested on their ability to distinguish between fact from opinion. Questions
could phrase as follows:
 Which statement about [the Reconstruction Period] would be most difficult to
prove?
 Which statement about [World War II] is an opinion rather than a fact?
Use of sources
Historians and social scientists consult a variety of sources to discover what has
happened in the past or what is happening in different parts of the world today.
Sources are classified as either primary or secondary. Questions asking students to
distinguish primary sources from secondary sources could be phrased as follows:
 Which would be an example of a primary source of information on
[World War I]?
 Which is a secondary source of information about [the Civil War period]?
Use of reference books

Students should be familiar with the common types of reference books.
Questions testing students' familiarity with these reference books could be phrased as
follows:
 To find information about [a region’s topography], which source would
you most likely consult?
 Which would be the best source to consult to obtain accurate information
about [a recent speech of a U.S. Senator]?
Frames of reference
Students should be able to identify the practitioners of social studies—people
who study society from different viewpoints or frames of reference. Questions testing
student familiarity with these various types of social sciences could be phrased as
follows:
 Which social scientist uses [artifacts, fossils, and ruins] to study
[prehistoric culture]?
 With which statement would a historian agree?
Developing Database Questions

Unlike a standard multiple-choice question, a database question is based on
data presented as part of the question. The data may include such items as maps,
tables, outlines, political cartoons, line graphs, pie charts, bar graphs, readings,
fictionalized

conversations, or time lines. Database questions can be grouped into four
general categories.
Comprehension Questions
These questions ask students to demonstrate understanding of a specific item,
figure, or number presented in the data. Comprehension questions may take any of
the following forms:
 The [eagle] in the cartoon is a symbol representing . . .
 According to the table, in which time period was [union membership]
the highest?
 According to the graph, which section of the country had the largest
[decrease in manufacturing jobs]?
Explanatory Questions
These questions ask students to identify the best explanation for the situation
illustrated by the data. To answer these types of questions, the student must first
analyze the data to understand the overall meaning. They must then go one step
further and use their knowledge of social studies to find a satisfactory explanation for
what the data indicate. These types of questions may take any of the following forms:
 The situation illustrated in the cartoon was caused by . . .
 Which factor best explains the events shown on the time line?
 The trend shown in the graph is most probably related to . . .
Conclusion or Generalization Questions

These questions ask students to make generalizations by tying together
several elements in the data. These questions may be phrased as follows:
 The main idea of the cartoon is that . . .
 Which statement is best supported by the data in the table?
 Which generalization is best supported by the data in the bar graph?
Prediction Questions
These questions ask students to make a prediction based on the situation
illustrated by the data. To answer these types of questions, students must first analyze
the data to understand the overall meaning. They must then go one step further and use
their knowledge of social studies to make educated guesses as to what will probably
happen at some point in the future. These questions may take any of the following
forms:
 The writer of the statement would most likely condemn . . .
 Recent Supreme Court decisions about [due process] would
probably result in . . .
 Based on the information in the line graph, which is most likely to occur?
(pp. 106–108)

Newmann (1990)
Reading about the Student Locker Searches

This reading presents a court case involving the search of a student locker by a
school administrator. Though not an actual case, it is based upon cases presented to
the U.S. Supreme Court. You are to be the judge. As you read, think about how you
might decide this case.
The Case of State of New York v. Karen Doctor

A teacher at a high school in New York discovered Karen, a 16-year old
sophomore and her friend smoking cigarettes on school grounds, in clear violation of a
school rule. The teacher took them to the principal’s office. Karen denied that she had
been smoking, saying that she didn’t smoke at all. The assistant principal, Mr. Hardy,
insisted on seeing the contents of her purse. He found a pack of cigarettes and also a
package of rolling papers, which are often used to smoke marijuana. He then decided to
search Karen’s locker.
With Karen present at the search, Mr. Hardy discovered in her locker a small
amount of marijuana, a pipe, a note card with a list of students who owed her money,
and two letters that indicated that she was involved in dealing marijuana. He then
contacted the police and delinquency charges were brought against Karen. In court,
Karen’s lawyer argued that the search of her locker violated her constitutional rights and
therefore the evidence found in her locker cannot be used. The case should be
dismissed. The attorney representing Mr. Hardy argued that the school had reasonable
grounds for searching her purse and her locker and therefore the evidence uncovered
can be used in the trial. She should be found guilty.
Background Information
The following information is provided to help you think about the case. Please
read carefully. You should use this information in writing your argument.
[Background passage deleted]
As judge, you are to answer this question: Did the school violate
Karen’s constitutional rights by searching her purse and then her locker?
Please write an argument to try and convince someone of your position on
this question. In your argument, you should
 state your position on the question,
 support your position by giving as many reasons as you can, and
 explain why they are good reasons.
Keep in mind that your position will be most convincing if you include information
from the reading and show weaknesses in the opposing position. Good luck!
(pp. 372–373)

Baker, Aschbacher, Niemi, and Sato (1992)
Imagine that it is 1858 and you are an educated citizen living in Illinois. Because
you are interested in politics and always keep yourself well informed, you make a
special trip to hear Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debating during their
campaigns for the Senate seat representing Illinois. After the debate you return home,
where your cousin asks you about some of the problems that are facing the nation at
this time.
Write an essay in which you explain the most important ideas and issues your
cousin should understand. Your essay should be based on two major sources: (1) the
general concepts and specific facts you know about American History, and especially
what you know about the history of the Civil War, and (2) what you have learned from
the reading yesterday. Be sure to show the relationships among your ideas and facts.
(p. 23)
Sugrue (1994, 1995)
Assessment of Concepts
Example (concept of solution):
Identify which of the following liquids is a solution by placing an X beside it if it is a
solution:
5 grams of salt in 20 grams of water
10 grams of salt in 20 grams of water
3 drops of food coloring in 10 grams of water
3 drops of food coloring in 20 drops of water
maple syrup
a cloudy liquid
a clear red liquid
a clear liquid with no color
a clear mixture of baking soda and water
Give an example of a liquid that is a solution and explain why it is a solution.

Give an example of a liquid that is not a solution and explain why it is not a solution.
Give students a number of liquids, some obviously clear, some cloudy, and ask the
students to select (without testing them) the liquids that are most likely to be solutions.
(p. 32)

Assessment of Principles
Examples (concentration/buoyancy principle):
One of the following problems is different from the rest. Indicate which one is the
odd one out by placing an X beside it.
1. Fred wanted to display his model boat floating in a basin of water, but when
he tried it the boat sank.
2. Jamal’s vinegar and oil salad dressing would not stay mixed up in the bottle.
3. Maria wanted to make a sponge take up as much water as possible.
4. Joan wanted to make a number of colored liquids stay in separate layers in
the glass.
(p. 33)
Why is it easy to float on Utah’s Great Salt Lake?
A bowl is half full with a solution of lemonade powder and water. An egg is dropped
in the lemonade and it floats. What is likely to happen to the egg if water is added to fill
the bowl to the top?
(p. 34)
Follow the instructions below, observe the result, and then answer the question at
the end.
Instructions:
Pour the maple syrup into the beaker; then pour the colored water in on top of it;
then pour the corn syrup on top of that.
Questions:
1. Draw a picture of how the liquids look in the beaker. Label each liquid.
2. Why do the liquids end up in these layers?
(p. 34)
Assessment of Links from Concepts to Conditions and Procedures for Application

Example (concept of concentration):
John needed to test two sodas to see which one contained the most sugar. Some of
the following methods will given [sic] him the answer, and some of them won't. Put
an X beside any method that will give him the answer.
1. Use a balance to compare the mass of 100 ml of each of the sodas.
2. Find an object that will float on one, but not on the other.
3. Compare the amount of each soda it takes to soak a sponge of the same size.
4. Boil both liquids and compare their boiling points.
(p. 35)

Describe how you would determine which of two solutions of sugar and water was
the more concentrated (without tasting them). (p. 35)
Use the equipment and materials provided to identify which of the liquids in the cups
is more concentrated. (Provide the equipment necessary for more than one kind of test
that is appropriate.)
Assessment of Links from Concepts to Conditions and Procedures for Application

A soda manufacturer wants its sodas not to freeze in very cold weather. Which of
the following methods would be most likely to solve this problem?
a. Decrease the amount of gas in the soda.
b. Decrease the amount of sugar in the soda.
c. Increase the amount of sugar in the soda.
d. Store the soda in bottles rather than in cans.
(p. 36)
Customers in Alaska were complaining that cans of diet cola were freezing and
bursting in the cold winter temperatures. Cans of regular cola were not freezing. What
would you tell the makers of diet cola to do to stop it from freezing, and why? (p. 37)
You are going on an expedition/journey to the North Pole. You need to bring a
supply of liquid to drink during your expedition/journey. You can choose one of the
three liquids on the table.
Consider what you know about solution chemistry and perform the tests necessary to
select the liquid that will be least likely to freeze during your journey. Then write the
answers to the following two questions:
1. What is your conclusion (which liquid is least likely to freeze)?
2. Why?
(p. 37)
Sugrue (1994) indicated that the cognitive functions, planning and monitoring,
can also be measured by more than one method. For example, students can be asked to
indicate on a scale from 1 to 5 how well the following statements reflected their
performance on the test they have just completed.
1. I worked out how much time I should spend on each question and I tried to
stick to it.
2. I ran out of time at the end of the test.
3. I spent a long time planning how I would answer the questions.
(p. 40)

Open-ended questions could require students to estimate how much time they
spent planning, how they determined their answers were correct, etc. Performance
measures could include observations of the time students spend in planning, etc.
Beliefs about one's ability to succeed on the test and enjoyment of it as well as
perceptions of test difficulty can be measured with multiple-choice or open-ended
questions. Hands-on measures could be raters' observations of time spent and level
of persistence and task involvement by students.
Marzano, Kendall, Calamera, Fanning, Grady, Pickering, Sutton, Whisler, & Young (1992)
Supported Deduction
(Students work in cooperative groups for a two week period of time, at the end of
which they present a skit and an explanation of the deductive logic of their system of
clues.)
Develop the clues to a murder mystery that has at least three suspects. However,
your clues must show that one suspect had to be the murderer.
Error Analysis
(Students work in pairs or triads over a three week period of time, at the end of
which they present their conclusions in videotape form. They also create and present
some aesthetic product that symbolized police work.)
What do policemen really do? Watch at least three television programs about
policemen and describe some of the errors about policemen or police work in
those shows.
Constructing Support
(Over a two week period of time students work in pairs. At the end of that period
of time they present their arguments orally with the aid of graphic organizers.)
We have been studying how great ideas have affected history. Develop an argument
for or against the statement, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Use specific
examples in your argument.
(p. 70)
Secured tasks for the reasoning skills are:
Supported Deduction
(Students work independently for a 35 minute period of time, at the end of which
they turn in their conclusions on an audiotape. They may use their books and their
notes.)

Pretend that you are asked to read a story and are told that is it a fable. Before you
begin to read it, what could you conclude must be in the story? Explain why you know
these things must be in the story and give an example of each thing you identify.
Error Analysis
(Students work independently for a 25 minute period, at the end of which time
they present their reasoning on an audiotape.)
Gabrielle enters 1,585 x 2.7 into her calculator. The display reads 42790.5. Is
this answer reasonable? Explain.
Constructing Support
(Students work independently for a 40 minute time period, at the end of which they
present their argument on an audiotape. They may use their textbooks and their
notes.)
What do you think about using animal fur for coats? Construct an argument for
or against their use.
(p. 122)
University of Cambridge, Local Examinations Syndicate (1997b)
1. In recent years, a number of countries have moved away from central

planning toward a market economy.
a. Explain the role of price in a market economy.
b. What possible disadvantages may follow from this movement toward a
market economy?
3. In many countries water, unlike oil, is not treated as an economic commodity and
sold at a price that reflects demand and supply conditions. Often it is sold at a
price below its total cost.
a. Explain what is meant by the suggestion that the price of water is often
below its total cost.
b. What might be the possible effects in a country if water were treated like
other commodities such as oil?
6. Governments in a number of countries have attempted to limit the use of

private transport and encourage the use of public transport.
a. How may governments attempt to do this?
b. Why may governments wish to do this? (p. 2)

Sternberg (1985)
Making Inferences about Advertisements

The Avon supermarket advertises “low, low, prices.” Can you be sure that the prices
at the Avon supermarket are the lowest prices in town?
a. Yes because otherwise the supermarket could not advertise “low, low prices.”
b. Yes, because the prices are lower than low.
c. No, because the advertisement is not truthful.
d. No, because there is no indication that the prices are the lowest in town.
Completing Standard Number Series

Complete the following number series: 2 3 5 8 12
a. 15
b. 16
c. 17
d. 18
Learning from Context

In the following passage, what does “glick” mean?
Traffic was heavy, so the glick moved slowly. The driver was carrying
almost a ton of fruit from Florida to New Jersey and wanted to make sure that
his shipment arrived intact. Thus, he made sure he stopped at red lights and
avoided passing cars.
a. truck
b. car
c. orange
d. train
Using Insight to Solve Mathematical and Logical Problems

I have 5 black socks and 4 blue socks in a drawer. How many socks do I
have to take out of the drawer to make sure I have a pair of the same color?
a. 2
b. 3
c. 4
d. 5
(p. 41)

Paul and Nosich (1992)
Following are several abbreviated examples for assessing higher order thinking skills.
• In the following excerpt, mark E for each item that is a piece of

empirical evidence, mark C for each item that is a conclusion based on
evidence; mark N for each item that is neither. . . .
• The following is a list of possible findings in relation to the experiment

quoted above. For each, say whether it would support the author's
hypothesis, oppose the author’s hypothesis, or be neutral with respect
to the author's hypothesis. . . .
• Below is a series of questions. Each question is followed by several

reasons. For the purpose of this test, you are to regard each reason as
true. The problem is then to decide whether it is a strong reason or a weak
reason. . . .
(p. 17)
Multiple-rating items allow any number of answers to a question to be correct or

incorrect. Ranking answers according to their plausibility is also possible.
Abbreviated examples are given below:
• Here is a list of formulations of the writer's objectives in this excerpt.

Rank them from 1 to 5 with respect to which is the most reasonable in
the light of the quoted passage. . . .
• Read the excerpt, then, from the following list, identify the most
plausible statement of the writer's purpose.
• List A below is a list of various possible statements of the writer's point

of view in the quoted passage; list B is a list that includes possible
assumptions and implications of those points of view. Match the items on
list A with the items on list B. . . .
(pp. 19–20)

Essay items require the student to generate a response. These items can measure
higher order skills that multiple-choice or multiple-rating cannot. Directions to the
student for answering all the items that follow include a statement of the purpose of the
test and eight criteria that would be used in evaluating the answers.
Directions
This test is designed to assess your critical thinking, problem solving, and
communication skills. Your answer will be judged for its clarity,
relevance, consistency, logic, depth, coherence, and fairness. More
specifically, the reader will be asking the following questions:
1. Is the question at issue well stated? Is it clear and unbiased? Does
the expression of the question do justice to the complexity of the
matter at issue?
2. Does the writer cite relevant evidence, experiences, and/or
relevant information essential to the issue?
3. Does the writer clarify key concepts when necessary?
4. Does the writer show a sensitivity to what he or she is assuming or
taking for granted (in so far as those assumptions might reasonable be
questioned)?
5. Does the writer develop a definite line of reasoning, explaining well
how he or she is arriving at his or her conclusions?
6. Is the writer’s reasoning well supported?
7. Does the writer show a sensitivity to alternative points of view or lines
of reasoning?
8. Does he or she consider and respond to objections framed from
other points of view?
9. Does a writer show a sensitivity to the implications and/or
consequences to the position that he or she has taken?
Issue #1: Ecology

The nation is facing a variety of ecological problems that have the following
general form: An established practice, whether on the part of business and
industry or on the part of the public, is contributing to serious health problems
for a large number of people. At the same time it would be costly to modify
the practice so as to reduce the health problem. People often say that the
answer is one of achieving a “balance” between the amount of money we
spend to correct the problem and the number of lives we would save by that
expenditure. Develop a point of view and some plausible criteria for telling
how one would determine this “balance.” Make sure you address any
dilemmas inherent in your strategies for solving such problems.

Issue #2: Politics
There are a growing number of Americans who do not vote in national and
local elections. Many explain their non-participation by saying that their vote
would not make a difference. Some go on to argue that this is true because
“money plays such a large role in elections that the candidate with the highest
paid, and the highest quality, media campaign wins.” Most people agree that
money sometimes plays an inappropriate role in determining the outcome of
elections. Develop a proposed solution to this problem that takes into account
the view that people and organizations with money have a right to use that
money to advance political causes they believe in. If you like, you may decide
to develop a position to the effect that there is no solution to the problem and
that we have no choice but to accept the status quo.
Issue # 3: Morality
Sociologist Erving Goffman has pointed out that all social groups, including
professions, develop a protective attitude toward members of their group,
even when what some of the members do is seen as morally wrong. A sense
of loyalty to the group often overrides what they would otherwise deem
immoral. Consider the arguments for and against exposing people with whom
you are personally close or with whom you have close professional ties.
Develop a position on this issue that could serve as a guide for anyone in such
a position.
Pennsylvania Department of Education (1997a)
Grade 5 Multiple-Choice
Sharon buys three pencils at 19 cents each, two erasers at 27 cents each and
three tablets at 75 cents each. If tax is included in these prices, which of the
following is a correct change combination for her if she gives the sales clerk
a five-dollar bill?
a. two $1 bills, two quarters, a dime and four pennies
b. two $1 bills, two quarters and six pennies
c. one $1 bill, two quarters, a dime and four pennies (Answer)
d. one $1 bill, two quarters, a nickel and one penny
(p. 18)

Grade 5 Sample Task
Linda is taking a poll to see what kinds of activities the students at Elm Street
School would like to have at the school fair. She needs to obtain information
which shows what students in all grade levels, including kindergarten, would
like. She also needs to interview as many students as possible, but has time
to talk to no more than 100 students. The table shows how many students
there are at each grade level in the school.
Grade Number of
Students
Kindergarten 106
1 78
2 96
3 92
4 83
5 110
6 114
Make a plan for Linda to use to obtain the information she needs. Explain
why your plan is a good one.
(p. 22)
An average of 5000 people enter a certain shopping mall each day. If the
shopping mall is open every day of the year, which of the following would be
a reasonable estimate of how many people enter the shopping mall each year?
a. 1,500,000 people
b. 2,000,000 people (Correct Answer)
c. 200,000 people
d. 9,000,000 people
(p. 19)
Grade 8 Sample Task

In a city, there are 50,000 cable TV subscribers. Recently 600 of them were
randomly surveyed to determine their program preference. The results were
as follows: 126 preferred comedy, 225 preferred sports, 193 preferred movies,
and 56 named “other” as their #1 TV preference. Using the results of this
survey, approximately how many of the total cable TV subscribers would be
expected to identify sports as their program preference?

You must show each step of your math work and write an explanation
describing the steps you followed to arrive at your answer and why you
chose each step, even if you did mental math or used a calculator.
(p. 34)
In wood shop Gina is going to make a bookshelf. The blueprint for the
shelf indicates a scale of 3:8. How high will her bookshelf be if the
blueprint measurement for the height is 16.5 inches?
a. 44 inches (Correct Answer)

b. 6.2 feet
c. 4 feet
d. 62 inches
(p. 20)
Grade 11 Sample Task

Mr. Moser is planning to replace the roof of his home. He needs to order
packs of shingles. Each pack covers 100 sq. ft. of roof. Without a ladder, Mr.
Moser cannot climb to the roof to measure it. Instead, he measures his attic
and finds it to be 40 ft long, 24 ft wide and 5 ft high at the peak of the roof
which is the center of the house. Although the roof is even with the side walls,
he estimates the roof line continues 1.5 feet beyond the front and back walls.
How many full packs of shingles should Mr. Moser order to cover his roof?
[PICTURE OF HOUSE AND MEASUREMENTS]
Show all calculations and explain them. Do all work for this problem in the
shaded region below. Remember you must show all steps you used to solve
the problem even if you have used a calculator. To receive the highest
score, all calculation steps must be shown and verbally explained.
Numerical answers must always be labeled.
(p. 54)
Pennsylvania Department of Education (1997b)
Prompt 4: (Narrative/Imaginative)
Imagine that a severe storm has hit your area. Tell what
happened. As you write and rewrite your paper, remember to
 describe what happened that day.
 give details that are specific and relevant to this experience.

 present your ideas clearly and logically.
 use words and well-constructed sentences effectively.
 correct any errors in spelling, punctuation and capitalization.
Prompt 5: (Informational)
Teachers are always looking for ways to help students learn better. If you
could help your teacher plan classroom activities that would improve your
learning, what would you suggest to them? Write to inform your teacher
about your suggestions and how these activities would improve learning.
As you write and rewrite your paper, remember to

 tell what the activities are and how they would help you learn better.
 include enough information and details so that your teacher will
understand the activities and why they would help you learn
better.
 correct any errors in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
Prompt 6: (Persuasive)
Local leaders are considering building a recycling plant in your community.
The only available location for the plant is the community park and recreation
area. Do you think the plant should be built? Write to persuade others in
your community to agree with your point of view.
As you write and rewrite your paper, remember to

 state your opinion clearly.
 support your opinion with specific details.
 correct any errors in spelling, punctuation and capitalization.

APPENDIX C: OTHER RESOURCES
Agencies and Groups
Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL)

Purpose: The AEL specializes in rural education and serves Kentucky, Tennessee,
Virginia, and West Virginia.
Contact: Appalachia Educational Laboratory, Specialty Area: Rural Education, P.O. Box
1348, Charleston, WV 25325-1348; Voice: (304) 347-0400 or (800) 624-9120, Fax:
(304)
347-0487; Terry L. Eidell, Executive Director, [email protected]; Web site/FTP,
http://www.hgb.psu.edu/~ekdl.labs.html
California Academic Press (CAP)

Purpose: CAP publishes critical thinking assessment tools based on the American
Philosophical Association’s Delphi consensus conceptualization of critical thinking
(CT), which involves 46 leading theorists, teachers, and CT assessment specialists
from several disciplines. These assessment tools have been developed with
procedures to establish validity and reliability.
Contact: California Academic Press, 217 La Cruz Avenue, Millbrae, CA 94030; (650)
697- 5628; e-mail [email protected]., http://www.hgb.psu.edu/~ekdl.labs.html
Dimensions of Learning Network (DLN)

Purpose: The DLN provides structure to network members to share ideas using the
Dimensions of Learning model and to exchange information about how to implement
the model. Activities include building a bank of lessons, creating a database of users,
publishing a member directory, and publishing newsletters.
Contact: Diana Deatherage Pearson, Teacher Consultant, Kenosha Unified School District No.
1, 3600-52nd Street, Kenosha, WI 53144;
http://www.mcrel.org/; http://www.hgb.psu.edu/~ekdl.labs.html
Laboratory for Student Success (LSS)

Purpose: LSS specializes in urban education and serves Delaware, Maryland, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.
Contact: Temple University, Center for Research in Human Development and Education,
1301 Cecil B. Moore Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19122-6091; (800) 892-5550, Fax:
(215) 204- 5130, e-mail: [email protected];
http://www.temple.edu/department/LSS/; http://www.hgb.psu.edu/~ekdl.labs.html

Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL)
Purpose: McREL specializes in curriculum, learning, and instruction and provides
technical assistance and consultation. The region includes Colorado, Kansas,
Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
Contact: McREL Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory, Specialty Area:
Curriculum, Learning, and Instruction, 2550 S. Parker Rd., Suite 500, Aurora, CO
80014; Voice:
(303) 337-0990, Fax: (303) 337-3005; Tim Waters, Executive Director,
[email protected], Web site/FTP, http://www.mcrel.org/;
The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing
(CRESST)
Purpose: CRESST conducts research on topics for K–12 educational testing and is affiliated
with the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of
California–Los Angeles (UCLA). Materials include media contacts on testing, a
parent page with assessment information about K–12 children, research reports,
free newsletters about the latest CRESST research.
Contact: Kim Hurst, CRESST/UCLA, 301 GSE&IS, Box 951522, Los Angeles, CA 90095-
1522; (310) 206-1532, Fax: (310) 825-3883; e-mail Kim Hurst
([email protected]), http://CRESST96.cse.ucla.edu/index.htm; requires Netscape
2.0 or later; requires Acrobat Reader (3.0) to read summaries of reports.
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)

Purpose: NCREL specializes in technology and serves as the Regional Educational
Laboratory for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Contact: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1900 Spring Road, Suite 300,
Oak Brook, IL 60521; Phone: (800) 356-2735, Fax: (630) 571-4716; Jeri
Nowakowski, Executive Director, [email protected]; e-mail: [email protected],
http://www.ncrel.org; http://www.hgb.psu.edu/~ekdl.labs.html
Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University (LAB)

Purpose: LAB specializes in school reform and professional development and serves
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode
Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
Contact: Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University,
Specialty Area: Language and Cultural Diversity, 222 Richmond Street, Suite 300,
Providence, RI 02903-4226; (401) 274-9548, (800) 521-9550, Fax: (401) 421-
7650;
Philip Zarlengo, Executive Director, [email protected], [email protected],

Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL)
Purpose: PREL specializes in language and cultural diversity and serves the United States
in the Pacific region.
Contact: Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (includes Hawaii and all U.S.
affiliates in the Pacific Basin), Specialty Area: Language and Cultural Diversity, 828
Fort Street Mall, Suite 500, Honolulu, HI 96813; Voice: (808)533-6000, Fax: (808)
533- 7599; John W. Kofel, Executive Director, [email protected], Web
site/FTP (n/a), http://www.hgb.psu.edu/~ekdl.labs.html
Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE)

Purpose: SERVE specializes in early childhood education and serves Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Contact: The Southeastern Professional Development Institute (SERVE, Inc.), P.O. Box
5406, Greensboro, NC 27435; (910) 334-4667; http://serve-line.serve.org/;
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL)

Purpose: SEDL specializes in language and cultural diversity and serves Arkansas,
Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Contact: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Specialty Area: Language and
Cultural Diversity, 211 East Seventh Street, Austin, TX 78701-3281; Voice: (512)
476-6861, (800) 476-6861, Fax: (512) 476-2286; [email protected]; Wesley
A. Hoover, President and CEO, [email protected], Web site/FTP,
WestEd
Purpose: WestEd specializes in assessment and accountability and serves as the regional
education laboratory for Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. Headquarters are
in San Francisco, with additional offices in Arizona, Massachusetts, and elsewhere
in California.
Contact: WestEd (Far West Laboratory and Southwest Regional Laboratory), Specialty Area:
Assessment and Accountability, 730 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94107-
1242; Voice: (415) 565-3000, Fax: (415) 565-3012; Glen Harvey, Executive
Director, [email protected], Web site/FTP/Gopher, http://www.fwl.org/;
Thinking Skills Programs
Thinking skills programs have become popular in elementary and secondary education
(Cotton, 1997, p. 6). In 1991, 1,700 school districts were using the “CoRT” program,
5,000 schools were using “Philosophy for Children,” and 70,000 teachers were using
“Tactics for Thinking” (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 173).
These programs, which do not share a set of central and unifying themes, focus on a variety
of skills (Crowl et al., 1997, p. 173). Their successes for student achievement depend on factors

such as teacher training, quality of teaching, administrative support, appropriateness of
the program, and method of implementation (Cotton, 1997, pp. 7–8).
Thinking skills programs include the following programs, which have appeared in
several reports:
1. Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (CSMP)—for elementary-level
math with a focus on the classification, basic logic, concepts, and development of
ideas and the number theory in which children use computers, calculators,
geometry models (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
2. Cognitive Research Trust (CORT)—for students of any age or grade level to
develop critical, creative, and constructive thinking skills over a 3-year period
(Cotton, 1997, p. 6); this program has 63 lessons, each taking about 35 minutes,
and uses mnemonics to help students reason, such as CAF for “consider all factors”
(Crowl et al., 1997, p. 173).
3. Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)—for Chapter 1 and other elementary
students to enhance skills in metacognition, inferencing, and decontextualization
(transfer of skills) using a computer laboratory context (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
4. Institute for Creative Education (ICE)—for K–12 students to develop
creative thinking skills of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration
applied to problem–solving activities (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
5. Instrumental Enrichment (IE)—for upper elementary and secondary students to
develop active learning processes applied to clusters of problem-solving tasks
and exercises (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
6. Kids Interest Discovery Study (KIDS) Kits—for elementary schools to use in
conducting surveys of students’ interests and engage students in active, self-
directed learning and higher-level thinking around topics related to those
interests (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
7. Odyssey—for upper elementary or secondary students to develop the foundations
of reasoning, understanding of language, verbal reasoning, problem solving,
decision making, and inventive thinking (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
8. Philosophy for Children—for K–12 students to develop thinking and reasoning
skills through classroom discussion organized around six novels in which
students apply philosophical thinking to their daily lives (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
9. Problem Solving and Comprehension—for students to work in problem-solver-
listener pairs to develop decoding skills, vocabulary, basic arithmetic
operations, and precise thinking (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
10. SAGE—for gifted elementary students to develop thinking skills through
activities, ministudy units, and independent study (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
11. SOI—for development of reasoning organized around 120 intellectual skills
based on Guilford’s structure-of-intellect theory (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
12. Talents Unlimited (TU)—for elementary students to develop productive
thinking, decision making, planning, forecasting, communication, and
knowledge about multiple thinking skills (called “talents”); teachers receive
training to instruct students (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).

13. THINK—for secondary students to develop problem-solving skills, including
rationales that lead to their conclusions, consideration of other points of view,
and analysis of various reasoning processes (Cotton, 1997, p. 6).
Resources
Adventure, Project
Goal: To infuse experiential learning courses by working on specific reality-based tasks
or problems in the community and the natural environment
Grades: 6–12
Audience: Teachers and students
Source: Dick Prouty, Project Adventure, Inc., P.O. Box 100, Hamilton, MA 01936; (508)
468- 7981. Cindy Simpson, P.O. Box 2447, Covington, GA 30209; (404) 784-9310.
Jim
Grout, 116 Maple Street, Brattleboro, VT 05301, (802) 254-5054. Ann Smolowe,
P.O. Box 14171, Portland, OR 97214, (503) 236-6765,
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10p.html
ASK to THINK-TEL WHY: A Model of Transactive Peer Tutoring for Scaffolding Higher
Level Complex Learning by Lison King
Goal: To provide strategies for using peer tutors to teach higher order thinking
skills Grades: 4–12
Source: Alison King, Professor of Education Psychology, California State UniversityBSan
Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096; e-mail: [email protected]
The Bread and Butter of the Internet: A Primer and Presentation Packet for Educators
Goal: To provide simple explanations for the Internet, e-mail, listservs, Telnet, FTP,
gopher, and the World Wide Web
Audience: Teachers and educators
Source: Information Resources Publications, Syracuse University, 4-194 Center for
Science and Technology, Syracuse, NY 13244-4100; ERIC NO. ED402924
CLIMB Plus
Goal: To improve the performance of all students by integrating reading, writing, study
skills, and mathematics through the use of a curriculum framework, procedures
for classroom management and implementation, active learning strategies and
models, and content reading and study skills strategies
Grades: K–12
Source: Barbara Brenner, Director, CLIMB Plus, Middlesex Public Schools, 30 Kennedy
Drive, Middlesex, NJ 08846, (908) 968-4494 or (908) 968-2666; Developmental
Funding: NJ TEEA R&D and USOE ESEA Title IV-C. JDRP No. 81-44
(1/28/82),
Recertified(3/25/93), http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10b.html

Comprehensive School Mathematics Program (CSMP)
Goal: To develop problem-solving skills and concepts using situational teaching methods;
graphic, nonverbal “languages”; colorful and unusual manipulatives; and even
fantasy stories for exploring mathematics in the context of the latest standards
adopted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Grades: K–6
Source: McREL Resource Center, 2550 South Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO
80014- 1678; http://www.mcrel.org/programs/
Computer-Assisted Diagnostic Prescriptive Program (CADPP) in Reading and

Mathematics
Goal: To generate educational plans as the basis for a diagnostic/prescriptive approach
to instruction in reading and mathematics
Grades: 3–9, Reading; 3–7, Math
Source: Debora J. Roberson, Technology in Education Corporation, Inc., 1844 West
85th Ave., J-266, Merrillville, IN 46410, (219) 769-1712;
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10c.html
Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development (Project CHILD)

Goal: To (a) modify the school structure and create classroom conditions conducive for
learning with technology; (b) create cohesive units of work that foster strategies for
thinking; and (c) realign curriculum for reading, language arts, and mathematics so
as to cover legally mandated content while fully integrating computer technology
into the curriculum
Grades: K–5
Audience: Teachers and principals
Source: Sarah M. (Sally) Butzin, Daniel Memorial Institute, Inc., P.O. Box
13296, Tallahassee, FL 32317-3296, (904) 385-6985, (800) 940-6985;
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10d.html
Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies (Project CRISS)

Goal: To teach students how to learn through reading, writing, talking, listening, and
using student-owned strategies
Grades: 4–12
Source: Lynn Havens or Carol Santa, Project CRISS, School District #5, 233 First Ave.,
East, Kalispell, MT 59901, (406) 756-5011, Fax: (406) 756-4510; e-mail:
[email protected]., http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10e.html

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Course Overview by Nancy L. Stegall and Lori
Abrams
Goal: To provide an introduction to critical thinking and problem
solving Grades: NA
Audience: Teachers
Source: DeVry Institute of Technology, Phoenix,
AZ;
http://www.primenet.com/~stegall/think.htm
Davis County Indian Homework Centers Program (IHC)

Goal: To increase the achievement scores of Indian students in the Davis County
(Utah) School District through a tutoring program
Grades: 1–12
Audience: Students who request and agree to be tutored, tutors, and supervisors
Source: Bruce G. Parry, Project Manager, Davis County Indian Homework Centers
Program, 2175 S. 1000 West, Syracuse, UT 84057, (801) 825-6512;
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10g.html
Gulfport Follow Through: University of Georgia (UGA)

Goal: To use assessment of the cognitive level as a guide for establishing a learning
environment that maximizes development of the thinking process by encouraging
the student to experiment with problems and discover solutions
Grades: K–3
Source: Ronnie Barnes, Director, Gulfport School District, P.O. Box 220, Gulfport, MS
39502-0220, (601) 865-4672; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10q.html
Helping with Homework: A Parent’s Guide to Information Problem Solving

Goal: To provide parents with information and computer technology problem-solving
tools (Big Six Skills) so they can help their children become independent learners
Grades: Not specified
Audience: Parents, teachers, and educators
Source: Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, Syracuse University, 4-194 Center
for Science and Technology, Syracuse, NY 13244-4100
History Alive, Six Powerful Teaching Strategies

Goal: To provide teachers with cooperative learning, multiple intelligence, and
spiral curriculum strategies that engage students in thinking
Grades: 5–12
Audience: Teachers
Source: Teachers Curriculum Institute, 201 San Antonio Circle, #105, Mountain View,
CA 94040

H.O.T.S.: Higher Order Thinking Skills Project
Goal: To provide an alternative approach to Chapter 1 for students in grades 4–6 in which
compensatory services consist solely of higher order thinking activities
Note: The program is conducted in a lab equipped with Apple computers (Apple IIe,
Apple IIgs, or Macintosh LC), a detailed curriculum, and a teacher trained in
Socratic dialog techniques.
Grades: Chapter 1 students in grades 4–6 in both reading and math; also used
successfully with Chapter 1 students in grade 7, learning disabled students in
grades 4–6, and gifted in grades K–2
Source: Christi Estrada or Dr. Stanley Pogrow, University of Arizona, College of
Education, Tucson, AZ 85721, (602) 621-9373; Developmental Funding: U.S.
Department of Education and Ford Foundation, PEP No. 88-12 (7/13/88);
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10a.html
HOTStuff: The Unofficial Newsletter of The HOTS Program, Bold New Look—Same Old
Pulp, December 1997
Goal: To provide examples of student products, new methods of teaching, web
site locations, and related HOTS tips
Grades: Not specified
Source: Education Innovations, 2302 East Speedway, Blvd. #114, Tucson, AZ 85719
How Difficult Should a Test Be?

Goal: To provide guidelines for setting a passing score for classroom
tests Audience: Teachers and educators
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, 210 O’Boyle Hall, The
Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064
Increase Maximal Performance by Activating Critical Thinking Skills (IMPACT)

Goal: To provide staff development for infusing critical thinking with content area
instruction using a framework of 22 critical-thinking skills, a model lesson format,
and teaching behaviors that activate student use of critical thinking (requires
teacher training)
Grades: 6–9
Audience: Teachers
Source: S. Lee Winocur, Ph.D., National Director, IMPACT, Center for the Teaching of
Thinking, 21412 Magnolia Street, Huntington Beach, CA 92646, (714) 964-3106;
Phi Delta Kappa, Eighth Street and Union Avenue, Box 780, Bloomington, IN
47402- 0789, (812) 339-1156; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10h.html

Institute for Creative Education (ICE)
Goal: To provide a creative problem solving process that is based in a sequentially
ordered curriculum that integrates thinking skill development into a wide variety of
subject areas to enable students to respond to problems or tasks more fluently,
flexibly, originally, and elaborately
Grades: NA
Audience: Teachers (A two-day teacher workshop required)
Source: Monika Steinberg, Director, Institute for Creative Education, Education
Information and Resource Center (ERIC), 606 Delsea Drive, Sewell, NJ 08080,
(609) 582-7000,
Fax: (609) 582-4206; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10r.html
Interdependent Learning
Goal: To use instructional games and pupil self-management methods to teach
students traditional academic skills and positive sociocultural attitudes and
behaviors
Grades: PreK–6
Audience: Administrators, supervisors, teacher trainers, and support staff
Source: Susan Courtney-Weissman, Interdependent Learning Model, Fordham
University, 113 West 60th Street, Room 1003, New York, NY 10023, (212) 636-
6494; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10s.html
Kids Interest Discovery Studies Kits (KIDS KITS)

Goal: To generate active, self-directed learning and higher levels of thinking, using
organized sets of multimedia materials on topics of student interest, problem
solving, and career education
Grades: 1–8
Audience: Students
Source: Jo Ann C. Petersen, KID KITS, 3607 Martin Luther King Blvd., Denver, CO
80205, (303) 322-9323, Fax: (303) 322-9475;
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10i.html
Leflore County (Mississippi) Follow Through Project

Goal: To develop skills in using a framework in which children assume responsibility
for their own learning by planning self-initiated activities, carrying out their plans,
presenting what they have learned, sharing their experiences with others, and
becoming independent decision makers and problem solvers
Grades: K–3
Audience: School administrators, teacher trainers, paraprofessionals, and teachers
Source: Ann Adams, Educational Services Building, 1901 Highway 82 West, Greenwood,
MS 38930, (601) 453-8566; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10t.html

Literacy Links
Goal: To support teachers in developing instructional, interactive modules in vocabulary,
comprehension, and study strategies using the content of their own courses,
including familiarization with cooperative learning strategies and activities designed
to enable students to organize and apply knowledge
Grades: 5–12
Audience: Teachers
Source: Lynn Dennis, Director, Coeur d’Alene Public Schools, District 271, 311 North
10th Street, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814, (208) 664-8241, Fax: (208) 664-1748;
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10j.html
Multicultural Reading and Thinking (McRat)

Goal: To provide a staff development process to help teachers infuse higher order
thinking skills and multicultural concepts into existing curriculum for all students
and to measure progress through students’ writing using direct instruction
strategies, modeling, explanation, guidance, and feedback on the use of thinking
Grades: 3–8
Audience: Teachers
Source: Janita Hoskyn, Program Manager, Reading Program, Arkansas Department of
Education, Room 401B, #4 Capitol Mall, Little Rock, AR 72201, (501) 682-4232
or
(501) 225-5809; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10k.html
Multiple Intelligences: Enabling Diverse Learning

Goal: To develop the seven domains of intelligence: (1) logical mathematics, (2) linguistics,
(3) musical, (4) spatial, (5) bodily kinesthetic, (6) interpersonal, and (7)
intrapersonal Grades: Young children
Source: Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 23 (Summer ’96), pp. 249B
53; [email protected]; http://gilligan.fs.ded...490028:50:/fsrec50.txt
Need New Problem-Solving Ideas? Take a Trip! by Lynda R. Wiest and Mary Barr
Sturbaum
Goal: To provide ways to use actual or planned travel experiences for constructing
realistic, challenging, and interesting problem-solving tasks, with examples of how
teachers and students can create travel problems for elementary, secondary, or
postsecondary classrooms
Grades: Elementary, secondary, and postsecondary
classrooms Audience: Teachers and students
Source: School Science and Mathematics Abstracts, Vol. 96, No.
4; http://science.cc.uwf.edu/ssma/abs/SSMV96N4.htm

Philosophy for Children
Goal: To provide a program that offers conceptual and cultural enrichment while
providing skill improvement in comprehension, analysis, and problem solving by
developing specific reasoning competencies
Grades: 3–7
Audience: Teachers
Source: Mathew Lipman, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Institute from the
Advancement of Philosophy for Children, Montclair State College, Upper
Montclair, NJ 07043, (201) 655-4277, Fax: (201) 655-5455; e-mail:
[email protected]; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10l.html
Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking (QUILT)

Goal: To increase and sustain teacher use of classroom questioning techniques and
procedures that produce higher levels of student learning and thinking through the
use of effective questioning
Grades: K–12
Audience: Teachers and local facilitation teams (Teacher training required)
Source: Sandra Orletsky, Project Director, Appalachia Educational Laboratory, P.O. Box
1348, Charleston, WV 25325, (304) 347-0400 or (800) 624-9120, Fax: (304)
347-
0487; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10m.html
Strategies for Technical Communication, A Collection of Teaching Tips by Meg Morgan,

John McNair, and Deborah S. Bosley
Goal: To provide guidelines and examples on teaching students how to prepare
technical reports with visuals, tables, graphics, acronyms, technical descriptions,
and e-mail
Grades: Various
Audience: Teachers
Source: Society for Technical Communication, 901 N. Stuart Street, Suite 904, Arlington,
VA 22203-1854
Student Team Learning

Goal: To provide instructional techniques in which students learn to master basic skills
presented by the teacher using three major strategies: Student Teams
Achievement Division (STAD), Teams-Games-Tournaments (TGT), and Jigsaw II
Grades: 3–12
Source: Anna Marie Farnish, Director of Training Projects, Center for Social Organization
of Schools, 3505 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, (410) 516-8857, Fax:
(410) 516-8890; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10u.html

Study Skills Across the Curriculum
Goal: To improve students’ study
skills Grades: 5–8
Audience: Teachers, parents, and students
Source: Patricia S. Olson, Director, ISD 197- Study Skills across the Curriculum, 1897
Delaware Avenue, West, St. Paul, MN 55118, (612) 681-0844, (612) 898-3002,
Fax: 612/681-0879; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10n.html
Systems Approach to Individualized Instruction (SAII)

Goal: To provide a systematic instructional program in reading and mathematics
using criterion-referenced tests and learning modules
Grades: 1–6 and in other settings for 7–
8 Audience: Teachers
Source: Charles L. Barker, Josephine County School District, P.O. Box 160, Murphy,
OR 97533, (503) 862-3111; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10v.html
Talents Unlimited
Goal: To develop skills in using a teaching/learning model that integrates creative
and critical thinking skills in any classroom curriculum
Grades: 1–6, also being used in 7–12
Audience: NA
Source: Brenda Haskew, Talents Unlimited, 109 South Cedar Street, Mobile, AL 36602,
(205) 690-8060,
Fax: (205) 344-8364; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EPTW/eptw10/10o.html
Teacher’s Handbook of Practical Strategies by Susan H. Hawley and Robert C. Hawley

Goal: To provide practical strategies and examples for how to teach thinking, including
activities and behaviors to promote thinking and checklists for planning and
teacher evaluation
Grades: K–12
Audience: Teachers
Source: ERA Press, Education Research Associates, Box 767, Amherst, MA 01004
Toolkit98 Developed collaboratively by all 10 Regional Educational Laboratories

Goal: To define expectations for performance for students, encourage student self-
reflection and self-assessment, and assist classroom teachers in assessing student
learning
Grades: NA
Audience: Professional development of staff and teachers
Source: McREL Resource Center, 2550 South Parker Road, Suite 500, Aurora, CO
80014- 1678, http://www.mcrel.org/
Note: The cost of Toolkit98 is $66.50, which includes UPS ground shipment.

Transforming Ideas for Teaching and Learning Mathematics by Carole B. Lacampagne
Goal: To provide teaching and learning strategies for creating and transforming four
congruent shapes and ways for including nonroutine problems in the development
of higher order skills
Grades: K–8
Audience: Students
Source: United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20208-
5641; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/StateArt/Math/covpg.html
Transforming Ideas for Teaching and Learning to Read by Ann P. Sweet

Goal: To provide 10 interrelated ideas for transforming literacy instruction in the
classroom Grades: K–8
Audience: Teachers
Source: United States Department of Education, Office of Educational Research
and Improvement, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20208-
5641; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/StateArt/Read/covpg.html
Using the California Critical Skills Test in Research, Evaluation, and Assessment by Peter
A. Facione
Goal: To access core college-level critical-thinking skills based on validation
studies Grades: NA
Audience: Administrators and teachers
Source: California Academic Press, 217 La Cruz Ave., Millbrae, CA 94030; cited
at http://rice.edn.deakin...roj/Mt Annan/home.html
Writing Multiple-Choice Test Items

Goal: To provide guidelines for the task of constructing multiple-choice
tests Audience: Teachers and educators
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, 210 O’Boyle Hall, The
Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064

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Higher Order

A publication of the Educational Services Program,

questions, or dilemmas. Successful applications of the skills result in explanations, decisions,

persistence, self-monitoring, and open-minded, flexible attitudes.

general agreement concerning the conditions under which they prosper.

(teacher-centered presentations of information) should be used sparingly. Presentations should

Teacher- and/or student-generated questions about dilemmas, novel problems, and

Sincere feedback providing immediate, specific, and corrective information should

inform learners of their progress.

Computer-mediated communication and instruction can provide access to remote data

building in areas such as verbal analogies, logical thinking, and inductive/deductive

Higher Order Thinking Skills Page 2

Higher Order Thinking Skills Page 3

reasons for the selection or generation responses.

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Higher Order Thinking Skills.......................................................................................................7

Theories Related to Learning and Higher Order Thinking Skills........................................................18

Higher Order Thinking Skills Page 5

Summary of the Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills.........................................................32

Level 3: Higher Order Thinking.................................................................................................................40

Specific Methods and Strategies to Enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills.......................................44

Learning and Thinking Strategies................................................................................................................48

Summary of Teaching Strategies.........................................................................................................63

Classroom and Statewide Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills...............................64

Validity and Generalizability of Higher Order Thinking Skills and Dispositions...............................64

Published Measures of Higher Order Thinking Skills.........................................................................71

Classroom Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills............................................................................81

Baker, Aschbacher, Niemi, and Sato...........................................................................................................82

Higher Order Thinking Skills Page 6

The Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory................................................................................88

The Advanced International Certificate of Education.................................................................................90

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.....................................................................................92

Statewide Assessment Models of Higher Order Thinking Skills.........................................................93

Paul and Nosich...........................................................................................................................................93

The Florida Department of Education.........................................................................................................96

Pennsylvania Department of Education.......................................................................................................97

Summary of Classroom and Statewide Assessments...........................................................................99

Appendix A: Sample Teaching Assignments...................................................................................118

Appendix B: Sample Tests and Test Items.......................................................................................145

Appendix C: Other Resources...........................................................................................................164

Table 1: Dimensions of Thinking.......................................................................................................22

Table 2: Activities and Abilities Related to Intelligences..................................................................29

Table 3: Perspectives About Intelligence............................................................................................31

Table 4: A Sampling of Terms Associated with Higher Order Thinking...........................................34

Table 5: Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills....................................................................37

Table 6: APA Summary of Basic Principles of Learning...................................................................42

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place” (Crowl, Kaminsky, & Podell, 1997, p. 23).

process has shifted to a multidimensional view—much more like a complex network of

problem solving, visual imagery and metaphors, and schemata.

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McDavitt, 1993; Son & VanSickle, 1993).

Educational Progress (NAEP); the National Commission on Excellence in Education in A Nation

on Teaching (Carnegie Corporation, 1986).

(U.S. Department of Education), and the Department of Labor’s Secretary’s Commission on

1996) related to higher order thinking are listed below.

the information appropriately”

 Math: “uses and justifies different estimation strategies in a real-world problem

situation and determines the reasonableness of results of calculations in a given