Developing

Higher Order
Thinking
Robert Fisher

Robert Fisher

Developing thinking and learning

This seminar will focus on:
developing higher order thinking skills
dialogic teaching and learning
the development of qualifications in
Scotland to support the Curriculum for
Excellence programme.
Robert Fisher

What is the purpose of

education?
Education
has for its purpose not the imparting
of particular knowledge but the
strengthening of mental faculties
(Kant)
to cultivate the mind and develop character
Robert Fisher

Why teach for thinking?

If thinking is how we make sense of
experience then helping our children
to become better thinkers will help
them to get more out of learning
and more out of life.
Fisher, R. (2008) Teaching Thinking Continuum

Thinking to Learn
Council)

Robert Fisher

(Highland

What are thinking skills?

We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence is not an act, but a habit (Aristotle)
A thinking skill is:
a mental process learnt through practice
how we apply intelligence to a problem
our capacity to make judgements
What is good thinking?

Thinking Skills

Knowledge
Understanding
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analysing and evaluating
Creating

Bloom (1956)

(SQA)

Robert Fisher

Information
processing
Critical thinking
Creative thinking
Fisher/Logan (Highland LEA)

Dimensions of thinking
These dimensions of thinking at literal,
strategic, and conceptual levels :
information processing
critical thinking
creative thinking
comparative (evaluative) thinking
through self-reflection, dialogue and writing,
characterise research.
Robert Fisher

What is higher order thinking?

Intellectually challenging, requires effort
Complex and multi-variable
Open, uncertain, not routine or algorithmic
Seeks meaning, conceptual understanding
Evaluative, involving criteria for judgement
Metacognitive, involves self-regulation
Robert Fisher

Robert Fisher

Models of dialogue
Speaking and listening engaging in talk
Discussion groups sharing views, ideas
Community of Enquiry seeking
understanding via questioning, explaining,
hypothesising, reasoning, and evaluation of
concepts and claims to truth and knowledge
- within a self-regulating democratic setting.
Robert Fisher

Teachers and students as researchers

Thinking teachers and students enhance
teaching and learning by research through:
questioning, problem posing
studying multiple sources of information
applying higher order thinking
extending thinking through dialogue
reviewing processes and outcomes
How do we build research into the
curriculum?
Robert Fisher