Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills During a Culture War

1. Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills During a Culture War • Anthony W. Palmer MA. • Azusa Pacific University

2. Overview Overview • Background of Paper and my Biography • Definitions and Descriptions • The Ethical Dilemma • The Perspectives of Major Players • Ethical Perspectives • A Resolution • Question and Answer

3. Background of this Paper • The Ethics Paper • The Perspectives of Major Players • Ethical Perspectives • A Resolution

4. Higher Order Thinking Skills • Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York: Longmans Green. • Anderson, L. W. (86). Krathwohl (Eds.). (2001). A Taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.

5. Higher Order Thinking Skills Versus Lower Order Thinking Skills • No Child Left Behind - Race to the Bottom of Blooms Taxonomy HOTS LOTTS

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

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

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

9. Texas Republican Party Platform, 2012 • “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”

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

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

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

13. The Percentage of Citizens with College Degrees • 1990 2009 Bishop, B. (2009). The big sort: Why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

14. Texas Republican Party Platform, 2012 • “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”

15. Higher Order Thinking Skills 21st Century Skills Critical Thinking H Common Core State Standards

16. The Necessity of Higher Order thinking skills • The Survival of American Democracy • Survival in a 21st Century Economy

17. The Survival of American Democracy • “Among American adults, a mere 20% have the capacity to understand the nuances of politics and public policy. More than half of the population of American adults cannot make sense of the complex information patterns that shape public policy” (Stoller, 2012). Higher order thinking skill are requisite for a nuanced understanding of complicated issues such as global climate change, the war on terrorism, and the importance of regulating financial institutions.

18. The Survival of 21st Century Economy • “According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, these poll results are the same as the findings of a study of employers done in 2006. In that study, U.S. employers indicated that today's students are ill prepared for workplace demands and would continue to be so until 21st-century skills are systematically taught as part of the curriculum.” (Rosenfeld, 2007, p.6)

19. The Survival of 21st Century American Economy • “Knowledge workers of the 21st century must be highly skilled in analysis, synthesis, and evaluation” (Aloysius Sequeira, 2012, p. 1). HOTS are not just “the icing on the cake”, HOTS are the cake!

20. Ethical Positions Jesus Christ Immanuel Kant John Stuart Mill Altruism Categorical Imperative Utilitarianism

21. Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.” (Immanuel Kant; translated by James W. Ellington [1785] (1993). Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals 3rd ed. Hackett. p. 30).

22. The Utilitarianism of John Stuart Mill “What will provide the most good for the most people?”

23. The Altruism of Jesus Christ “...Love your neighbor as yourself...” Mark 12:31 NIV

24. Major Players • Students • Teachers • Principals • The Texas GOP and others opposed to Higher Order Thinking Skills

25. Christian Perspectives On Higher Order Thinking Skills Versus Progressive Christianity Christian Fundamentalism Christian Fundamentalism

26. Progressive Christianity - Contextual reading of the Bible - Accommodation to Science - Ethic of Altruism - Avoid Authoritarianism • ("Soul Play: What Is Progressive Christianity Exactly?". The Flip Side. University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire.)

27. Progressive Christianity “A person who is a good and true Christian should realize that truth belongs to his Lord, wherever it is found, gathering and acknowledging it even in pagan literature, but rejecting superstitious vanities and deploring and avoiding those who 'though they knew God did not glorify him as God...” - Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching II.75.

28. Christian Fundamentalism - Literal reading of the Bible - Reaction against Modernity - Reaction against Science i.e. evolution, age of the Earth, sex education - Authoritarian Ethic Torrey, R. A., Dixon, A. C., & Meyer, L. (Eds.). (2003). The fundamentals: A testimony to the truth (Vol. 3). Baker Books.

29. Christian Fundamentalism • “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” • Romans 13:1-2 KJV

30. Christian Fundamentalism Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1 KJV) “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything” (Colossians 3:22 KJV) “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's” (Mark 12:17 KJV)

31. Christian Fundamentalism • “We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.” • (Texas Republican Party Platform, July 2012)

32. The Ethical Resolution • Educators must find a way to be faithful to the academic standards in the context of the current culture war.

33. Resolution • Teachers must teach these crucial skills, administrators should support teachers who do and challenge and equip those who do not.

34. Resolution • School boards should defend the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills and provide a strong, articulate, and compelling defense of the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills to the community.

35. Resolution • State Legislatures should resist any attempt to prevent the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills. The State Legislatures should require the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills in every school in their respective states.

36. Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills During a Culture War • Anthony W. Palmer MA.