Higher Order Thinking Skills and the aftermath of protests in Brazil

Last month, the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) organised a webinar for members with the renowned author and specialist from Israel – Dr. Penny Ur . The session was entitled “Language-learning task design: Using higher-order thinking skills”.

According to Ur ... or according to ‘er, if you’ll forgive the pun... Higher-order thinking skills are those which involve mental effort, which may take various forms (e.g. problem-solving, contrasting, applying, synthesizing…). They are contrasted with lower-order thinking skills which need little effort, and are mainly associated with recall or identification of ‘surface’ facts or forms.

You may remember that my previous blogpost was on the use of images, demand-high teaching and Critical Literacy. Well, Penny’s webinar focused on one aspect of the latter, which is Critical Thinking, defined by Wikipedia as ‘the process of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false; sometimes true, or partly true.”

I would like to reflect here on how important I believe this Critical Thinking skill is in the light of last month’s popular uprising in Brazil, known as the Brazilian Spring, #changebrazil or simply the mobilisation of a nation to demand of its so-called leaders a modicum of decency and commitment to resolving some of the country’s more pressing issues, such as Education, Health and Security.

The fact is that during the many protests, bringing-together millions of Brazilians, it was possible to spot an enormous variety of claims/demands/requests/issues on the signs being held-up for the national and international media to see (not to mention Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Flickr).

In the aftermath of such a thunderous booming of the vox populi, we witnessed an incredible array of demands, justifications, causes and supposedly `factual` information being created and shared online... some of which was well-researched and informative, whilst some was somewhat fantastical, with no apparent concern for facts. Furthermore, it was also possible to read blatantly false statements and misleading statistics being widely distributed in order to further the cause of this or that political party, religious group, lobby or movement.

Returning to the role of the teacher of English in developing Critical Thinking amongst our students, let`s break-down this important 21^st-century skill into its component parts, as described by Penny Ur.

-       Analysis: being able to distinguish between categories, generalize, exemplify etc.

-       Precision: being aware of imprecision (vague, contradictory or tautologous, that is needlessly repetitive, statements) in input and one’s own self-expression

-       Logic: being aware of illogical reasoning in input and taking care to be logical in one’s own thinking

-       Criticism: being able to apply criteria consistently in order to evaluate.

If we apply these processes to some of the statements and demands made during the protests, students will find that some of the ideas proposed were actually potentially damaging to democracy in Brazil and that it may be necessary to dig a little deeper into the issues by actually reading the Proposals for Constitutional Amendments that are ‘affectionately’ referred to in Brazil as PECs (Proposta de Emenda Constitucional). Some PECs are actually really important and have been languishing in a kind of Congressional Purgatory for years since none of the country’s politicians had the courage to propose they be given priority.

Although the vast majority of signs seen during protests in Brazil, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Europe, the USA and elsewhere are completely legitimate and make very important demands, we occasionally come across a few that were clearly written for the sole purpose of attracting attention or perhaps just having a bit of fun. Here are some examples of signs that could do with a little “Applied Critical Thinking” and may generate some class discussion on what they may be trying to say and what is ‘behind’ the apparently superficial message.

Source: http://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2012/11/25-funny-political-signs/

So just in case you’re still not sure about how important it is to promote higher-order thinking in language teaching, here are some of the ways in which it can benefit the learner (from Ur 2013):

Language learning

New language items are better imprinted on our memory if we use deep processing. This means relating the item meaningfully to its meanings and to other items previously learnt.

Deeper processing involves higher-order thinking skills e.g. connecting, contrasting, creating etc. - Waters, 2006

Intellectual development

This is both the learning of facts and concepts AND the ability to relate these to each other, criticize, draw conclusions, create new ideas etc.

Educational values

The ability and willingness to think for oneself, as distinct from the unthinking acceptance of facts, values, directives etc. laid down by an authority.

Interest

Activities based on simple recall or knowledge of isolated forms and meanings tend to be

boring. Activities based on higher-order thinking skills are likely to be more interesting.

Here are Penny Ur’s suggestions for some simple activities that promote Critical Thinking:

1. Divergent thinking

-How many things can you think of to say about this picture? (oral fluency)

-How many ways can you think of to solve this dilemma? (oral fluency)

-How many ways can you think of to compare a train with a car? (comparatives)

-How many endings can you think of for the sentence: If I had a million dollars…? (conditionals)

-How many ways can you think of to use an empty tin can? (A pen? A piece of plasticine?) (oral fluency, can/could)

-How many adjectives can you think of to describe the noun road? movie? song? (grammar: adjective-before-noun, vocabulary)

-How many nouns can you think of that could be described by the adjective clear? (hard? black?) (adjective-before-noun, vocabulary)

2. Originality, ‘lateral’ thinking

-Think of ten ways to compare a computer with a piece of spaghetti.

-Find six questions to which the answer is …twelve…(tomorrow …of course! …my mother )

-Suggest at least three advantages of being an only child? (Of not having a cellphone? Of having no car?)

-Name ten things you have never done.

-Name six things that you can’t touch, and why.

-Say six negative things about …a pen … a cat … English.

-Say four NICE things about your friend, using negative sentences.

I'd love to hear about your experiences with Critical Thinking and higher-order thinking skills in the English Language Classroom... why not share them in the comments below?

References

Ur, P (2013). High Order Thinking Skills Webinar, IATEFL

Waters, A. (2006). Thinking and language learning . ELT Journal, 60(4), 319-

327.