Knowledge, the first level of cognitive learning, is a no-brainer for distance learning curriculum development. In fact, direct, explicit teaching of knowledge is a no-brainer for any curriculum development. It gets a little more difficult as the learning scales the hierarchy of Bloom’s taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) to comprehension, analysis, application, synthesis, and evaluation skills. Distance learning experiences should ensure higher order thinking skills development.
Any course syllabus should include a course description/introduction, course objectives (knowledge and skills), texts, course assignments, and grading procedures. These basic tenets are expected and appropriate; however, the course assignments component is the place course writers and curriculum developers can ensure higher order thinking skills by developing learning opportunities for distance learning students.
What Should Knowledge Level Thinking Skills Learning Experiences Look Like?
Knowledge level thinking skills typically include the lower level thinking skills of Bloom’s taxonomy: knowledge and comprehension. These lower level thinking skills are pretty forthright in learning activity development. They involve learning activities that require students to know and to comprehend content information. Table 1 provides examples.
What Should Higher Order Thinking Skills Activities Look Like?
Lower level thinking processes and subsequent activities are usually part of coursework. This ensures a transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the learner, but to aspire to provide higher order thinking skills development activities, course writers/developers must go further. Table 2 presents a simple ways to do that.
Including the activities outlined above will ensure that students are interacting with the knowledge they are gaining from reading assignments. This interaction will expand their learning experiences to become more meaningful and intrinsic.
Students in traditional face-to-face classrooms that involve assigned readings then “listening” to lectures will fare no better than distance learners who read and “answer questions.” It is good teaching in any setting to include student opportunities to interact and process knowledge that is being imparted.
How Should Higher Order Thinking Skills Learning Experiences Be Assessed?
Higher order thinking skills learning products can be assessed through most traditional assessment means, including objective tests, but lend themselves more to performance tasks that use rubrics for assessment. Traditional objective tests can include assessments that require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation through the use of carefully crafted multiple choice, multiple answer, ordering, matching, and fill in the blank test items.
Performance tasks that include rubrics for assessment typically include essays, reports, or projects. Rubrics can be easily developed to assess the content and skill levels of students and should be a regular part of student distance learning experiences. Rubrics allow students to conceptualize up front the depth and breadth of the learning outcomes expected. These standards serve as motivators for student interaction with presented learning activities. Table 3 presents a simple rubric format that outlines expectations.
The rubric offers examples of evaluating thinking skills learning products/outcomes. The educator committed to going past a simple transfer of basic knowledge to students can easily include activities to spur student thinking and can develop simple, manageable ways to assess their learning outcomes.
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