Integrating Rich Tasks - Activity 1.2

How can we encourage higher-order thinking skills?

• distinguish between problems that encourage higher-order thinking skills and problems which don't
• develop problems of your own that support higher-order thinking skills

You will need the following resources:

• Set of cards for matching: HOTS1.doc
• Document of strategies for modifying tasks: HOTS2.doc

• The cards in HOTS1.doc contain some lower-order questions and, focusing on the same mathematical topic, some more challenging questions - ones that require higher-order thinking skills. Pair them up.

• Now, with colleagues, answer the following questions:
• • What do you think higher-order thinking skills are?
  • What do tasks that encourage higher-order thinking skills look like?

• Look at these notes on higher-order thinking skills and compare them with your ideas. Are there any major differences? What is your response to those differences?

• Instead of replacing a lower-order problem with a different problem, we can often modify it. How can we adapt lower-order maths problems so they promote HOTS? HOTS2.doc outlines four key strategies that will help to increase the challenge of standard questions in the classroom:
• • Here's the answer, what could the question be?
  • Make up your own ...
  • What if ...?
  • All answers

• Look at a problem you have recently set one of your classes and discuss how it could be transformed into one requiring higher-order thinking skills. Jot down your ideas and keep them for Activity 2.2 .

Return to the introduction

Go back to Activity 1.1

Move on to Activity 1.3