A focus on higher order thinking.
Due to a few presentations I’ve given lately, a re-focus on the application of higher order thinking to health education has resulted. In particular I have been focussing on whether our assessment tasks lead students to demonstrate higher order thinking and whether our evidence collection methods can demonstrate the ability of our students to demonstrate the higher order thinking. For me this is particularly critical in task construction.
Thursday is the annual conference for the State Review Panel and District Review Panel Chairs. Somewhat surprisingly, these meetings include lengthy and robust discussion on support of teacher development in the subject. This year one session will be the annotation of tasks as exemplars of good task construction. I will be keeny interested to hear the thoughts of my colleagues, and to then apply a critical eye to my own school’s tasks upon my return to school.
I’m hoping I can then tie this into preparations for upcoming eLearning professional development sessions I am leading, where I will explore the application of devices and technologies to the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. With the critical focus on pedagogy / higher order thinking I am confident of sound planning.
