Thinking Skills Framework

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Thinking Skills Framework

• A Key to Assessing Complex Thinking

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What Are Thinking Skills Frameworks?

• Ways to organize a wide range of possible
  learning outcomes
• Ways to assure that the important learning
  targets are taught
• Ways to assure that the important learning
  targets are assessed

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Why Is A Framework Needed for Assessment?

• Focus our ideas about what we should assess
• Guide our efforts to craft assessment tasks
• Guide our efforts to craft scoring rubrics

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Examples of Thinking Skills Frameworks

• Blooms Taxonomy
• Quellmalz Taxonomy
• Gagnes Taxonomy
• Core Thinking Skills
• Dimensions of Learning Model

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Overview of the Dimensions of Learning Framework

• Content Dimensions
• Declarative Knowledge
• Procedural Knowledge

• Life -Long Learning Dimensions
• Complex Thinking
• Information Processing
• Effective Communication
• Collaboration and Cooperation
• Habits of Mind

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Declarative Knowledge

• The facts, ideas, generalizations, and/or
  theories you teach and assess
• Example of a Learning Target
• Describe the characters who are in a story.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Procedural Knowledge

• The skills and/or procedures you teach and
  assess.
• Example of a Learning Target
• Ability to use several different types of maps
  to study why people migrate.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Complex Thinking

• The types of reasoning strategies and ways of
  applying knowledge you teach and assess
• Example of a Learning Target
• Ability to analyze a collection of newspaper
  advertisements to support conclusions about what
  advertisers think people want from products.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Information Processing

• The types of information gathering, information
  synthesizing, information evaluating, and
  information needs assessment you teach and
  assess.
• Example of a Learning Target
• Ability to decide what information in newspapers
  is relevant to solving the problem of identifying
  the views of local government officials on
  raising local taxes.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Effective Communication

• The types of individual communication, audience
  communication, purposes for communication, and
  products of communication you teach and assess.
• Example of a Learning Target
• Ability to select the best method to present
  ones ideas to the class.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Collaboration and Cooperation

• The types of work on group goals, interpersonal
  skills, group maintenance activities, and
  multiple role activities that you teach and
  assess.
• Example of a Learning Target
• Ability to work on a task together with students
  more knowledgeable and less knowledgeable than
  oneself

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Habits of Mind

• The types of self-regulation, critical thinking,
  and creative thinking performances you teach and
  assess.
• Example Learning Target
• Ability to predict the types of resources one
  will need to complete each part of the task
  before beginning it.

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Performance Assessments

• A way to increase the opportunities for students
  to use complex thinking, problem solving, and
  critical thinking

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What is A Performance Assessment?

• A task that requires a student to apply learning
  to realistic situations in an individual or group
  activity and results in
• An extended written or spoken answer or
• A specific product

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Example of A Performance Task

• Directions to Students
• Identify a recent natural disaster on which the
  local newspaper and television had reported.
  Your task is to to determine how the media
  conveyed information about the disaster to the
  public. In your analysis, identify specific
  examples of inaccurate information. You should
  include examples from a variety of newspapers,
  television broadcasts, eyewitness accounts, or
  interviews.
• You must also identify specific examples of how
  these inaccuracies have affected the people who
  received the information. Describe what might
  have been done to prevent such inaccuracies from
  being given to the public.
• This is a take-home task. You have one week in
  which to complete your response. You are
  expected to work independently.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Example of A Performance Task (continued)

• You will be evaluated on the following
• CONTENT LEARNING TARGET
• Your understanding of the local media and how
  information is communicated to the public.
• LIFELONG LEARNING TARGETS
• Complex Thinking Error Analysis
• Your ability to identify and articulate
  significant errors in information processes.
• Your ability to accurately describe the effects
  of the errors on the people who received the
  information
• Information Processing
• Your ability to use a variety of information
  gathering techniques and information resources.

Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Example of Scoring Rubrics for The Content
Learning Target
Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Example of Scoring Rubrics for Complex Thinking
Error Analysis Learning Target
Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Example of Scoring Rubrics for Complex Thinking
Error Analysis Learning Target
Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Example of Scoring Rubrics for Information
Processing Using a Variety of Resources
Adapted from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe
(1993)
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Positive Features of Performance Assessments
Limited real-world authenticity
Subject-matter skills/knowledge
Limited use of aesthetic skills/knowledge
Communication skills/knowledge
Performance Task
Limited use of independent research
Problem solving, critical thinking
Limited use of interdisciplinary skills/knowledge
Creativity, ingenuity
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Types of Performance Tasks

• 1. Structured, on-demand Tasks
• 2. Naturally occurring Performances
• 3. Long-term projects
• 4. Portfolios

• 4. Demonstrations
• 5. Experiments
• 6. Oral presentations
• 7. Simulations and contrived situations

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Authentic Assessment

• Emphasizes applications
• Focuses on direct assessment
• Uses realistic problems
• Encourages open-ended thinking

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Authentic Assessment Requires Students to
Complete a Task As They Would in Real Life
More Authentic
Less Authentic

• Read several actual government documents
  discussing educational plans and policies.
  Prepare a synthesis of the documents that shows
  relationships between educational policy and
  improvements in student learning.

• Read several quotations extracted from different
  sources by the instructor. Write an essay that
  explains the learning implications of the
  quotations.

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Authentic Tasks Requires Students to Complete the
Task As They Would in Real Life
More Authentic
A Mars orbiter is being built to hold a team of
scientists and their families. The orbiter will
circle Mars for a long period while studies are
conducted. The orbiter is a large tubular,
circular ring with a hub in the center. This
large ring will have a radius of 200 meters.
Using reference sources about Mars, physics
references, and what we have learned in lectures,
answer the questions below. 1. To develop
gravitation, the orbiter would need to rotate.
What does the rotational period of the orbiter
need to be in order for it to have an apparent
gravity that is the average between Earth and
Mars? 2. What height above the center of Mars
would the orbiter need to be in order to maintain
a geosynchronous orbit.
Uses ideas from Physics Class, East Valley High
School published on the web.
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Authentic Assessment Requires Students to
Complete the Task As They Would in Real Life
Less Authentic
1. State the mass, diameter, mean density,
distance from Earth, rotational period, and
revolutional period of Mars. 2. Use the formula
to calculate the rotational period needed to
achieve an artificial acceleration due to gravity
that is 6.86m when a ring with a 200 meter
diameter is placed into orbit.
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Closed- vs Open-Response Task

• Closed-response task
• The question constrains the students to a limited
  set of answers
• Open-response task
• The question permits the students to have
  alternative acceptable answers
• Permits answers to be expressed in many ways

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A Performance Tasks Assessment Focus

• Individuals
• Groups
• Combined

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Performance Tasks

• Learning Activities vs. Assessment Exercises

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Developing Performance Tasks
Begin by identifying
Develop scoring rubrics
Is it fair?
Develop final version
Is it real-world?
Add inter-disciplinary?
Review the draft
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Scoring Rubrics
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What Are Rubrics?

• Coherent set of guidelines
• help you evaluate
• the quality of a students performance

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Must Know Where to Focus Your Evaluation

• Product or outcome
• Process or procedure
• Both

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Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity
May Have Special Requirements

• Evaluate several learning targets from same
  response
• Define several levels of quality or correctness
  for each learning target
• Provide for multiple correct responses

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Most Useful Rubric Formats

• Rating scales
• Checklists

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Two Types of Rubrics

• Holistic
• Analytic

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Example of A Holistic Scoring Rubric
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Example of An Analytic Scoring Rubric
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Holistic Rubrics
Rate a students product or process as a whole,
without first scoring the parts.
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Holistic Rubrics

• Advantages
• Helps you view the performance as a working
  whole
• Takes less time per student
• Easier to use

• Disadvantages
• You do not point out details to students to
  help them improve
• Your own bias, inconsistencies, and errors
  are easily masked by the overall mark

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Analytic Rubrics
One rates the parts of a students product or
process first, then sums the part scores to
obtain the total score.
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Analytic Rubrics

• Advantages
• Gives detailed feedback to students
• Allows identification of what needs to be
  retaught
• Allows weighing some elements more heavily
  that others

• Disadvantages
• It may be difficult to craft well-defined
  elements to score
• Beginners may be frustrated by the amount of
  time needed to craft a useful analytic rubric

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Developing Scoring Rubrics
Begin by identifying
Use scoring rubrics
Quality levels within each learning target
Develop final version
Draft rubric
Wide response range accommodated?
Multiple correct responses accommodated?
Use the draft on a sample of tasks