Using a Repetitive Instructional Intervention to Improve Students’ Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Abstract

The ability to synthesize and communicate complicated problems with confidence is paramount for success in STEM fields, but programs tend to overemphasize memorization. We conducted a preliminary study to determine if asking students to repeatedly link materials 1) improved students' ability to build connections, and 2) increased students' confidence. Student accuracy and complexity response scores increased over the 5-week experiment, but student confidence did not. Our findings indicate the importance of providing students across STEM disciplines with as many opportunities as possible to practice using higher-order thinking skills to the benefit of STEM fields, educational programs, and students.

Keywords:

• Classroom assessment technique
• higher-order thinking skills
• ecology
• career development
• STEM

Acknowledgments

This project would not have been possible without the assistance and support of all of our wonderful students, Dr. Carrie Myers, Dr. Andrew Hansen, Kearstin Jacobson, and Jaclyn Carroll. We would also like to thank W. and G. Carroll and M. Harris for their support.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.