Learning_Skills

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GOAL
Strategy: HOTS
Higher Order Thinking Skills Purpose: Reading for Essential
Understanding
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. HOTS Curriculum (1987), originally published by Stanley Pogrow, 1987 by The
International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/
atrisk/at7lk20.htm [No longer a viable link]
DoDEA Virtual High School (DVHS)
To promote key thinking skills, educators have used the
Socratic Method where a series of questions surrounding a
problem, situation, scenario, or drama are presented . In an online
course, you might participate in a Discussion Board activity or
complete a written assignment that poses a series of probing
questions to answer. You may also have an opportunity to meet in
a live Adobe Connect session where your teacher may use rounds
of questioning.
You may have experienced this method of learning if you ever participated in a simulation game called
the Oregon Trail. In this game, students are given information and vocabulary words that are uncommon
today, but were common among the Oregon Trail pioneers in the 1840s. Students play the role of the
pioneer and must plan what they will take with them, their method and route of travel in an attempt to
arrive safely based on the information they are given.
 The example questions below from the game are designed to enhance metacognition skills.
 'What strategy did you choose to get to Oregon and why was that strategy successful?' or 'What
strategy did you choose and why was it unsuccessful?'
 To facilitate 'Describe where you have heard of the word yoke before?' or
'From what perspective are you viewing the wagon, and how did that differ from the
perspective when you were flying the balloon in the Ride the Wind program?'
 To emphasize given these directions: 'Read the instructions and tell me
if you think a yoke, as used in this game, is part of an egg [the yolk], why not, what do you think
it might be, and why do you think it would be important?'
 And finally, to encourage the combining of information, they were asked, 'Is anyone who
traveled the Oregon Trail still alive today? How could you figure it out?' " (p. 11)
Watch the videos below to learn more about the Socratic Method.
Dean Mitchell, iStock/thinkstock
Greg Perry. YouTube Video, The Socratic Method of Questioning. 2013. Retrieved 8/30/2016 at
TeachLikeThis. How to do the Socratic Method. Video #11 Socratic Method. 2013. Retrieved 8/30/2016 at