Higher and lower-order cognitive skills: The case of chemistry

Abstract

A major driving force in the current effort to reform science education is the conviction that it is vital for our students to develop their higher-order cognitive skills capacity in order to function effectively in our modem, complex science and technology-based society. In line with this rationale, this study focuses on the use of examinations for studying student performance in chemistry examination on items that require higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) or lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS). This usage of examinations is explored and demonstrated via "post-factum" data analysis of two case studies: the General Examination (in chemistry) and the Panhellenic Chemistry Competition administered nationally in Greece for secondary-school graduates in 1991. The main findings were: (a) students performed considerably lower on questions requiring HOCS than on those requiring LOCS; (b) performance on questions requiring HOCS may not correlate with that on questions requiring LOCS for which affective factors, LOt:S-orientation in teaching and the extent of prior examination preparation may be responsible; and (c) examinations that contain items of both types can be effectively used to identify HOCS-and LOCS-students within various contexts of chemistry teaching. Based on the above and previous related studies, the fostering of students' HOCS by appropriate teaching and assessment strategies is advocated.The acquisition of higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) by our students, beyond the so far dominating lower-order cognitive skills (LOCS), is a major instructional goal in contemporary science teaching. The HOCS capabilities such as question asking (ZoUer, 1987), problem solving, decision making, and critical thinking-all of which require evaluative thinking (ZoUer, 1993)-are considered by many to be the most important learning outcomes to which good teaching should aim (Lehman,

Reform-Based Science Teaching: Teachers’ Instructional Practices and Conceptions

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Analysis of Finnish chemistry Matriculation Examination questions according to Cognitive Complexity

“…However, it is important to take into account the major impact of students' different backgrounds on the cognitive complexity of tasks (cf. Krathwohl, 2002;Zoller & Tsaparlis, 1997) when designing the future chemistry matriculation examinations.…”

“…articles, charts, tables, pictures) in the questions when the examinations will more likely measure students' higher-order cognitive skills than rote memorisation of textbook content, or well-rehearsed routine skills (cf. Zoller & Tsaparlis, 1997). As well, it can be useful to sometimes add unnecessary diversions of input data to the questions when students have to really analyse the task to distinguish the essential content from all given information (cf.…”

“…the quality of instruction, number of optional chemistry courses taken in upper secondary school, preparation time for the test) has undeniably a major impact on the cognitive complexity of the examination questions (e.g. Zoller & Tsaparlis, 1997). For example, the students who have thoroughly practiced the solving processes of all the basic quantitative upper secondary school chemistry problems won't probably need to use any higher-order cognitive skills (e.g.…”

Correlação entre a matriz de referência e os itens envolvendo conceitos de Química presentes no ENEM de 2009 a 2013

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