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2016/2017 Priorities: Building Complex Thinking Skills

Research studies report that the most essential skill needed in the workplace is complex, problem-focused thinking. Yet most students coming into higher education and the workforce lack this ability (Henderson Hurley, Hurley, 2013).

Learning requires effort, but complex thinking requires a higher level of focus and resilience over time. Teachers find it harder to teach, and students often struggle because there are often no right answers and the tasks require personal reflection, which many are not comfortable with.

What Is Complex Thinking?Complex thinking can be summed up as “seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth” (Willingham, 2007).

Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is an effective way to think about critical thinking and content complexity. The DOK model was employed to analyze the cognitive expectations demanded by standards, curricular activities, and assessment tasks (Webb, 1997). A DOK level is identified based on the cognitive demand, or the mental

by Dr. Lisa Gonzales and Charles Young

DOK Level 1

Involves basic tasks that require students to recall or reproduce knowledge and/or skills.

DOK Level 2

Includes the engagement of mental processing beyond recall to compare/differentiate, apply multiple concepts, classify, explain relationships, or provide and explain examples.

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processing, required by the central performance of the assigned objective or task. (See bar below.)

Where Do You Start?Thinking critically is one thing, but teaching it is even more of a challenge. Complex thinking is best taught with deep, focused questioning strategies. Looking at it through DOK levels is a great starting point.

Using DOK levels, student engagement is richer starting at a DOK 3. Tasks at this level prompt engagement in complex, strategic thinking, with students required to support their positions and perspectives with information from text or research. DOK 3 goes beyond just filling in a blank or selecting from a set of multiple-choice options. Students are required to justify and explain their answers.

In a DOK 4 task, students should apply their learning to a new situation or context or invent/create something new. DOK 4 tasks are not assessed by their difficulty, but by the engagement of students in higher levels of complex thinking.

The Importance of Application In today’s world, the volume of information available to students via technology is massive. The burgeoning field of big-data analysis is producing job opportunities for those who can think critically and make sense of what may feel like a daily tsunami of new information. Students must be taught how to think critically, at an early age, to successfully navigate this new world of limitless, real-time information.

To effectively teach complex thinking, teachers need to have a sound knowledge base of their content and a solid understanding of effective reasoning skills. Moving from the primary source of information to the facilitator of rigorous debate, deep exploration of ideas, and Project-Based Learning expands the role of the teacher, providing great avenues to influence student learning.

Providing time and opportunities for deeper thinking requires time for planning, processing, reflecting, and debriefing, both for teachers and students. And because the shift is so necessary, yet challenging, keeping parents in the loop with strategies they can support at home can deepen your effectiveness.

Teaching complex thinking is akin to teaching life skills. To live successfully in a democracy, students must be able to think critically to make sound decisions about their personal lives and the communities in which they live. If we teach our students to think critically, we are giving them the thinking skills as a guide by which they can live their lives.

There is much at stake for our students. As educators, we play a pivotal role in providing learning experiences that help our students not only shape their fabric of their own lives, but the society in which they live.

Dr. Lisa Gonzales is President Elect for the Association of California School Administrators. She is the Interim Superintendent in the Lakeside School District and was selected by the US Department of Education as one of 100 #FutureReady Superintendents.

Dr. Charles Young is Superintendent in the Benicia Unified School District.

References: Henderson Hurley, M. & Hurley, D. (2013). Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills Among Authoritarian Students. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(2), 248-261.

Webb, N. (1997). Research Monograph Number 6: “Criteria for alignment of expectations and assessments on mathematics and science education.” Washington, D.C.: CCSSO.

Willingham, D. (2007, Summer). “Critical Thinking: Why is it so Hard to Teach?” American Educator. p. 8.

DOK Level 3

Has tasks that demand the use of planning, reasoning, and higher-order thinking skills such as the analysis and evaluation we find in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

DOK Level 4

Engages students in solving real-world problems, sustaining strategic thinking over a longer period of time, often producing an authentic product.