Higher Order Thinking by Setting and Debriefing Tasks in Dutch Geography Lessons

Abstract

Tasks are a powerful instrument for geography teachers, as they let students engage with the subject. To advance the cumulative learning of students, teachers have to make sure that students learn how to deal with complex and abstract knowledge structures. In the Netherlands, teachers face a dilemma when it comes to task setting: the intended curriculum aims for a considerable part at (parts of) higher order thinking, whereas the high-stakes exams have a clear focus on the use of thinking strategies. This paper explores the task setting and debriefing of Dutch geography teachers by analyzing twenty-three videotaped lessons in upper secondary education by using the Geography Task Categorization Framework. The results show that Dutch teachers mostly rely on textbooks when setting tasks. The focus lies on reproduction and the use of thinking strategies. Tasks aiming at (parts of) higher order thinking are barely used. Furthermore, teachers use tasks from previous high-stakes exams already used in an early stage of upper secondary education. In the debriefing of tasks, teachers move from simple and concrete to complex and abstract knowledge and vice versa. However, most of these movements aim at simplifying knowledge structures. In the observed lessons, curriculum aims at the level of (parts of) higher order thinking are not achieved. The evaluative rules as set by the high-stakes exams and the type of tasks offered by textbooks seem to be dominant.

Analysis of geography textbook activities in the context of units and critical thinking skills

“…Şanlı and Sezer (2018) found that the content of the textbook is supportive of students' cognitive development. The international literature has suggested that the tasks in geography textbooks are mostly oriented to the middle and lower categories of cognitive taxonomies (Bijsterbosch, 2018;Jo & Bednarz, 2009;Krause et al, 2022a). It can thus be said that textbooks used in geography teaching generally encourage developing students' interpretation skills in the context of critical thinking skills.…”

“…Some researchers consider all forms of thinking other than remembering information to be higher-order thinking (Bijsterbosch, 2018;Maude & Caldis, 2019), while others accept only the "analysis", "evaluation" and "reconstruction" of information as higher-order thinking (Anderson, et al, 2001;Jo & Bednarz, 2009). Thus, the processes of abstraction such as "classification, understanding importance, and clarification", which are the components of the "interpretation" skill, should be accepted as the foundations of high-order thinking (Krause et al, 2022a;2022b). According to Bernstein (2000), the actions of classification and clarification always work together, and learning progresses from concrete information and simple procedures to the production of more abstract and complex knowledge structures.…”

“…The literature includes studies examining geography textbooks from different perspectives (Jo & Bednarz, 2009, Geçit & Yarar, 2013Sağdıç & İnce, 2020;Sağdıç & Özkan, 2018;Solmaz et al, 2011;Maude & Caldis, 2019;Sezer & Şanlı, 2017). However, a limited number of studies have so for analysed the content of textbooks in the context of thinking skills (Huynh & Sharpe, 2013;Krause et al, 2022aKrause et al, , 2022bJo & Bednarz, 2011;Mishra, 2015;Yang, 2013;Yang et al, 2015;Xiang et al, 2022). It is thus believed that the present study will be complementary to the existing studies.…”

Correction: Krause et al. Higher Order Thinking by Setting and Debriefing Tasks in Dutch Geography Lessons. Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ. 2022, 12, 11–27

“…In the original publication [ 1 ], there was a mistake in the Citation . For the author’s name “Jan van Tartwijk-, Tartwijk, J.v.…”

“…In the original publication [ 1 ], there was a mistake in Figure 1 , as published. For “semantic gravity”, “strong” and “weak” should be reversed.…”