Fostering Thinking Skills for Today's Students

ASCD Express is looking for short, 600 to 1,000-word essays on the theme "Fostering Thinking Skills for Today's Students." The theme description is below, and guidelines for submissions are here. Send us your submissions by June 23, 2010. 

Higher-order thinking skills have been part of education ever since Bloom gave them an explicit hierarchy in 1956. In recent years, such complex thinking skills have become tied to state content standards, making it necessary for every educator to understand them. Does higher-order thinking—such as logic and reasoning, problem solving, and creativity—go beyond Bloom? What are the best ways to teach students how to think? In which subjects do complex thinking skills fit best, and do certain activities promote or hone their usage? How do teachers know their students have developed sufficient thinking skills and an understanding of how to apply them? This issue will look at how to develop, use, and assess higher-order thinking at the elementary and secondary levels.