CHAPTER 12
Higher-Order Thinking, Problem Solving, and Critical Thinking
ITEMS
1. When assessing students’ higher order thinking skills, the main focus of your assessment should
be to require students to
(a) give reasons and explanations you taught.
(b) recall facts you taught.
(c) apply their knowledge in situations you did not explicitly teach.
(d) All of the above.
2. Students should be assessed by requiring them to reproduce what was taught in class.
(a) True
(b) False
3. Which of the following can be meaningfully used as introductory material for context-dependent
item sets?
I Formulas
II Extracts from weekly magazines
III Drawings
IV Topographical maps
(a) All of these
(b) II only
(c) II, III, and IV only
(d) None of these
4. Which of the following statements is NOT a quality of context-dependent item sets?
(a) They provide an opportunity to simulate real-life situations.
(b) They encourage students to memorize the relevant facts.
(c) They present the same material to students they studied in class.
5. Context-dependent assessment material should be arranged so that the items appear before the
interpretive material.
(a) True
(b) False
6. What is a concrete concept?
(a) A class of things that can be defined by verbal attributes.
(b) A class of things that can be defined by their relationships with other concepts.
(c) A class of things that can be defined by a common sound, appearance, taste, or smell.
7. Which of the following concepts is NOT learned by way of definitions?
(a) Abstract concept
(b) Concrete concept
(c) Relational concept
8. A schema can be described best as the way we
(a) process information.
(b) tend to organize in-coming information.
(c) represent information in networks of related concepts.
9. Which of the following is the best way to assess the concept “triangle“?
(a) Ask the student to say the word “triangle” when shown a triangle.
(b) Ask the student to identify the triangles among a number of objects of different shapes.
(c) Ask the student to define the word “triangle” correctly.
10. A task that assesses understanding of a concrete concept should require a student to demonstrate
how the concept is related to other concepts that the student knows.
(a) True
(b) False
11. Which of the following strategies is LEAST appropriate for assessing knowledge of a defined
concept?
(a) Require students to write a definition of concept.
(b) Require students to identify the name of the concept in a list of words.
(c) Require students to produce examples of the concept.
(d) Require students to state how the component concepts are related to each other.
12. Why is it difficult to craft items to assess understanding of a defined concept by requiring
students to classify several examples?
(a) The examples tend to be worded poorly.
(b) The examples require a number of assumptions to make them true.
(c) The example are usually too easy.
(d) Defined concepts are often abstract.
13. How do you assess a student’s ability to use rule-governed thinking?
(a) Ask the student to write a clear definition of the specific rule.
(b) Ask the student to explain the meaning of the rule.
(c) Ask the student to apply the rule in a novel situation.
14. Which of the following procedures is the best way to assess rule-governed thinking?
(a) Ask students to describe the rule in their own words along with the conditions for its
application.
(b) Ask students to state the consequences of applying the rule under given conditions.
(c) Ask students to identify a paraphrased statement of the rule and its conditions.
15. To assess problem-solving skill you should present to the student a familiar situation so that the
student can perform the task without thinking about it.
(a) True
(b) False
16. What is an open-response assessment task?
(a) A problem that has many correct solutions.
(b) A problem that has only one correct solution.
(c) A problem that is not clearly described.
(d) A problem that is clearly laid-out and described.
17. The general approach to problem-solving strategies is almost always more powerful than
approaches based on specific domains.
(a) True
(b) False
18. A task that assesses a student’s thinking process when solving a problem should focus on the
correctness of the students’ answer.
(a) True
(b) False
Use the following material to answer Item 19
A social studies teacher assesses students by presenting them with a
description of a problem situation. The students must describe the
problem in their own words, describe a factor or factors that make it
difficult to solve this problem, and come up with at least two ways to
solve the problem.
19. Which specific problem-solving strategies may this teacher assess?
(a) Identifying the problem, identifying assumptions, and describing multiple strategies.
(b) Identifying the problem, identifying obstacles, and describing multiple strategies.
(c) Modeling the problem, identifying assumptions, and describing multiple strategies.
(d) Modeling the problem, identifying obstacles, and describing multiple strategies.
20. A possible way to directly assess the ability to ask and answer challenging questions is by
observing a student during his/her presentation and during someone else’s presentation.
(a) True
(b) False
21. You can assess a student’s ability to induce and to judge induction by using either the response-
choice or the constructed-response item format.
(a) True
(b) False
22. Assessing problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities together is useful because students
(a) need to learn the relationship between problem solving and critical thinking.
(b) should be able to distinguish between problem solving and critical thinking.
(c) need to apply problem solving and critical thinking together in real-life situations.
23. What is the most important reason for rewriting introductory materials for items assessing the
ability to use reference materials?
(a) To obtain the exact length of material for the available space.
(b) To ensure that the material is suitable for the purpose it is to be used.
(c) To make the material easier for the students.
24. What mental activity is necessary for both critical thinking and problem solving?
(a) self-reflective thinking
(b) thinking for a particular purpose
(c) open-minded habits of mind
25. If you want to assess students’ critical thinking dispositions, you should construct a rating scale to
be used throughout a marking period.
(a) True
(b) False
26. Where might you look to locate an appropriate passage for a traditional reading comprehension
assessment for a fifth grade class?
(a) Look in a book you have read to students during after-lunch rest time.
(b) Look in a fifth-grade level book that your students have not read.
(c) Ask some students what library books they have read that they liked.
27. What is wrong with this MAZE item?
Howard’s lunch was a sandwich, an apple, and cookies. Howard ____. He does not like apples.
A. ate.
B. cried.
C. yelled.
(a) The words are not all common words.
(b) The student does not need to understand the passage to answer correctly.
(c) The passage does not contain all the information needed to answer correctly.
CHAPTER 12
Answers and Classification of Items