Assessing higher order thinking skills in secondary schools: An exploration of the Uganda Certificate of Education examinations

• In Event: Developing life skills among youth: programmatic approaches and research evidence

Proposal

Uganda has in recent decades witnessed growing concerns about the quality and relevance of education at all levels. Allen, Outhred, & Varly (2016) have argued that the knowledge and skills learners need have little or no role in formal learning. Indeed, Chapman and Snyder (2000) and Snyder (1997) have asserted that assessments and examinations at the primary and secondary school levels in Uganda focus on superficial or rote learning, instead of deep learning that would enhance higher order thinking skills. Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education (LGIHE) acknowledges and leverages this reality—using assessments and examinations as a vehicle for change at scale. It contends that examination questions, if carefully modified, can test for higher order thinking skills and thereby incentivize teachers to cultivate them among students. Furthermore, if the examinations in question have wide reach, modifying them can motivate long-term changes in teacher priorities and pedagogy, and accordingly, sustained impacts on students’ ability to function as independent thinkers with the ability to contribute to their communities.

LGIHE is currently engaged in generating evidence that could support meaningful modifications in the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations. It recently conducted a study to understand the levels of thinking (taxonomy of learning) required by the 2017 Mathematics, English, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics UCE examinations. To identify the taxonomy of learning, the study cross-tabulated the revised edition of Bloom’s Taxonomy with Webb’s Depth of Knowledge taxonomy and with a set of criteria (like predictability, complexity, and language used in test items) identified by a team of examiners and experienced teachers. The study established the ratio of higher order to lower order thinking questions, and measured student performance on each question type (using examination data from an adjusted national sample of 1,720 students who sat for UCE examinations in 2017).

LGIHE will present study results, showing, for example, how the percentage of higher order thinking questions varied by subject and how these questions varied by set criteria (such as predictability and complexity). It will also discuss recommendations based on findings. For example, findings suggest that the Uganda National Examinations Board should introduce less predictable examination techniques to minimize teachers’ practice of drilling candidates on specific question types, which can stymie critical thinking. The study also recommends that teachers should be encouraged to integrate and apply the different taxonomies of learning in their everyday classroom practice in order to nurture higher order thinking skills in their learners at different levels. These practices—of modifying examinations and motivating shifts in teachers’ pedagogical methods—can drive impacts on students’ life skills at scale.

Author

• Mauro Giacomazzi, Luigi Giussani Institute of Higher Education