Higher Thinking Skills

God distinguished Man from other creatures on the face of the earth by many things. He created them with the best appearance and honored them with the grace of the mind, which the researchers divided into two parts: the conscious mind that thinks and analyzes problems, finds appropriate solutions, and gives the proper reaction to each situation, and the subconscious mind that that has the ability to store millions of information within one second, and then link them together to influence human actions later.

A person acquires positive or negative responses to the ideas that their subconscious mind stores in advance during the stages of their life and various daily experiences. The most prominent feature of the human mind is thinking and thinking skills that vary from one person to another, which a person acquires and develops to make their thinking skills higher, helping them to distinguish at the personal, professional, or various levels together.

So, what are thinking skills? What is the difference between thinking skills and thinking? How can students develop higher thinking skills?

The concept of thinking skills

Human thinking is an involuntary process and is not accurately understood. The brain inadvertently and deliberately retrieves information and situations stored in memory previously experienced by Man and deduces ideas from them to understand reality and gain experience from life experiences. Therefore, we must differentiate between human thinking and thinking skills, which is an intentional process approved by Man. Thinking skills are mental activities aimed at processing information and establishing links between them, then making decisions and solving problems on the topic in which it is thought about. It varies from one person to another depending on the ability to analyze situations, deduce ideas, and make assumptions.

What are basic thinking skills?

Basic thinking skills are also called lower thinking skills. They just need to apply the information we have acquired before routinely. We mention among the basic thinking skills the following:

1. Knowledge Skill

A person retrieves the information stored in their memory, such as attitudes or what they learned from theories and laws.

2. Planning Skill

Several specific points are formulated as a plan to be implemented to reach a particular order.

3. Classification Skill

Through this skill, objects are distributed into specific categories based on their common characteristics.

4. Comparative Skill

It depends on research and finding similarities and differences between things.

5. Prediction Skill

What will happen in the future is predicted based on an accurate analysis of reality.

6. Ability to assume responsibilities

It means the extent to which a person is able and motivated to do something based on their awareness of the importance and necessity of doing it.

7. Prioritization skill

It coordinates the things one must do according to their importance in one's life.

8. Generalization Skill

It is the ability to invent new terms that can be used in many situations and circumstances and are not limited to a specific time.

9. Flexibility Skill

It is not to rely on a certain method and one direction of thinking. One can think based on the given data, facts, and variables.

What are higher thinking skills?

After we talk about the basic (lower) thinking skills, you will inevitably ask yourself, “So what are the higher thinking skills? What does it require to be acquired?”

Higher thinking skills do not require superintelligence, as some believe. Instead, they are a series of steps, processes, and techniques that make a person invest their time, thought, basic skills, and all the information and data they possess optimally. Therefore, higher thinking skills are essential for human success regardless of work and place.

higher thinking skills

Some of the higher thinking skills are understanding, remembering, and innovating.

After identifying the concept of higher thinking skills, they first come to mind, including understanding the information and facts and then remembering them well to invent new ways of working. These are the qualities of creative and distinguished people. Also, higher thinking skills include the following:

1. Critical Thinking Skill

It is a skill that helps to analyze information and know the interpretation of each of them, and then draw conclusions after evaluating the evidence and different points of view. Critical thinking includes analytical, explanatory, evaluative and creative skills, which people generally need in various work areas, mainly students. The human person at the personal level needs the skill of critical thinking to behave well in the different situations to which he is exposed.

2. Metacognitive Skill

It is the ability to reflect on our own thought process, which includes the information, hypotheses and beliefs that each person believes in, which affect the way one analyzes situations, the ideas that one concludes and the decisions that one makes to know the goals of learning and to monitor the progress associated with each of life's experiences.

3. Comprehension Skill

This means not only understanding what Man reads but also being able to relate the information they read to what is actually known so that they can deduce the meaning of the text and use what they have figured out in new ways.

4. Inference Skill

This skill plays the facilitating role of implementing or practicing the information processing process, including interpretation, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, and deductive thinking depends on induction and deduction skills to reach new results that were not known to the individual before.

5. Focus skill

This is a critical process to discover the truth, as the individual collects their various senses, especially looking and  hearing, and corrects them to one thing only to know everything related to them and away from thinking about anything else, whatever the surrounding circumstance.

6. Reminder skill

It is a skill that students often need; they can not succeed without it. The responsibility for this skill is memory; it retrieves all the information related to a particular subject when required. For example, during an exam, when reading a specific question, all the information you read previously on this subject is supposed to come to your mind so that you can answer the question.

7. Innovation Skill

It is a combination of several skills, such as cognitive skills, behavioral skills, and technical and functional skills, which make the individual find new solutions to the challenges facing and make them able to develop the method of work to become more significant.

How to develop students' higher thinking skills?

Due to the importance of higher thinking skills in academic success, it is necessary to develop them through the following:

The role of the teacher in developing the students' higher thinking skills:

1. Assigning jobs to students

Jobs are in the form of seminars and diverse projects requiring research and collecting information to develop cognitive skills.

2. Asking open-ended questions

Do not ask questions that have a definite answer but that require thinking and answering based on the student's point of view, such as the teacher asking their students about their dreams, the careers they want to work in the future, or the goals they want to achieve in various aspects of their lives.

3. Ask extended questions

This should not only provide the answer; the answer will be followed by a question about the reason for the answer to stimulate the student's logical thinking and learn how to rely on arguments and evidence in his decisions.

4. Give the student enough time to answer

Depending on the question asked, the student is supposed to answer after careful thinking to protect them from rushing to answer and make a decision, preferably not less than 30 seconds.

5. Allowing students to discuss and dialogue

This method allows the exchange of information, experiences, and views among students, but under the supervision of the teacher, preferably their role is limited to supervision without interfering with the discussion until the end of the dialogue time, after which they correct what is wrong.

The role of students in developing their higher thinking skills

1. Promote a thought-provoking atmosphere

There is no specific atmosphere for thinking; it depends on the student's desire. Some prefer to think in the garden, and some in their room. The important thing is to continue to practice thinking to develop this skill as much as possible.

2. Try to collect as much information as possible

It is necessary for the student to stimulate their thinking by reading, attending seminars and sitting with people who have made achievements in their lives to get to know their views. In addition to spending as much time as possible with thinkers to get their opinion on various topics that occupy the student's thinking, it helps to develop their personalities constantly.

In conclusion

Human thinking skills are intentional mental processes that vary from one person to another and aim to analyze and solve a problem or make a decision based on data. Thinking skills are divided into two types. The first is called the basic thinking skills that everyone has. We learn them from a young age, then grow over time, including knowledge, prioritization, classification, planning, comparison, prediction, taking responsibilities, generalization and flexibility.

The second type is higher thinking skills, which make a person distinct in their field of study or work, and includes critical thinking, understanding, reasoning, focus, remembering and innovation. The task of developing students' skills falls on the teacher on the one hand and the students on the other hand. Teachers have to assign students to diverse projects, ask open and extended questions constantly and allow them to dialogue to stimulate their thinking. The students have to find the appropriate environment for thinking and try to collect more information constantly.