An Effective Assessment Method of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (Problem-Solving, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Decision-Making) in Engineering and Humanities

Learning skills include the ability to learn or acquire basic knowledge and concepts across multiple dimensions, such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creative thinking, and decision-making.This work presents an assessment approach intended for evaluating and assessing students’ higher-order thinking (HOT) skills. The assessment of higher-order thinking skills includes four subthinking skills, i.e., problem-solving, critical thinking, creative thinking, and decision-making. The proposed assessment of learning skills involves proposing questions (e.g., focus questions) to support student thinking and learning activities to guide the development of thinking skills while completing assignments, solving problems, or engaging in learning activities. The proposed skills assessment method consists of a quantitative approach that comprises two levels of assessment. For the first level of evaluation, graded assignments will be used to assess learning outcomes. In the other evaluative level, learning skills are assessed independently through scoring based upon how students respond to classwork and homework assignments using the skills' supporting questions. Learning skills are evaluated as to the extent to which students comply with the given proposed questions for focusing thinking and the extent to which these questions assist students in the completion of assignments. A skills assessment approach can be used to evaluate skills without interfering with the typical learning activities of a given assignment. It also does not interfere with the assessment process and learning outcomes.