KISHI MAKIKO    Department   Undergraduate School  , School of Global Japanese Studies    Position   Professor
Date	2014/08/26
Presentation Theme	Collaborative Research on Teaching Higher Order Cognitive skills at Japanese and Chinese Elementary Schools,
Conference Type	International
Presentation Type	Speech (General)
Contribution Type	Collaborative
Publisher and common publisher	Kenichi KUBOTA, Kikuko MIYAKE, Li Kedong
Details	Nowadays, learners are required to acquire higher order cognitive skills rather than simply memorizing facts. However, many teachers at elementary school have been teaching in a traditional way, mass teaching, by asking learners to memorize knowledge. Memorizing is located at the bottom of pyramid in Bloom Taxonomy. Teachers need to improve their teaching skills in order to teach higher order cognitive skills, such as creating, evaluating, and analyzing. Researchers have recognized that it is not only important to acquire factual knowledge and skills, but also to develop creativity and critical thinking skills in a knowledge-based society . Scholars have developed key competencies (OECD) or 21st century skills to elucidate new abilities that may be developed in school. The Central Education Council (2008) in Japan recommended teachers to use higher order cognitive skills such as comparing, categorizing, and connecting in elementary schools. Taizan (2008) explained that it was important to teach the higher order cognitive skills in a systematic manner.Teachers at Kansai University attached elementary school have selected six graphic organizers to enhance thinking practices in various subjects for the past four years, and published books to explain how to teach the skills in order to disseminate the teaching methods in Japan (Kansai University attached school, 2012; Miyake, et.al, 2012). This teaching method can be transfer not only to Japanese elementary schools, but also to other countries, such as China. The authors at Kansai University (KU) and South China Normal University (SCNU) have been collaborating for a couple of years, and decided to work on the graphic organizers to disseminate to Chinese elementary school. The objective of this study is to ascertain how to transfer methods of teaching with graphic organizers to develop thinking skills in China.