• THINKING PRO Competency Framework

  • THINKING PRO has an integrated competency framework to benchmark the mastery of high school students' critical thinking, reading comprehension, and communication skills. It delineates competencies across three performance domains.

    The competency framework is at the heart of all our interactive learning videos, curriculum materials, and assessment tools.

  • Domain 1: Gathering and Organizing Information ​

    Skills and knowledge pertaining to the extraction, categorization, and analysis of information from a body of text.

     

    Students will:

     

    >> Sample Skills <<

    • Identify and differentiate between simple statements (who, what, when, or where) and complex statements (how, why) in an informational text.
    • Identify various categories of claims that can be made within an informational text (e.g., cause and effect, problem and solution, value judgments).
    • . . .
       

    Domain 2: Interpreting and Evaluating Information

    Skills and knowledge pertaining to the continued analysis, processing, and interpretation of an informational text, as well as a subsequent evaluation of its internal consistency and trustworthiness.

     

    Students will:

     

    >> Sample Skills <<

    • Draw inferences (e.g., interpret or draw a conclusion) based on information in a passage of text.
    • Evaluate internal logic of informational text by:
      • analyzing the consistency of information within the text and with one’s own background knowledge, and
      • identifying conflicting information within the text.
    • . . .

    Domain 3: Integrating and Communicating Information

    Skills and knowledge pertaining to the student’s generation, formation, and communication of a position or personal statement, as well as the development of an original work product crafted to have impact with an intended audience.

     

    Students will:

     

    >> Sample Skills <<

    • Synthesize information, as well as claims and their supporting evidence, across multiple passages of texts, and integrate it with one’s own understanding (i.e., mental model).
    • Develop a formal thesis or position statement or generate a line of argument, consisting of their own claims that are based on trustworthy evidence. 
    • . . .

  • The THINKING PRO framework does not depict a strict linear path but offers a phase-based process that was adapted from professional competency frameworks. It reflects the higher order levels of Bloom’s revised Taxonomy(Anderson & Krathwohl (2001), including analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The competencies comprise primarily observable and measurable skills and knowledge while integrating socio-emotional and motivational components (not delineated here) designed to foster healthy learning dispositions.

     

    The framework was developed and validated by 12 subject matter experts in different areas:

    • Civic Education, 
    • Psychology, 
    • English Language Arts, 
    • Literacy/ Reading, 
    • Measurement, 
    • Philosophy of Education and 
    • Social Studies.

     

    Reference
    Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl, D.R., (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.

  • Request the THINKING PRO Framework

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