Defining and Establishing Relationships Between Essential and Higher Order Teaching Skills

The dependent variables of teacher effectiveness research have traditionally been student achievement and conduct. Recently, the focus has been on student acquisition of thinking skills. Using concepts of teacher performance validated in process/product research, this exploratory study measured and compared essential (Florida Performance Measurement System, FPMS) teacher performance scores that associate with student achievement and conduct and higher order teaching performance (Teaching for Higher Order Thinking, THOT) that associates with student acquisition of thinking skills. In the study reported in the article, FPMS and THOT observations of teacher performance were made in pre- and posttraining in higher order thinking. Teacher participation in the training program resulted in substantial increases in THOT performance, but it did not affect performance levels on essential skills, suggesting that the two types of teaching performance may be relatively independent of each other. The results of this research are discussed in terms of the implications for both teacher training and teacher evaluation.