Synthesizing Sociocultural and Behaviorist Approaches for Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills

Abstract

Effective development of students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTS) has always been the focal point of teaching-learning activities. Pedagogical researchers have been focusing on finding out the ways for effective development of HOTS of students.  The study explores the Vygotsky’s scaffolding and Skinner’s operant conditioning concepts in order to synthesize them for improved development of HOTS of students. The researchers have opted for a limited scale meta-analysis of the researches related to scaffolding and operant conditioning to find the possibility of a synthesized model for improved students learning. Using logical positivism the study tried to answer that How Vygotsky’s concept of scaffolding and Operant conditioning can be synthesized to promote higher order thinking skills and what type of scaffolding activities can be used in the class. The study has suggested a theoretical model and activities using Vygotsky’s scaffolding and Skinner’s operant conditioning model to develop higher order thinking skills among students.