A Study On The Definition And Assessment Of Mathematical Higher Order Thinking

Mathematics education in China's middle schools has long centered basic knowledge and basic skills. The purpose is to set a solid foundation for students. This is the so-called "two basics" principle. However the acquisition of the basic mathematics knowledge and skills doesn't mean the establishment and development of mathematics competence. So we care more about is what students get after grasping the mentioned "two basics".This paper traces the origin of the concept "Higher Order Thinking", explores another two similar concepts "Creative Thinking" and "Critical Thinking". We hereby propose a new concept "Mathematical Higher Order Thinking" on the basis that Chinese scholars have achieved in the field of mathematics thinking character. The author define it representatively from five aspects: profundity , flexibility , originality, criticainess, alacrity.After studying western researches on the assessment of higher order thinking, we carry out an experimental work with the definition of Mathematical Higher Order Thinking as the index of assessment, junior middle school students as the object. Then we analyze the status quo of Chinese students' thinking. From the result of this experiment, we can draw a conclusion that our students have deficiency of different extent in the five different aspects. Finally the author sets forth some suggestions on mathematics teaching theoretically, aiming for the five aspects and different teaching contents.