Higher-order thinking

Advocates of traditional education object to elevating HOTS above direct instruction of basic skills.

HOTS assumes standards based assessments that use open-response items instead of multiple-choice questions, and hence require higher-order analysis and writing.

[citation needed] The Republican Party of Texas expressed their opposition to the teaching of certain HOTS by including the following item in their 2012 Party Platform:[3] "Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student's fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

However, the final wording of this item was evidently a "mistake" according to Republican Party of Texas Communications Director Chris Elam who said, in an interview with Talking Points Memo, that the plank should not have included the phrase "critical thinking skills" and it was not the intent of the subcommittee to indicate that the RPT was opposed to critical thinking skills.

When asked to clarify the meaning of the item he said, "I think the intent is that the Republican Party is opposed to the values clarification method that serves the purpose of challenging students beliefs and undermine [sic] parental authority".