Portfolio Assessment and the Enhancement of Higher Order Thinking through Multiple Intelligence and Dialogic Feedback

The current emphasis on higher order thinking skills (HOTS) has inspired many EFL educators to explore the impact of merging different pedagogical teaching and assessment strategies on the enhancement of thinking skills. Responding to such a growing need to investigate the effect of diverse teaching strategies on HOTS, the present study aimed to explore the impact of the integration of portfolio assessment (PA), multiple intelligences (MI), and dialogic feedback (DF) on development of HOTS. Forty participants in two intact advanced classes were randomly assigned to control and treatment groups, receiving writing-based portfolio assessment (WBPA) and MI-oriented portfolio assessment with dialogic feedback (MIWBPADF), respectively. In the experimental group, the participants’ MI was initially measured and the data were used as a basis for grouping learners with the same dominant intelligence type in the same group.The participants in the MI-oriented portfolio assessment with dialogic feedback group received activities compatible with their dominant intelligence. The results of MANOVA revealed that the experimental group outperformed the other group with regard to their higher order thinking skills. The findings underscore the necessity of taking learners’ intelligences as a criterion for task selection and delivering feedback dialogically as instructional techniques for the enhancement of HOTS. This study has implications for teaching higher order thinking in EFL contexts.