Bloom's Taxonomy

Lower-order thinking skills

 

The lower-order thinking skills include, Remembering, Understanding, and Applying. 

• In order to reach the higher level of thinking skills, the lower-order of thinking skills must be achieved first. 

• If a person is unable to achieve all lower-order thinking skills and move up to higher-order thinking, then this person will not be prepared for real life situations.

• This is because lower-order thinking skills only needs to be recalled and slightly understood.

• Examples of Lower-order thinking:

- Comprehension of material

- Acquisition of knowledge

 

Higher-order thinking skills

 

The higher-order thinking skills include: Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.

• Higher-order thinking skills consist of complex thinking that achieves more than the basic recall of facts.

• Higher-order thinking skills enable students to retain information learned, and apply problem-solving solutions to real world problems.

• The reason that Higher-order thinking skills are more valued than lower-order thinking skills is because it is believed to better prepare students for any challenges they may face in the real world.
  

How can we change lower order thinking into high order thinking

• Take the mystery away

• Name key concepts

• Categorize concepts

• Teach steps for learning concepts

• Go from basic to sophisticated

• Clarify the difference between understanding and memorizing

• Identify the problem