Higher Order Thinking
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom, a professor at the University of Chicago , shared his famous “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” which has become known as Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Bloom’s Taxonomy identifies six levels within the cognitive domain of learning which can be thought of as an order of thinking skills.
At the lowest levels are knowledge and comprehension, moving up to more complex and abstract mental levels of analysis, application, synthesis and evaluation.
For many educators, Bloom’s taxonomy serves as the basis for what are now called higher order thinking skills. Generally the concept is that higher order skills are complex combinations of lower skills.
1. Knowledge – Gathering Information
2. Comprehension – Confirming or understanding
3. Application – Making use of knowledge
4. Analysis – Taking apart
5. Synthesis – Putting together
6. Evaluation – Judging the outcome
Thinking comes naturally to children, and this approach is said to encourage Higher Order Thinking (HOT) . . .
This still is used today, albeit in an adapted form by many classroom teachers, whilst others prefer the more traditional route.
This is one of the approaches that we will be exploring in later posts…