Higher Order Thinking Skills

Higher-order thinking refers to the top levels of cognitive thinking as laid out in Bloom's Revised Taxonomy of Learning. In 2001, Bloom's original Taxonomy of Educational Objectives of 1956 were revised to use more dynamic language and to move Creating a new or original piece of work to the top of the pyramid.

Using Higher-order thinking skills allows us to push beyond simple memorisation to be able to analyse, evaluate and synthesise. Ultimatet these skills help us to develop new ideas and create something completely new that has been built on our previous knowledge.

"We use skilled questioning and engagement to promote curiosity, independence and confidence and to regularly enable higher-order thinking skills in all learners."

HGIOS 4

2.3 Learning, Teaching and Assessment

"Applying learning in different ways is important to developing higher order thinking skills and provides relevance and purpose to learning, as well as making it more secure. It also offers opportunities to make links across ideas and concepts they have already learned, an important dimension of 21st century skills."

Building the Curriculum 5

Here are a range of suggested activities that you can use for each level of Bloom's taxonomy in order to instil Higher-order thinking skills in your lessons.

Create

Create a Film clip
Creative writing
Song writing/ composition
Newspaper task
Advertising
Art task
Design a new product
Create a business proposal

Evaluate

Class Debates
Tug Of War (thinking routine)
Venn Diagrams
Concept Map
Persuasive talk
Letter writing to persuade change
Ranking exercise

Analyse

Case Studies
Flowchart
Investigation
Think-Pair-Share
Graph
Spreadsheet
Prepare a report
Review a piece of music or work of art in terms of the techniques and styles learnt
Categorising Task
Compare and contrast
Experiment

Apply

Calculate
Flipped Classroom
Galley Walk
Presentations
Problem-solving tasks
Photography
Simulate the technique
Interview
Diary entry
Demonstration
Construct a model
Create a game/ puzzle

Understand

Demonstrations
Diagrams
Mind-map
Summarise
Giving examples
Outline
Storyboard
Role play
Classification task
Complete the task (given the start of a story/piece of art/ diagram)
Discussion
Create your own illustration
Translate it (into another form/medium/ other words)

Remember

Flashcards
Highlighting Key Words
List
Video clips
Quizzes (including games like Kahoot/ Blookit)
Labelling diagrams
Vocabulary test
Timeline
Charts
Arrange cards into order
Definition task
Describe
Match-up exercise

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