Understanding and Working

with Higher Order Thinking

Skills (HOTS)
SHERWIN A. ADEM
Teacher I
Objectives:
 Define and identify the usage of Bloom’s
Taxonomy
 Differentiate lower order thinking skills (LOTS)
to higher order thinking skills (HOTS)
 Identify the importance of developing HOTS
among students
 Develop teaching strategies for HOTS
development/improvement
 Benjamin Samuel Bloom, one of
the greatest minds to influence the
field of education.
 His most recognized and highly
regarded initial work came to be
known as Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy
 It is a hierarchical model that categorizes
learning objectives into varying levels of
complexity, from basic knowledge and
comprehension to advanced evaluation and
creation.
 Bloom’s Taxonomy was originally published
in 1956, and the Taxonomy was modified each
year for 16 years after it was first published.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
 In 2001, another team of scholars—led by Lorin Anderson,
a former student of Bloom’s, and David Krathwohl, a
Bloom colleague who served on the academic team that
developed the original taxonomy—released a revised
version of Bloom’s taxonomy called A Taxonomy for
Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.
 Although Bloom’s Taxonomy is met with several valid
criticisms, it is still widely used in the educational setting
today.
Where do we use Bloom’s Taxonomy?
 Planning a lesson
 Questioning techniques
 Creating assessment
 Designing curriculum
 Lower Order Thinking Skills
 (LOTS)
Lower order thinking is the foundation of skills
required to move into higher order thinking.
 These are skills that are taught very well in
school systems and includes activities
like reading and writing.
 In lower order thinking information does not need
to be applied to any real life examples, it only
needs to be recalled and slightly understood.
 Lower Thinking Skills (LOTS)
 Used to understand the basic storyline or literal
meaning of a story, play, or poem.
 Wh questions
 Grammatical structures
Remembering
 Types of questions test the students’ ability
to memorize and to recall terms, facts and
details without necessarily understanding
the concept.
 Memorize, Define, Identify, Repeat, Recall,
State, Write, List & Name
Sample Questions
 What is/are . . .
 Who is/are . . .
 When did . . .
 Who was. . .
 Which one . . .
 What would you choose . . .
 List the . . .
Understanding
 Questions that test the students’ ability to
summarize and describe in their own words
without necessarily relating it to anything.
 Explaining ideas or concepts
 Describe, Distinguish, Explain, Interpret,
Predict, Recognize & Summarize
Sample Questions
 What can you say about . . .
 How can you describe . . .
 Will you restate . . .
 What would happen if . . .
 What is the main idea of . . .
 What did you observe . . .
Applying
 Application questions encourage students to
apply or transfer learning to their own life or
to a context different than one in which it was
learned.
 Using information in another familiar situation
 Apply, Compare, Contrast, Demonstrate,
Examine, Relate, Solve & Use
Sample Questions
 What would be the result if . . .
 How would you solve . . .
 What other way would you choose to . . .
 What actions would you take to perform . . .
 Could this have happened if . . .
 Higher Order Thinking Skills
 (HOTS)
Go beyond basic observation of facts and
memorization.
 Interpret a text on a more abstract level
Analyzing
 Break down a concept or idea into parts
and show relationships among the parts.
 Analyze, distinguish, examine, identify,
explain, categorize, investigate
Sample Questions
 How was this similar to . . .
 Can you distinguish the difference between . . .
 Discuss the pros and cons of . . .
 Which event could have happened . . .
 Why do you think . . .
 How would you explain . . .
Evaluating
 Make informed judgments about the value
of ideas or materials.
 Use standards and criteria to support
opinions and views.
 Judge, select, decide, justify, prioritize,
assess, rate
Sample Questions
 What data was used to evaluate . . .
 How would you verify . . .
 Rank the importance of . . .
 What would you suggest . . .
 How would you determine the facts . . .
Creating
 Bring together parts of knowledge to form
a whole and build relationships for new
situations.
 Create, invent, compose, plan, construct,
imagine, devise, formulate
Sample Questions
 How would you improve . . .
 Devise a way to . . .
 Predict the outcome . . .
 Do you think . . . Is a good or bad thing . . .
 How many ways can you . . .
 Write a new . . .
1. What is a pronoun? (Remembering)
2. What are the characteristics of a metallic
minerals? (Understanding)
3. What is the importance of Democracy to our
lives today? (Analyzing/
4. Is technologyEvaluating) (Analyzin
beneficial to education?
5. Given the data on the surveys, who do g) you
think will be the next president of the
Philippines? (Creating)
 Higher Order Thinking Skills
(HOTS)
 It is a way to help students think and not just
memorize and also improve their cognitive ability.
 Enables a greater appreciation of art and literature,
enriching our enjoyment and experience of life
 Promotes essential skills such as critical thinking
and problem-solving
 Are highly in demand by employers and projected
to be increasingly in demand in the future
Strategies in Developing
 Get in the Game
 One of the best methods of cultivating higher-
order thinking skills is to incorporate
game-based learning into lessons.
Connect Concepts
 Lead students through the process
of how to connect one concept to
another. By doing this you are
teaching them to connect what they
already know with what they are
learning.
Teach Students to Infer
 Teach students to make inferences by
giving them “real-world” examples.
Encourage Questioning
 A classroom where students feel free to
ask questions without any negative
reactions from their peers or their
teachers is a classroom where students
feel free to be creative.
Use Graphic Organizers
 Provide students with a nice way to frame
their thoughts in an organized manner.
 By drawing diagrams or mind maps,
students are able to better connect concepts
and see their relationships.
 This will help students develop a habit of
connecting concepts.
Encourage Creative Thinking
 Creative thinking is when students invent,
imagine, and design what they are thinking.
Using creative senses helps students process and
understand information better.
 Research shows that when students utilize
creative higher-order thinking skills, it indeed
increases their understanding. Encourage
students to think “outside of the box.”
Teach Problem Solving
Strategies
 Teach students to use a step-by-step
method for solving problems. This way of
higher-order thinking will help them solve
problems faster and more easily.
 Encourage students to use alternative
methods to solve problems as well as offer
them different problem-solving methods.
Use Mind Movies
 When concepts that are being learned are
difficult, encourage students to create a movie in
their mind.
 Teach them to close their eyes and picture it like
a movie playing.
 Teach Students to Elaborate
Answer
Higher-order thinking requires students to
really understand a concept, not repeat it or
memorize it.
 Encourage students to elaborate their
answers by asking the right questions that
make students explain their thoughts in
more detail.
Teach QARs
 Question-Answer-Relationships, or QARs,
teach students to label the type of question
that is being asked and then use that
information to help them formulate an
answer.
 Students must decipher if the answer can be
found in a text or online or if they must rely
on their own prior knowledge to answer it.
References:
 https://edu.stemjobs.com
 https://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies/2019/10/
 Google.com (pictures)
 https://cetl.uconn.edu/
 Brookfield, Stephen D.
Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Questio
n Their Assumptions
. Jossey-Bass, 2012.
 https://www.innovativeteachingideas.com/
 https://www.edglossary.org/blooms-taxonomy/