8/14/2019 HOTS-Higher Order Thinking Skills.

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HOTS: HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS

He who learns but does not think is lost. (Chinese Proverb)

One of the major recommendations of National Curriculum Framework-NCF2005

emphasizes upon the shift from testing rote learning to testing of Higher OrderThinking Skills of learners. Consequently, CBSE decided to change the design of

question papers as well as the typology of questions to be included in the question

papers in all major subjects.

Thinking is a mental process. Thinking skills are the intellectual skills such as the

skills of memorizing and recalling facts and information, clarifying, making

analysis, generating ideas, making decisions, problem solving, and planning.Different authors of thinking skills have proposed different models and

approaches in teaching thinking skills.

Tony Ryans Thinkers Keys, Edward De Bonos Six Hats, Bob Eberles

SCAMPER and Benjamin Blooms Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain are the

major models. Each has its own scope and advantages. Blooms Taxonomy of

Cognitive Objectives is a means of expressing qualitatively different kinds ofthinking. It is the most useful for classroom use and continues to be one of the

most universally applied models. It provides a way to organize thinking skills into

six levels, from the most basic to the higher order levels of thinking: Knowledge,Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.)

This was revisited by Anderson and a few changes were incorporated. These are:-

Remembering: Recalling information, Recognising, listing, describing,

retrieving, naming, finding.

Understanding: Explaining ideas or concepts, Interpreting, summarising,paraphrasing, classifying, explaining.

Applying: Using information in another familiar situation, implementing,

carrying out, using, executing.Analysing: Breaking information into parts to explore understandings andrelationships, comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding.

Evaluating: Justifying a decision or course of action, checking, hypothesising,

critiquing, experimenting, and judging.

Creating: Generating new ideas, products or ways of viewing things, designing,

constructing, planning, producing, inventing

The first three Categories (Remembering, Understanding & Applying) are

regarded as Lower Order Thinking Skills, while the other three Categories

(Analysing, Evaluating and Creating ) are called the Higher Order Thinking

Skills.It is imperative that our Teaching Strategies are modified and we develop thinking

skills in our students. Assessment would be the next stage.

A good teacher makes you think even when you dont want to.

(Fisher, 1998, Teaching Thinking)