This document discusses lower order thinking skills (LOTS) versus higher order thinking skills (HOTS). It explains that LOTS, according to Bloom's Taxonomy, include remembering, understanding, and applying knowledge, while HOTS involve analyzing, evaluating, and creating. LOTS require basic comprehension of information, whereas HOTS demand that students manipulate and apply information more abstractly. The document provides examples of questions that represent different levels of thinking within Bloom's Taxonomy to illustrate the difference between LOTS and HOTS.

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
VS
HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

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HUMAN THINKING
 Human thinking has two major categories
 Lower Order Thinking skills (LOTs) and
 Higher Order Thinking skills (HOTs)

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HUMAN THINKING
 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY


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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
First three levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are lower order
thinking skills
 REMEMBERING
 UNDERSTANDING
 APPLYING

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 APPLYING
 employ, execute, implement, practice, calculate, show,
demonstrate, translate, illustrate, model.
 Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation –
using learned knowledge.

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 UNDERSTANDING
 relate, interpret, classify, summarize, discuss,
describe, explain, conclude, compare/contrast
 Construct meaning from instructional material,
including oral, written, and graphic communication.

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 REMEMBERING
 memorize, define, recite, recall, cite, count, draw,
recall, list, name, record, repeat
 Retrieve relevant knowledge from memory.

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Lower Order Thinking Skills
 Lower-Order thinking Skills are used to understand the
basic storyline or literal meaning of a story, play or poem.
 These are required to move into higher order thinking.
These are skills which are taught very well in the 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

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Lower Order Thinking Skills
 If a Person only obtains lower order thinking skills . It
will not prepare the person for real life situations.
 This includes Wh questions, teaching relevant lexical
items, relating to grammatical structures when
relevant, who, what, where, when, do you know, etc
 once a student has mastered the basic understanding
of text then the student is ready to move on to the next
level which involves using that information in some
way.

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Higher Order Thinking Skills
 The Last three levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are higher
order thinking skills.
 Analyzing
 Evaluating
 Creating

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 CREATING
 generate, plan, produce, develop, construct, organize,
propose, invent, formulate
 Combining or reorganizing elements to form a
coherent or functional whole or into a new pattern,
structure or idea.

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 EVALUATING
 argue, decide, validate, appraise, evaluate, judge,
measure, rank, criticize, rate, select, consider
 Make judgments based on criteria and standards, using
previously learned knowledge.

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LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 ANALYZING
 distinguish, contrast, scrutinize, dissect, separate,
discriminate, analyze, examine, survey
 Break down knowledge into its components and
determine the relationships of the components to one
another and then how they relate to an overall
structure or task.

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Higher Order Thinking Skills
 Higher Order Thinking Skills are used to:
 interpret a text on a more abstract level.
 manipulate information and ideas in ways that
transform their meaning and implications.

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HOTs for Analyzing Literary Texts
 Predicting.
 Applying,
 Inferring,
 Sequencing,
 Identifying Parts and whole
 Classifying
 Comparing and contrasting
 Explaining cause and effects
 Evaluating

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LOTS VS HOTS

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LOTS VS HOTS
 While critical thinking can be thought of as more left-
brain and creative thinking more right brain, they both
involve “thinking”.
 When we talk about HOTS “higher order thinking skills”
we are concentrating on the top three levels of Bloom’s
Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis and evaluation

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LOTS VS HOTS
 LET’S WORK!
Knowledge Comprehension
Synthesis Application
Evaluation

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LOTS VS HOTS
 What did Cinderella want?
 Do you think the stepsisters loved Cinderella?
 If the Prince broke the glass slipper, how else could he find Cinderella?
 Who made Cinderella’s dree?
 Why was the glass slipper important?
 Did Cinderella like the ball?
 Who wanted to find Cinderella after the ball?
 Do you think that everyone who marries a prince will be happy? Why or
why not?

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Cinderella Questions
 What did Cinderella want? Knowledge
 Do you think the stepsisters loved Cinderella? Comprehension
 If the Prince broke the glass slipper, how else could he find Cinderella?
Synthesis
 Who made Cinderella’s dress? Knowledge
 Why was the glass slipper important? Application
 Did Cinderella like the ball? Comprehension
 Who wanted to find Cinderella after the ball? Knowledge
 Do you think that everyone who marries a prince will be happy? Why or
why not? Evaluation

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LOTS VS HOTS
LOWER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 Answers given in the reading
 Students state or recite answers
HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS
 Answers not provided
 Students use information from the reading to figure out
the answer

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CONCLUSIONS
 Lower level questions are those at the remembering,
understanding and lower levels of the taxonomy.
 Usually questions at the lower level are appropriate for:
 Evaluating students preparation and comprehension
 Diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses
 Reviewing and/or summarizing content

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CONCLUSIONS
 Higher Level Questions are those requiring complex
application, analysis, evaluation or creation skills.
 Questions at higher levels of taxonomy are usually most
appropriate for:
 Encouraging students to think more deeply and critically
 Problem solving
 Encouraging discussions
 Stimulating students to seek information on their own

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