Critical Thinking and Higher Order Levels of Cognition (Thinking)

Critical Thinking in College

Most of the reading and writing that you will do in college will require you to move beyond remembering and understanding material. You will be required to apply what you learn and create something new (i.e. and essay or project), and evaluate and analyze texts or information. All of these activities are higher order levels of thinking that require students to move beyond the lower two levels: remembering and understanding.

Bloom's Taxonomy

To view a clearer image of the chart above, go to this website: Bloom’s Taxonomy 

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy for Effective Learning

Adapted from the article written by Beth Lewis

The hierarchy of Bloom’s Taxonomy is the widely accepted framework through which all teachers should guide their students through the cognitive learning process. In other words, teachers use this framework to focus on higher-order thinking skills.

You can think of Bloom’s Taxonomy as a pyramid, with simple knowledge-based recall questions at the base. Building up through this foundation, you can ask your students increasingly challenging questions to test their comprehension of a given material.

 

Utility

By asking these critical thinking questions or higher-order questions, you are developing all levels of thinking. Students will have improved attention to detail, as well as an increase in their comprehension and problem-solving skills.

Levels

There are six levels in the framework, here is a brief look at each of them and a few examples of the questions that you would ask for each component.

  • Remember: Recognizing and recalling facts: In this level students are asked questions to see whether they have remembered key information from a lesson and/or reading assignment. (What is… Where is… How would you describe?)
  • Understand: Understanding what the facts mean: During this level, students will be asked to interpret facts that they learned. (What is the main idea… How would you summarize?)
  • Apply: Applying the facts, rules, concepts and ideas: Questions asked during this level are meant to have students apply or use the knowledge learned during the lesson. (How would you use… How would you solve it?)
  • Analyze: Breaking down the information into component parts: In the analysis level, students will be required to go beyond knowledge and see if they can analyze a problem. (What is the theme… How would you classify?)
  • Evaluate: Judging the value of information and ideas: Evaluating information is where students are expected to assess the information learned and come to a conclusion about it. (What is your opinion of…how would you evaluate… How would you select… What data was used?)
  • Create: Combining parts to make a new whole: The highest level of critical thinking involves creating new or original work.

Lewis, Beth. “Using Bloom’s Taxonomy for Effective Learning.” ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020, thoughtco.com/blooms-taxonomy-the-incredible-teaching-tool-2081869.