What Is Higher-Order Thinking?

Higher-order thinking refers to the upper three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy - the framework developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 (revised 2001) that organizes educational learning objectives from simple to complex.

The six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, from lowest to highest:

Remember - recall facts and definitions
Understand - explain ideas or concepts
Apply - use information in a new situation
Analyze - break information into parts; examine relationships ← HOT begins here
Evaluate - make judgments about quality, validity, or usefulness
Create - combine information in new ways to produce original work

Higher-order thinking (HOT) = levels 4, 5, and 6.

Lower-Order vs. Higher-Order Thinking

What year did the Civil War begin?: Why did the Civil War happen, and could it have been prevented?

What is the definition of photosynthesis?: How is photosynthesis similar to and different from cellular respiration?

What is 24 ÷ 6?: Is division always the right operation here? Why or why not?

Who are the main characters?: How does the antagonist's motivation change the story's theme? Lower-order thinking is essential - you cannot analyze what you don't remember. But if instruction stays at lower levels, students don't develop the skills they need for complex real-world problems.

How to Incorporate HOT in Any Subject

Use higher-order question stems:

Compare and contrast...
What would happen if...
Evaluate whether...
Design a... that...
What is the strongest argument for / against...
How would you solve this differently?

Design tasks that require HOT:

Debates and discussions with no single correct answer
Design challenges with constraints
Evaluating and comparing multiple sources
Writing from a different perspective
Identifying errors in someone else's work and explaining why they're wrong

Sequence up the taxonomy: Start a lesson with lower-order activities (recall, understand) and build toward higher-order tasks (analyze, create). Both have a place - the question is whether you ever get to the upper levels.

Practice Activities

Give students a solved math problem with a deliberate error and ask them to find it, explain why it's wrong, and correct it (analysis + evaluation).
After reading a story, ask: "Was the main character's decision right or wrong? Defend your answer with evidence from the text." (evaluation)
Have students redesign a product or system: "If you could redesign the school lunch menu to be healthier AND tastier, what would you change?" (creation)
Use "What if?" questions: "What if the American colonists had NOT declared independence? How might life be different today?" (analysis + evaluation)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is higher-order thinking?

Higher-order thinking refers to the top three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning: analysis (breaking information into parts and examining relationships), evaluation (making judgments about quality or validity), and creation (producing original work by combining ideas in new ways). These contrast with lower-order thinking skills like remembering facts or applying procedures.

Why is higher-order thinking important?

Lower-order thinking (recall and comprehension) is necessary but not sufficient for deep learning. Students need higher-order thinking to solve novel problems, evaluate information critically, transfer knowledge to new situations, and create original work. In a world of easy information access, the ability to analyze and evaluate matters far more than the ability to memorize.

How do you design higher-order thinking tasks?

Higher-order tasks use verbs that require analysis, evaluation, or creation: compare, contrast, judge, argue, design, invent, evaluate, critique, construct, predict, hypothesize, defend. Lower-order tasks use verbs like recall, define, identify, list, describe. The same content can be taught at any level - the task verb determines the level.