Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), is an educational idea based on learning taxonomies (such as Bloom’s taxonomy). The idea is that some types of learning require more cognitive processing than others, but also have more generalised benefits. Students engage in higher-order thinking when they are required ‘to explore, to question, to probe new areas, to seek clarity, to think critically and carefully, to consider different perspectives and to organise their thinking’.
In Bloom’s taxonomy, for example, skills involving analysis, evaluation and synthesis (creation of new knowledge) are thought to be of a higher order than the learning of facts and concepts which requires different learning and teaching methods. Higher-order thinking involves the learning of complex judgmental skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Bloom’s taxonomy includes; Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating and Creating. As students move up through these action verbs they are developing their Higher Order thinking skills.