Higher Order Thinking Free Essay Example, 1000 words

Running Head Higher Order Thinking Higher Order Thinking High order thinking is a core of modern education. The main contribution to this theory was made by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. Bloom’s taxonomy can be explained as a classification system of different learning processes. The three lowest levels of taxonomy are knowledge, understanding and application. Three highest levels are analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Analysis has to do with figuring out something on your own, i.e. , an individual cannot be just repeating what he reads or hears. It is seeing how something works. An individual discerns what is connected to what. A student gets at why something is happening. During synthesis process, iIf analysis is taking things apart to see what makes them tick, synthesis is putting things together. Synthesis is solving a problem, making something whole out of a bunch of pieces nobody told you how to put together, or creating or devising something (Bloom, 1956). Evaluation is dec iding on your own, and in an informed way, whether something is preferable; whether it has merit or worth; or whether it is morally right, just, or fair. We will write a custom essay sample on Higher Order Thinking or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Personal Meaning is reflection on the personal significance, consequence, or implication of some object of concern. It is important to help students recognize that all concepts are in some way related to one another. This is one reason concept mapping can be a very powerful evaluation tool. The main limitation of Bloom’s taxonomy is that it is not a strategy but a model which explains main thinking skills. It does not help to solve problems and develop effective critical thinking skills. Bloom explains some ideas and the concept of thinking but he does not explain how this model can be and should be applied to real world situations. His main works on taxonomy are Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Cognitive Dimension (1956). Another model of high order thinking was developed by Robert Marzano. Marzano adopted Bloom’s taxonomy but added new characteristics to the model. This model consists of 8 characteristics: focusing, information gathering, remembering, organizing, analyzing, generating, integrating, evaluating. The ideology of Marzano is based on the idea that: â€Å"When content is new, students must be guided in relating the new knowledge to what they already know, organizing and then using that new knowledge. Knowledge can be of two types: Declarative (i. e., attributes, rules) or procedural (skills and processes). Items of this type are factual and content-specific† (Marzano 1995, p.