Higher-order thinking

Higher-order thinking, also known as higher order thinking skills (HOTS),^[1] is a concept applied in relation to education reform and based on learning taxonomies (such as American psychologist Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy). The idea is that some types of learning require more cognitive processing than others, but also have more generalized benefits. 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 using lower-order thinking skills,^[1] which require different learning and teaching methods. Higher-order thinking involves the learning of complex judgmental skills such as critical thinking and problem solving.

Higher-order thinking is considered more difficult to learn or teach but also more valuable because such skills are more likely to be usable in novel situations (i.e., situations other than those in which the skill was learned).