Thinking Skills Levels Portfolio
Make detailed notes for your portfolio which analyze thinking skills levels
Analysis Of Thinking Skills Levels (Task 4a)
Each part of the thinking skills levels is examined in detail
Analysis of Thinking Skills Levels
Thinking skills refer to mental activities that are used in processing information, making connections, making decisions, and creating new ideas. They form the basis for personal growth as well as contribute to economic and social growth. Every person has thinking skills; however, not everyone utilizes them well, and this is because effective thinking skills develop over a certain period. Good thinkers are capable of making a connection between several factors and establish new solutions to problems (Hyder & Bhamani, 2016). The lower thinking skills include learning and remembering facts, whereas higher thinking skills include synthesis, evaluation, analysis, and problem-solving. Bloom’s taxonomy identifies six different thinking levels, and they are developed in an increasing sequence of complexity from the basic thinking skills to higher thinking skills. The lower level skills need less cognitive processing; however, they offer a crucial base for learning, and the higher-level skills need deeper learning that establishes new solutions to problems.
An analysis of the thinking skills, it is important to complete every stage of Bloom’s taxonomy before going to the next level (Cottrell, 2017). Therefore, when doing course planning, it is vital to consider how fast to introduce new ideas, when to emphasize them and how to develop questions. The higher-level thinking skills help learners to think, instead of just memorizing and also develop their cognitive ability. The first thinking level, according to Bloom’s taxonomy, is remembering, which is the ability to remember previously learned concepts. Students can be asked to recite or quote something they have learned on previous course materials. Teachers can use verbs such as describe, define, label, outline, and identify to measure learning success at this level effectively. The second level of thinking is understanding, and under this level, students are required to understand ideas and facts by comparing, interpreting, and organizing the information learned. Students are asked to discuss an idea or a problem in paraphrased words to evaluate their understanding or comprehension about a concept. The third thinking level is applying, and under this level, the students are required to solve problems through applying their techniques and knowledge (Nappi, 2017). For instance, students can use a mathematics formula they have learned in school in to calculate their family’s budget.
The remaining three thinking levels of the pyramid help students to think and solve problems (Damotharan et al., 2017) critically. Therefore, the fourth thinking level is analyzing, and under this level, learners break information into constituent pieces and determine how these pieces of information related. The fifth thinking level is evaluating, and under this level, learners are required to make an educated opinion on information learned and validate ideas or works. Verbs such as evaluate, summarize, support, conclude, and tools such as blogs and surveys help in this thinking level. The last thinking level is creating, and under this level, the learners are required to combine information gathered to create new solutions. Through the thinking levels, the learners understand that the information they are learning is helpful and important in their lives (Hoque, 2016). The learners can use the learned information in solving problems at work or at home. Therefore, as educators, it is important to use the taxonomy of Bloom to support the learning process of every student. The understanding of the different thinking levels can assist students in performing better in tests, examinations, or any other assignments.
References
Cottrell, S. (2017). Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument, and reflection. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Damotharan, U., Sengapalli, T., & Hansda, R. (2017, November). Analysis of Cognitive Thinking of an Assessment System Using Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the 2017 5th IEEE International Conference on MOOCs, Innovation, and Technology in Education (MITE) (pp. 152-159). IEEE.
Hoque, M. E. (2016). Three domains of learning: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The Journal of EFL Education and Research, 2(2), 45-52.
Hyder, I., & Bhamani, S. (2016). Bloom’s taxonomy (cognitive domain) in higher education settings: Reflection brief. Journal of Education and Educational Development, 3(2), 288 300.
Nappi, J. S. (2017). The importance of questioning in developing critical thinking skills. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 84(1), 30.