Skills for the 21st Century: teaching higher-order thinking

TLDR

Teaching higher‑order thinking skills is widely recognized as essential for preparing students for the 21st century, yet the extent to which these skills are taught and assessed remains debated, with Bloom’s Taxonomy providing a structured framework for defining and scaffolding such skills. The authors propose a classroom approach that teaches the language and concepts of higher‑order thinking, plans targeted questioning and discussion to engage specific skills, and explicitly teaches key concepts across subject areas.

Abstract

It is hard to imagine a teacher or school leader who is not aware of the importance of teaching higher-order thinking skills to prepare young men and women to live in the 21st Century. However, the extent to which higher-order thinking skills are taught and assessed continues to be an area of debate. Higher-order thinking has been defined in terms of three concepts: student's capacity to apply the knowledge and skills to new situations; critical thinking; and problem solving. Using the Bloom's Taxonomy, teachers have a framework available to them that allows them to scaffold the teaching of thinking skills in a structured way. This includes teaching the language and concepts of higher-order thinking; planning classroom questioning and discussion time to tap into particular higher-order thinking skills; and explicitly teaching key concepts in each subject area.