Thinking Skills - 15-min Teaching Guide

This 15-minute guide serves as both a theoretical foundation and a practical toolkit for teachers looking to develop thinking skills in their classrooms. It provides a solid understanding of the concept and offers actionable strategies to implement it effectively.

1. Introduction to Thinking Skills

   • Thinking skills are mental activities used to process information, make connections, decisions, and create new ideas.
   • They are essential for learning, problem-solving, and decision-making.

2. Impact on Attainment

   • Developing pupils’ thinking skills can lead to better learning and increased attainment.
   • Activities that make pupils’ minds work are highly effective in raising attainment.

3. Bloom’s Taxonomy Overview

   • Created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, organising teacher questions into six categories based on required thinking skills.
   • Provides a hierarchy of thinking skills, from simpler to more complex.

4. Original Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)

   • Used nouns to name thinking skills: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation.

5. Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (2001)

   • Anderson and Krathwohl revised the taxonomy using verbs instead of nouns.
   • New order: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating.
   • “Creating” replaced “Synthesis” and moved to the top level.