6 Levels of Thinking Every Student MUST Master

Key Takeaways

• Six Levels of Thinking: The video outlines six levels of thinking that learners should master for effective academic performance:

  1. Remember: Focuses on rote memorization and repetition.
  2. Understand: Involves comprehending the material rather than just memorizing it.
  3. Apply: Utilizes learned information to solve problems.
  4. Analyze: Involves comparing and contrasting different pieces of information.
  5. Evaluate: Entails making judgments about the importance of information.
  6. Create: Concerns generating novel hypotheses from what is already known.

• Levels of Results: Each level of thinking correlates with a specific level of result:

  1. Regurgitate: Listing and defining facts.
  2. Explain: Answering questions that require explaining concepts or processes.
  3. Solve Simple Problems: Using direct concepts to address specific problems.
  4. Comparison: Identifying and making use of similarities and differences.
  5. Prioritize: Justifying conclusions and making informed decisions.
  6. Hypothesize: Creating new solutions from existing knowledge.

• Bloom's Revised Taxonomy: This framework, established in 1956 and revised in 2001, is fundamental to understanding these levels of thinking and is widely used in education to structure curriculums and assessments.

• Higher Order Learning: Levels four to six involve higher-order cognitive processes and are critical for advanced academic and professional success.

• Common Pitfalls: Many learners struggle because they operate at lower levels of thinking (Remember and Understand) and do not progress to higher levels, which require more mental effort but are more rewarding.

• Efficient Learning Strategy: Instead of progressing linearly through the levels from bottom to top, it is more efficient to start with higher-level thinking (Evaluate) and work downward. This method helps to cement deeper understanding and better memory retention.

• Practical Techniques: Various techniques can aid in operating at higher levels:

  • Use Venn diagrams, tables, summaries, and mind maps to analyze.
  • Ask questions to evaluate the importance of the material.
  • Create a hypothesis in more advanced learning stages.

• Study Tips: Utilize AI tools to generate practice questions at different Bloom’s taxonomy levels to better prepare for assessments.

• Mental Effort: Higher levels of thinking require more cognitive effort, but this pays off as it leads to stronger learning and retention.

• Judgment Formation: Level five (Evaluate) involves forming and justifying conclusions, requiring deeper engagement with the material.

• Memory and Forgetting: Starting studies from higher levels prevents constant relearning, thus combating knowledge decay due to the forgetting curve.

• Actionable Advice: Focus less on memorizing or understanding initially, and more on evaluating to ensure comprehensive learning.

By adopting these strategies and understanding the levels of thinking, learners can improve their efficiency and achieve better academic results.