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What is reasonable to state is that most factual questions require lower level thinking skills.
Remember Benjamin Bloom's famous taxonomy of thinking levels? (If not, see Table 1.) Factual questions generally use thinking skills from low on the taxonomy. Conceptual questions tend to require "higher level" thinking skills.
|
Title
|
Definition
|
Question
|
| Knowledge |
The ability to recall information |
Name, list, tell, who, what, when, where |
| Comprehension |
The ability to understand and explain information |
Why, how, explain, describe, match, identify, restate |
| Application |
The ability to use information in a new situation |
Arrange, draw, dramatize, interview, sketch |
| Analysis |
The ability to categorize information and to perceive similarities and differences |
Classify, compare, contrast, graph, relate, diagram |
| Synthesis |
The ability to create by combining more than one piece of information |
Invent, design, predict, estimate |
| Evaluation |
The ability to make judgments concerning given information, using supporting data |
Support, decide, debate, choose, recommend, editorialize, determine |
Table 1. Bloom's Levels of Thinking.
Another organizational scheme for thinking levels is presented by the California Science Framework. This model incorporates student cognitive developmental levels along with the thinking levels.
|
Grade Level
|
Science Process
|
Description
|
|
K-3
|
Observing, Communicating, Comparing, Ordering, Categorizing |
One word descriptions |
|
3-6
|
All of K-3 plus Relating |
Generalizations, Principles, Laws |
|
6-9
|
All of K-6 plus Inferring |
Predictions, Implications |
|
9-12
|
All of K-9 plus Applying |
Inventions, Technology, Concepts, Rephrased laws |
Table 2. Science Processes and Cognitive Development: Grades K-12.
Comparing Bloom's taxonomy with California's Framework model suggests that Bloom's lower taxonomic levels are developmentally most appropriate in grades K-3. It is, of course, ludicrous to suggest that higher level thinking can take place without adequate prior thought processes in the lower levels. It is equally inappropriate to suggest that once students begin using higher level thinking skills, that the lower levels should be abandoned. What is reasonable to state is that most factual questions require lower level thinking skills.
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Teaching & Learning Index
