HOTS in Mathematics

Higher-order thinking skills is a concept of Education reform based on learning taxonomies such as Bloom's Taxonomy. The idea is that some types of learning require more cognitive processing that others, but also have more generalized benefits. In Bloom's taxonomy, for example, skills involving analysis, evaluation and synthesis (creation of new knowledge) are thought to be of a higher order, requiring different learning and teaching methods, than the learning of facts and concepts. Higher order thinking involves the learning of complex judgmental skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Higher order thinking is more difficult to learn or teach but also more valuable because such skills are more likely to be useable in novel situations (i.e., situations other than those in which the skill was learned).
Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Mathematics
The concept of higher order thinking skills became a major educational agenda item with the 1956 publication of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.

Figure 1: Bloom’s Learning Taxonomy

Categories in the cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The simplest thinking skills are learning facts and recall, while higher order skills include critical thinking, analysis and problem solving. Including higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in learning outcomes is a very common feature of standards based education reform. Advocates of traditional education object to elevating HOTS above direct instruction of basic skills. Many forms of education reform, such as inquiry-based science, reform mathematics and whole language emphasize HOTS to solve problems and learn, sometimes deliberately omitting direct instruction of traditional methods, facts or knowledge. Critics of standards based assessments which use open-response items which require higher order analysis and writing instead of multiple choice questions point out that this style of testing is even more difficult for students who are behind academically.