If it’s a level three question, you explain/justify your thinking and provide supporting evidence for reasoning or conclusions you make. Questions may involve abstract theme identification, inferences between or across passages, application of prior knowledge, or text support for analytical judgment about a text.

The Three Domains of Learning

• Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)

cognitive: mental skills ( knowledge) – head affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas ( attitude/ beliefs) – heart psychomotor: manual or physical skills ( skills) – hands. psychomotor skills are skills in which the brain and body must work together.

Level 1 (the lowest level) requires one to gather information. Level 2 (the middle level) requires one to process the information. Level 3 (the highest level) requires one to apply the information. Prove your answer.

Wait-time is the amount of time that elapses between an tutor-initiated question and the next verbal behavior (e.g., a student response ).

Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) is a concept popular in American education. It distinguishes critical thinking skills from low-order learning outcomes, such as those attained by rote memorization. HOTS include synthesizing, analyzing, reasoning, comprehending, application, and evaluation.

Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a scale used to determine the amount of thinking required for a given question or task. Aligning your questions to different DOK levels facilitates higher-order thinking and deeper learning for your students.

Let the students do the thinking, and ensure that they have the time to do it. One way to create more opportunities for students to think is to first articulate their ideas in writing prior to sharing in a class discussion. Ask a question, give students a few minutes to jot down their thoughts, and then share.

Essentially, depth of knowledge designates how deeply students must know, understand, and be aware of what they are learning in order to attain and explain answers, outcomes, results, and solutions.

Norman L. Webb

Depth of Knowledge helps us conceptualize cognitive rigor by breaking down and categorizing the different thought processes needed to correctly solve a problem. By breaking down and distinguishing between the level of thought, or DoK required for each question, educators can further pinpoint student comprehension.

Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order which is classified as evaluation.

The model is based upon the assumption that curricular elements may all be categorized based upon the cognitive demands required to produce an acceptable response. Each grouping of tasks reflects a different level of cognitive expectation, or depth of knowledge, required to complete the task.