Thinking Skills Programs
Bloom's original taxonomy had six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. The revised Bloom's Taxonomy recognizes that higher-order thinking skills require that difficulty and complexity be considered in the learning plan (Sousa).
The Habits of Mind model looks at the characteristics that people demonstrate when trying to find solutions to problems. The sixteen characteristics are persisting; managing impulsivity; listening with empathy; thinking flexibility; thinking about thinking; striving for accuracy; questioning and posing problems; applying past knowledge to new situations; thinking and communicating with clarity and precision; gathering data through the senses; creating, imagining, and innovating; responding with wonderment and awe; taking responsible risks; finding humor; thinking independently; and remaining open to continuous learning (Sousa).
Understanding by Design is based on two main ideas: focusing on teaching and assessing for deep understanding and for the transfer of learning, and designing curriculum backward from those outcomes (Sousa).
Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK) is a four level model of complexity of thinking. Level 1 is Recall and Reproduction, Level 2 is Skills and Concepts, Level 3 is Short-term Strategic Thinking and Level 4 is Extended Thinking. It is essentially a collapsed version of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy and some think is easier to manage than Bloom's (Sousa).