LOTS Lower Order Thinking Skills and HOTS Higher Order Thinking Skills

Bloom's taxonomy is a framework for understanding how individuals acquire knowledge, known as the cognitive domain. Bloom's breaks cognition into seven hierarchical levels. The seven levels represent lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and higher order thinking skills (HOTS). According to the theory, individuals must master the lower order thinking skills (remembering, understanding) before mastering the higher order thinking skills (applying, analyzing, evaluating, creating). Creating represents the highest of the thinking skills in the cognitive domain, as it requires an individual to remember and understand information, apply it in a new context, experience a process of evaluating and analyzing, and, ultimately, produce, design, or construct an original work.