Anglophone group

Why the distinction between Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and Lower-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) transforms your teaching… and your assessments?

In our classrooms, all students “think.”

But how do they really think?

To design effective lessons, it is essential to understand two categories of cognitive processes: lower-order thinking skills (LOTS) and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS).

LOWER-ORDER THINKING SKILLS (LOTS)

These involve foundational skills necessary to begin learning, but primarily show what the student can do with already known content.

This quote is a powerful reminder that experiences often have a deeper impact than objects, not only for children at home, but also for our students in the classroom.

In teaching, rewards are often stickers, points, or small items… but experience-based rewards can be far more meaningful:

✨ a special classroom job

✨ a moment of one-on-one time with the teacher

✨ choosing an activity

✨ picking their partner for a task

Imagine this: you give your students a list of ten new words. They memorize them for a day or two… and then they forget most of them. Sound familiar?

This is exactly why, in CLIL teaching (Content and Language Integrated Learning), how we introduce vocabulary is just as important as what we introduce. Words alone are not enough. Students need context, meaning, and connection to really make language their own.

Context Makes Vocabulary Come Alive

Vocabulary isn’t just a label—it’s a tool for thinking, reasoning, and communicating. When we embed new words in stories, images, experiments, or real-life situations, students start to understand why the words matter, not just what they mean.

Here’s why this is crucial:

- Deep understanding: Students don’t just memorize words—they learn when, why, and how to use them.