Costa's Levels of Thinking

Questions cause students to recall information. This level of question causes students to input the data into short-term memory, but if they don’t use it in some meaningful way, they may soon forget.

• Level 1

• Level 2

• Level 3

• Level 2 and 3

Which amendment in the Constitution gives citizens the right to bear arms?

• Level 2

• Level 1

• Level 3

•  

  Level 2 and 3

Questions that  enable students to process information. They expect students to make sense of information they have gathered and retrieved from long-and short-term memory.

•  

  Level 1 and 2

• Level 3

• Level 1

• Level 2

Compare and contrast societal conditions in the US in 1787 that led to the inclusion of the second amendment in the US Constitution with conditions today.

• Level 1

•  

  Level 2

•  

  Level 3

• None of the above

Questions  that require students to go beyond the concepts or principles they have learned and to use these in novel or hypothetical situations.

•  

  Level 3

• Level 2

• Level 1

• Level 3 and 2

Which of the characters in Great Expectations suffered the most?

•  

  Level 3

•  

  Level 2

• Level 1

• None of the above

Words like:

• Apply 

• Evaluate 

• Hypothesize 

• Imagine 

• Speculate 

• Level 3

• Level 2

• Level 1

• None of the above

Words like:

o Describe

o Identify

o List

o Name

• Level 1 and 2

• Level 1

•  

  Level 2

• Level 3

Words like:

• Analyze

• Compare

• Contrast

•  Group 

• Level 2

•  

  Level 1

• Level 3

• None of the above

What metaphor or symbol is used to represent Costa's Levels of Thinking?

• Three Story House

• Car

•  

  Circle

•  

  Circle