"Cognition" is a term signifying general mental operations, such as pattern recognition, language processing, etc. "Thinking," on the other hand, is subsumed under "cognition," but it is a problematic term because of the difficulty in determining just what "thinking" is. At this point, there is a growing consensus that "thinking" occurs only during problem solving activities. What most people engage in when they believe that they are "thinking" is actually just reminiscence. When not engaged in problem solving, the brain enters what is known as its "default state," in which no thinking occurs.

Some literature:

http://www.benwilbrink.nl/publicaties/10SternbergSocrates.htm

Both the terms are used interchangeably. Higher order cognitive skills include critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving and decision making.

Cognitive Skills are basics mental abilities we use to think,study and learn.

It includes:- Attention,working memory,processing speed,long term memory,visual processing,auditory processing,logic and Reasoning etc.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Define_cognitive_skills

Thinking Skills are the mental processes we use to do things like: solve problems, make decisions, ask questions, make plans, pass judgements, organise information and create new ideas. Often we're not aware of our thinking - it happens automatically - but if we take time to ponder what's going on then we can become more efficient and more creative with our minds.

http://www.thinkingclassroom.co.uk/ThinkingClassroom/ThinkingSkills.aspx

I think both of them are different as well. However, inter-related. We learn different information with cognitive skills. Thinking skills to organize and use information learned. Metacognitive skills will help about this.

http://www.cala.fsu.edu/files/higher_order_thinking_skills.pdf

Senay Altinyay, Bernadette Latchman, Jagpreet Kaur , and Ben Wilbrink. Thank You so much. I am really appreciate it.

I agree with Bernadette

Cognitive skills represent innate and natural skills whereas thinking skills represent the processing skills which are nurtured to improve the quality of outcomes from the thinking process.

It seems that another word for thinking skills would be reasoning. Not everyone is able to reason. It is something that is taught.

Dear Bernadette Latchman ,

Since you are one of the expert in this filed . I do have a question about how to develop critical thinking skills . Two months ago , when Professor Goh Chen Teck ( Former President from HBS ., Malaysia chapter ) come for the presentation about the interview ,and review outcome for our student admission into Harvard College, and he shared with us why our student fail to qualify to secure a place in Harvard College , even they are about 14 students with straight As and good extra Murial activities record . According to him ..one of the biggest weakness about our student was because of the Analytical ability and also lack of critical thinking skills .

Academically , all my student are doing fairly well , beside the presentation skills in English . But when come to analyze the easy or sample report , and they need to commend on the content , we are lacking . this is a very obvious shortfall . When I refer to my school alumni record , none of our student made it into Harvard before , even , we have managed to get some of them into all the top university in the world or in Asia region !

I am proposing a plan to the board ,and prepare a training program to improve their critical thinking skills , may I know that you have any good suggestion ?

My school is a Private Chinese Independent high school , we only take in all the best student from our area ,and we filter off those unfit student every years , and when they reach Senior Middle Three ( The lower Six or Grade 12 ) they have went through all the " hard drive" for six years , but yet , they have fail to qualify to Harvard . Do you have any suggestion ? Kindly advise .

Chin

Open University Malaysia

@ Yew Chin - To inculcate thinking, the "thinking" (a task or an engagement) has to be incorporated into curriculum design and assessment. Students can be taught how to argue or to validate or falsify an argument. Regardless of the level, students must be compelled to keep a reflective journal and to submit a weekly reflection.

To many students, the task of reflecting is difficult. Therefore, they can be guided with open ended questions. Answering these questions usher them to critical thinking and to develop analytic skills.

Another approach that I use is to give students four thinking hats, namely: EXPLORE, UNDERSTAND, CREATE, and SHARE (no particular order). The other approach is to ask them to draw a mind map and then to elaborate on it. Also effective is to ask students to think of a topic to share and to conceive the topic as a capital T where the horizontal line provides the scope to EXPLORE and the vertical line the depth to UNDERSTAND.

Regardless of approach, timely feedback is important to motivate them to continue their efforts.

I am of the belief thinking skills apply when we have something to process while cognitive skills act as tools for how we process that information. I believe thinking skills can be taught while cognitive skills can only be developed through reflection.

I think they are diffrent

"Cognition" is a term signifying general mental operations, such as pattern recognition, language processing, etc. "Thinking," on the other hand, is subsumed under "cognition," but it is a problematic term because of the difficulty in determining just what "thinking" is. At this point, there is a growing consensus that "thinking" occurs only during problem solving activities. What most people engage in when they believe that they are "thinking" is actually just reminiscence. When not engaged in problem solving, the brain enters what is known as its "default state," in which no thinking occurs.

'Cognition' is definitely related to connecting symbols with processes. For example, when a child learns identifying 'a good girl' and 'a bad boy'; value loaded pedagogy is already operational that helps to develop a 'cognition skill' which in turn helps to recognize a new boy or girl, based on a set of activities whether they are 'good' or 'bad'. Thus, cognition skill can be associated with pasting the required tickets on a letter so that the letters reach their proper destination. On the other hand, the letter that is to be put inside the envelope is directly related to thinking skills. High level of 'cognition skills' can definitely aid a person to develop high 'thinking skills'. But high 'thinking skills' do not presuppose the presence of high 'cognition skills'.

Coming at this from a different perspective as an ex teacher with some more modest background in research into supporting scientific thinking in young people, my experience is that, given the right sort of educational context, they are remarkably adept at thinking - hypothesis formation, testing them, developing explanations, citing evidence, etc. What has to be learned is the rules or norms of collaborative processes, such as of science and other disciplines - for example, not assuming that you can generalise from one example, considering counter evidence, and so on. What this does suggest, however and in line with some of the above answers, is that thinking is tied in with contexts and purposes (or intentions) of people and can't be analysed independently of these.

In my opinion, thinking is an important "part" of cognition a piece in the jig-saw of cognition while cognition itself is a bigger whole. Cognition, as explained by Merriam-Webster, is an intellectual process that involves thinking, reasoning or remembering etc. So thinking is one important vehicle of higher-cognition. But cognition, while resulting in better understanding of various phenomenon, also helps improve the ability to think. So I must say they form a cyclic/iterative process

thinking -> cognition -> thinking -> cognition

Thinking results in better cognition and improved cognition improves thinking ability.

@ Rauz Azam - Good cyclical iterative thinking and recognizing process!

For the Unit Standards that I am developing, I am using argumentation model as a threshold to develop skills (including argumentation skills) and then to construct knowledge. Attach is an example of a Level-4 designing curriculum unit standards.

Another suggested argument for argumentation for Level-3 Unit Standard in Business Administration is: “The AUSHK Unit Standard (specify the number and the level) made my learning a highly individualized process. It maximized my interactions with people and gave me valuable social experience. It developed in me the imperative of owning responsibilities. It enhanced my solution-generating and decision-making skills.”

Francisco, I was not able to access your attachment, can you provide a different version on word.? Thanks