Higher order knowledge is how the content is understood, learned and organized by students. Levels of understanding takes the curriculum beyond just facts to include solving problems and involving evidence and inquiry learning. These ways of learning incorporates reasoning and exploring into the teaching process. Languages of thinking involves exercising the English language to foster thoughtfulness on the student's part. This includes the use of teacher vocabulary, contributing to cause and effect relationships, incorporating concept mapping and developing a thoughtful classroom culture.
Intellectual passions urge the importance of open-mindedness, wholeheartedness, and responsibility.
The classroom must cultivate these attitudes within learning the content areas. Integrative mental images refers to the varied kinds of representations that provide a cohesive bond between subject matters. Learning to learn emphasizes that students are incremental learners, wherein their learning needs to be cultivated by the teacher with persistence. Teaching for transfer requires the teacher to set up learning conditions that foster transfer of learning from one situation to another. This can be accomplished by helping the student make the connection between the two situations or by keeping the instruction close to the aspect of student performance.