The teaching of decision-making, problem-solving, and higher-order thinking skills is necessary to ensure adaptability to our world of accelerated change. Living skills in the technology and information age will include the understanding and application of higher level thinking skills, which will be the educational "basics" of tomorrow. Although there are diverse opinions regarding what constitutes higher-order thinking skills, they include the development of higher cognitive levels (Piaget); the intellectual processes, that is, problem-solving, decision-making, synthesizing (Bloom); and intellectual activity, such as cognition and memory (Guilford). Teaching behaviors that seem to be important in developing thinking processes are teaching the basics of problem solving and asking difficult questions. Cultural and cognitive differences among learners influence which skills are taught and how they should be presented. Rather than preserve fact-oriented instruction, teachers can require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of information using techniques such as a directed reading-thinking activity and inquiry learning, and materials such as the QUEST (Questions to Upgrade and Encourage Student Thinking) Program and the CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) Program. It is evident the educational evaluation needs to focus more on process assessment and less on product assessment. In this future-oriented society, teaching the learner to think as well as think-about-thinking will need to be considered a priority goal in the public curriculum. A five-page list of references concludes this document. (LLZ)