Bloom's Changing Taxonomy

This week, we talked about Bloom's Taxonomy, and Bloom's three learning domains.

Bloom's original taxonomy was in the order of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Imagine a pyramid, with knowledge being the base and working your way up to evaluation at the top.

Bloom's Taxonomy, however, has been revised, using new terminology.

It now looks like this...remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating (creating now takes the place of synthesis).

With this revised taxonomy, there are also verbs to go along with each level.

Bloom's Taxonomy can be thought of as a ladder. Each step brings the learner higher and higher.

As for Bloom's three learning domains, they are cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.

Cognitive is the learner's mental skills (knowledge). Affective covers the growth in feelings/emotional areas (attitude). Psychomotor is the learner's manual/physical skills.

There are three domains simply because there is more than one factor the teacher should take into consideration when dealing with a student.

Aims, Goals, and Objectives...What's The Difference?

What is the difference between aims, goals, and objectives?

Aims are general statements that express learning targets. Examples of aims are national learning standards.

Goals are statements of the teachers intentions. Goals are expressed in state standards.

Objectives are specific statements of outcomes. Objectives are created by the teacher and can be measured through activities.

Mount Saint Mary College requires that our objectives consist of CBC (Condition, behavior, criteria).

The condition is the setting. The setting is expressed through the words, "Given a task/material..."

Behavior is the action verb used. Action verbs are words such as apply, outline, create, define, explain, etc. Action verbs are NOT the words know, learn, comprehend, etc. These words are not measurable.

The third part of the objective, criteria, refers to the level of performance expected from the student.

An example of an objective I wrote in class using the CBC model was, "Given two illustrations depicting the Boston Massacre, the student will complete a Venn diagram providing two similarities and five differences."

The condition is "Given two illustrations." The behavior, or action verb, is complete, and the criteria is providing examples on a Venn diagram.

While it may sound easy writing objectives using CBC, it's not. The example I provided came after a couple of attempts and discussion with my professor.

Hopefully, with a little practice it will get better.

What is Content Analysis?

Content analysis is the breaking down, or structuring, the kind of learning experience the teacher expects students to know/perform.

Content analysis covers what is most important to know and also what skills are required to learn the content.

One way to do this in an organized fashion is through a subject matter outline.

There are five different types of content analysis; information processing analysis, concept analysis, task analysis, learning analysis, and activity analysis.

Information processing analysis is laid out through a subject matter outline. In concept analysis, the definition, key parts, and examples must be provided to students. The teacher should provide good AND bad examples to students. Task analysis is the skill required. Task analysis can be procedural or hierarchical.

Learning analysis examines the students prior skills and knowledge, as well as the best way the content can be learned. Finally, there is activity analysis. This examines how the information will be delivered. It should show how students will be engaged in the learning.

Why should you use content analysis?

For starters, it can help you classify information, and align that information with learning standards.

Second, it helps to decompose, or sequence, the information. You can identify the components, order of instruction, and select appropriate media, learning context,and methods of teaching.

How can you conduct a content analysis? There are a number of ways.

You can explore learning standards, whether they be state of national. You may interview colleagues. Talking to an experienced teacher can be extremely helpful, especially when you are just starting out in this profession.

You can also visit Internet sites to research your unit theme. You should be an expert on whatever you are teaching.

To show the importance of content analysis, and breaking down knowledge, a woman in my class asked us to tell her how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

While this sounds like a simple task, it involves a lot of steps, and that was the point she was trying to get across.

When we introduce a topic in our classes, we need to be able to break down all of the facts and present them in a logical order so that our students can complete a task.