Module 3 - Updating Bloom's Taxonomy
Overview
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom and colleagues published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, I would bet that every teacher since its creation has either learned about his taxonomy in their education courses or in professional development. It's popularity is due to its simplicity, sensibility, and applicability to all content areas. Above is an image of the updated taxonomy in which cognitive psychologists revised the taxonomy to make it more a dynamic conception of classifications.
I will admit, I am a fan of Bloom's taxonomy. When I taught high school, I used it as a tool for helping me thinking about how to increase the cognitive level of the activities and assessments. I had this flip book that had a page for each of the 6 levels of Bloom's taxonomy which included a description of the level and a list of verbs that could be associated with each level (similar to the image above, but with many, many more verbs). The taxonomy gave me a tool to think about the problems I was giving my students. I could check to see if the majority of the problems were at a particular level by looking at the verbs I was using. And when I wanted to increase to a higher cognitive level, I could revise a problem using one of the verbs associated with a higher level. These lists of verbs really assisted me in developing activities and assessments that asked for high-order thinking. A quick google search will you give you websites with the list of verbs and links to pdfs (see the list below).
I will admit, I am a fan of Bloom's taxonomy. When I taught high school, I used it as a tool for helping me thinking about how to increase the cognitive level of the activities and assessments. I had this flip book that had a page for each of the 6 levels of Bloom's taxonomy which included a description of the level and a list of verbs that could be associated with each level (similar to the image above, but with many, many more verbs). The taxonomy gave me a tool to think about the problems I was giving my students. I could check to see if the majority of the problems were at a particular level by looking at the verbs I was using. And when I wanted to increase to a higher cognitive level, I could revise a problem using one of the verbs associated with a higher level. These lists of verbs really assisted me in developing activities and assessments that asked for high-order thinking. A quick google search will you give you websites with the list of verbs and links to pdfs (see the list below).
blooms_level.pdf |
Bloom's in the Digital Age
In the digital age, I think Bloom's taxonomy is still applicable. Below is a video that tries to answer the question, "What is Bloom's Digital Taxonomy?" It is again, a Common Sense Education video. I want you to know that I looked at many other videos and this was by far the best.
In the video, they state, "others have taken the six levels of the taxonomy and aligned them with technology tools the help foster each level." Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a flip book of different technologies that we could use for each of the 6 levels? So that is what I want you to do. I want you to find technologies or ways to use technology that align with each of the 6 levels. Now, I don't want you to search for what these "other" people did. I want you to CREATE your own set of technological tools (see what I did there?). Pick a grade-level and subject that you teach, will teach, or want to teach and find two ways technology can be used with your students to address each of the 6 levels in the revised Bloom’s Technology. Then, I want you to reflect upon and analyze the types of technology you selected for each of the levels and make connections to the other frameworks we used to design and redesign activities.
To Do
Step 1:
Create a webpage in your Weebly site called “Technology in Blooms” within the Instructional Support menu.
Step 2:
Provide a brief description of the grade-level/class of the students you teach or plan to teach
Step 3:
For each of the 6 levels of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy, provide a brief description of two types of technology or technology-based activities that you could use to support your students’ cognition at that particular level. Links and screenshots, if applicable, should be included.
Step 4:
Write a reflection and analysis on the types of technology you selected for each level. In your reflection you should consider how the revised Bloom’s taxonomy relates to the SAMR Model and TPACK framework and any patterns you notice in regards to the types of technology you selected for the lower-order thinking skills and the types of technology you selected for the higher-order thinking skills.
Create a webpage in your Weebly site called “Technology in Blooms” within the Instructional Support menu.
Step 2:
Provide a brief description of the grade-level/class of the students you teach or plan to teach
Step 3:
For each of the 6 levels of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy, provide a brief description of two types of technology or technology-based activities that you could use to support your students’ cognition at that particular level. Links and screenshots, if applicable, should be included.
Step 4:
Write a reflection and analysis on the types of technology you selected for each level. In your reflection you should consider how the revised Bloom’s taxonomy relates to the SAMR Model and TPACK framework and any patterns you notice in regards to the types of technology you selected for the lower-order thinking skills and the types of technology you selected for the higher-order thinking skills.