Unlearning and Relearning Bloom's Taxonomy - Part 3
The most MISUNDERSTOOD and MISUSED framework in the whole education !!!
If you haven’t had a chance to read the first two parts, here are the links:
Now, the final part.
The Half-true and Misinterpreted Revised Version:
This is the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, which does not have one of the major parts from the revision. Ironic.
The revised Bloom’s taxonomy not only has three learning domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) but also states about two dimensions in the cognitive domain.
Instead of a pyramid, the authors had revised it as a table with two dimensions. On the column side, there are the 6 cognitive processes and on the row, the four levels of knowledge.
Even If you turned the table into a pyramid, the cognitive domain would looks something like this.
Bottomline:
The cute pyramid with just the 6 hierarchies of cognitive processes is INCOMPLETE and INACCURATE.
Ever felt that something was missing in your life? The meaning? The purpose? LOL. Something similar happened to me when I ‘discovered’ this part in the book.
With this new insight, now you will have to throw the LOTs and HOTs out of the window. I wonder how many teachers/educators will be ready to do that?
HOTs and LOTs is Misleading:
So, the usual idea is that if a teacher wants to create a HOTs level objective, simply pluck out a verb from the CREATE level. And to create a LOTs level objective, pick the ones in the bottom REMEMBER or UNDERSTAND levels. Easy peasy.
However, if you look from the two dimensional perspective of Cognitive domain, the whole logic becomes wobbly.
Let’s dissect a few learning objectives that you will come across.
Case 1:
Students of Grade 3 in an English class will be able to “generate” a table with two columns, the first column with words starting with a vowel sound, and the second column with words starting with a consonant sound.
Is this is HOTs or LOTs?
You will have to say this is HOTs because according to the Bloom’s verbs table, the verb “generate” comes from the Create category, the top level.
But can you say for real that the above task is HOTs? It seems like a pretty simple cognitive task.
Case 2:
Students of Grade 9 in an English class will be able to “apply” the criteria for writing persuasive essays.
Now is this one HOTs or LOTs?
If you are following the logic of Bloom’s hierarchy, the verb “apply” points that this has to be from the LOTs level. But is it really?
Case 3:
Suppose there are two tasks. Task A is to Evaluate the Factual Details applied in a project based learning. Task B is to Evaluate Conceptual Knowledges applied in a project based learning.
So which one is HOTs and which is LOTs? Both must be HOTs, right?
It’s not that clear cut, is it?
So HOW to use Bloom’s Taxonomy then?
Like Anderson stated, do not start by using one of the Bloom’s verbs from the pyramid to create learning objectives.
Those six levels (and the verbs) simply represent the cognitive processes that learners are expected to implement during the learning and assessment process.
Don’t forget:
The revised Bloom’s taxonomy has three domains of learning (Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor). And further the Cognitive Domain has two dimensions (6 Cognitive Process x 4 Knowledge Levels).
An excerpt from the book:
Although we may gain a better understanding of an objective using the Taxonomy Table, how does this increased understanding help us? Here are four of the most important organizing questions:
What is important for students to learn in the limited school and classroom time available? (The learning question)
How does one plan and deliver instruction that will result in high levels of learning for large numbers of students? (The instruction question)
How does one select or design assessment instruments and procedures that provide accurate information about how well students are learning? (The assessment question)
How does one ensure that objectives, instruction, and assessment are consistent with one another? (The alignment question)
In short,
Find out the concept that’s WORTH learning about (that is the learning objective).
Then plan how you are going to teach it or what activities the students will do cognitively to achieve the learning objective. (This is where the taxonomy comes in.)
Finally, design how you are going to assess the learning of that concept. While doing these, make sure all three (learning question, teaching/learning activities, and assessment question) are aligned.
Understand this:
Learning Activities are not Learning Objectives.
Eg:
At the end of the class, the students will be able to write a 5 paragraph essay.
This is not a Learning Objective. Writing is a Learning Activity, which is a means to get to the objective.
To determine the Learning Objective associated with the above activity, you will have to ask the teacher,
“WHAT do you want your students to LEARN by writing a 5 paragraph essay?”
That answer is the Learning Objective.
The teacher might say,
“I want the students to learn the concepts of Cohesion and Coherence in Writing.”
Or,
“I want the students to understand the proper procedure of writing essays.”
Your learning objective is what the students need to learn about the subject or chapter. The most important concept or theory.
That’s it.
So, a few possible learning objective statements would look like:
Students will be able to write a 5 paragraph essay so that they learn the concept of Cohesion and Coherence in Writing.
Students will learn the procedure of writing essays and implement the idea to write a 5 paragraph essay.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I highly encourage you to read the revised taxonomy book by yourself. What I’ve shared is just a tip of the iceberg named Bloom’s Taxonomy. There’s still a ton of things to talk about, especially the mapping out part of the objectives along the two dimensions of the Cognitive domain, and the remaining two domains. It really is complex.
Finally, if there are three big insights from these three parts I would want you to go away with, they would be:
a. Remain highly critical of HOTs and LOTs - it’s misleading and confusing.
b. Realize that there are THREE domains of learnings, and the Cognitive domain has TWO dimensions (the six level pyramid is wrong)
c. Understand that Learning Activities are not Learning Objectives.
If you found the three parts useful and helpful, let me know your reflection. And, share this among your teacher colleagues as well so that we can clear the fluff out of this amazing educational tool.
Part 1:
Part 2: