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   Bloom's revised taxonomy

 SQ3R

          

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Bloom's revised taxonomy

BLOOM CREATED A LEARNING TAXONOMY IN 1956, and since that time we have learned more about the way that children learn. Teachers have also revised the way that they plan and implement instruction in the classroom. To keep the importance of Bloom's work relative to today's theories, Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) revised Bloom's original taxonomy by combining both the cognitive process, and knowledge dimensions. This new expanded taxonomy can help instructional designers and teachers to write and revise learning objectives.

How can the new table help instructional designers and teachers?

The revised taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) incorporates both the kind of knowledge to be learned (knowledge dimension) and the process used to learn (cognitive process), allowing for the instructional designer to efficiently align objectives to assessment techniques. Both dimensions are illustrated in the following table that can be used to help write clear, focused objectives.

For teachers, the objectives for an entire unit can be plotted out on the taxonomy table, ensuring that all levels of the cognitive process are used and that students learn different types of knowledge. For example, if a math teacher were planning a comprehensive unit, he or she could use the taxonomy table to make sure that students not only learned different mathematical procedures, but also learned how to think (meta-cognition) about the best way to solve math problems.

Teachers may also use the new taxonomy dimensions to examine current objectives in units, and to revise the objectives so that they will align with one another, and with assessments. Using the revised taxonomy by referring to the charted dimensions may give teachers a place to start when revising units to better align with new standards-based requirements as well.

Anderson and Krathwohl also list specific verbs that can be used when writing objectives for each column of the cognitive process dimension.
Remember: Recognizing, Recalling
Understand: Interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, explaining
Apply: Executing, implementing
Analyze: Differentiating, organizing, attributing
Evaluate: checking, critiquing
Create: generating, planning, producing

Because the purpose of writing objectives is to define what the instructor wants the student to learn, using detailed objectives will help students to better understand the purpose of each activity by clarifying the student’s activity. Verbs such as "know", "appreciate", "internalizing", and "valuing"do not define an explicit performance to be carried out by the learner. (Mager, 1997)

How to use the revised table

Learning objectives must fall under one of the four categories under the knowledge dimension, and under one of the six categories of the cognitive process dimension. Use the noun in the objective to determine what is being learned: factual, conceptual, procedural, or meta-cognitive knowledge. The verb used in the learning objective will determine which cognitive process dimension column the objective falls under: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. Where the knowledge and cognitive process dimension intersect, is where the objective stands on the revised taxonomy table.

Use this technique to analyze objectives. If an objective has a vague learning procedure for students to complete, such as "to know", the objective cannot be placed on the table: a clue that the old objective needs to be revised.

The more teachers learn about the way students learn, the more instructional techniques will improve by incorporating new findings into currently existing methods.

Related Articles

Emily Cruz, Graduate Student
SDSU Educational Technology

Cruz, E. (2003). Bloom's revised taxonomy. In  B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved February 18, 2009, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/bloomrev/start.htm

 

 

SQ3R

Survey! Question! Read! Recite! Review!

Before you read, Survey
the chapter:

  • the title, headings, and subheadings

  • captions under pictures, charts, graphs or maps

  • review questions or teacher-made study guides

  • introductory and concluding paragraphs

  • summary

Question
while you are surveying:

  • Turn the title, headings, and/or subheadings into questions;

  • Read questions at the end of the chapters or after each subheading;

  • Ask yourself, "What did my instructor say about this chapter or subject when it was assigned?"

  • Ask yourself, "What do I already know about this subject?"

Note:  If it is helpful to you, write out these questions for consideration.  This variation is called SQW3R

When you begin to
Read:

  • Look for answers to the questions you first raised;

  • Answer questions at the beginning or end of chapters or study guides

  • Reread captions under pictures, graphs, etc.

  • Note all the underlined, italicized, bold printed words or phrases

  • Study graphic aids

  • Reduce your speed for difficult passages

  • Stop and reread parts which are not clear

  • Read only a section at a time and recite after each section

Recite
after you've read a section:

  • Orally ask yourself questions about what you have just read
    or summarize, in your own words, what you read

  • Take notes from the text but write the information in your own words

  • Underline or highlight important points you've just read

  • Use the method of recitation which best suits your particular learning style but remember, the more senses you use the more likely you are to remember what you read - i.e.,

    TRIPLE STRENGTH LEARNING: Seeing, saying, hearing-
    QUADRUPLE STRENGTH LEARNING: Seeing , saying , hearing, writing!!!

Review:
an ongoing process.

Day One

  • After you have read and recited the entire chapter,
    write questions in the margins for those points you have highlighted or underlined.

  • If you took notes while reciting,
    write questions for the notes you have taken in the left hand margins of your notebook.

Day Two

  • Page through the text and/or your notebook to re-acquaint yourself with the important points.

  • Cover the right hand column of your text/note-book and orally ask yourself the questions in the left hand margins.

  • Orally recite or write the answers from memory.

  • Make "flash cards" for those questions which give you difficulty.

  • Develop mnemonic devices for material which need to be memorized.

Days Three, Four and Five

  • Alternate between your flash cards and notes and test yourself (orally or in writing) on the questions you formulated.

  • Make additional flash cards if necessary.

Weekend

Using the text and notebook, make a Table of Contents - list all the topics and sub-topics you need to know from the chapter.
From the Table of Contents, make a Study Sheet/ Spatial Map.
Recite the information orally and in your own words as you put the Study Sheet/Map together.

Now that you have consolidated all the information you need for that chapter, periodically review the Sheet/Map so that at test time you will not have to cram.

Adapted from:  Robinson, Francis Pleasant, (1961, 1970) Effective study (4th ed.), Harper & Row, New York, NY.