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21st Century Blooms Taxonomy
In my early teaching career, Bloom's Taxonomy was everything. Pre-service teachers were well-versed in the six levels of cognitive domain from simple recall, or recognition of facts, at the lowest level, to increasingly more complex and abstract concepts at the highest levels. Do you remember that? No matter how much theory was drilled into our heads, when I began teaching I still uttered lower level simple recall type questions and activities until I was better able to define myself in the classroom. My poor students in the first few years! What I lacked in professional abilities, I definitely made up in enthusiasm and creativity. My students were never stagnant nor bored, but I'm not sure how well I took them to a higher level. According to Benjamin Bloom, 95% of test questions students encounter require them to think only at the lowest (Knowledge) level. Since more than 50 years have gone by, I wonder how much better we are doing. This "tuesdays" all about Bloom's Taxonomy and how it is a timeless guide to great lesson planning.
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Now you know Blooms Taxonomy has entered the 21st century when it has an app! I downloaded to my iPad and it's super simple and a great organizer for all the verbs of planning. The greatest change from the old to new is from nouns to verbs. Learning is action and the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy now go from LOTS to HOTS (from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills.) Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has an excellent section on the merits of Blooms in the classroom and the new Taxonomy wheel created by Allan Carrington |
 
I would really like to encourage you to revisit the old Bloom's Taxonomy and investigate the new Bloom's Taxonomy. There is an excellent pdf that you can download and print to help consolidate this huge topic. How can you apply this to your classroom? How can you make a difference with your students? Our students are hungry to create content digitally which gives them the highest cognitive level available. As you are doing your lesson plans, please consider addressing the new taxonomy, look at the wheel to see where your instructional strategy falls. If you continually are targeting the same level, it will be most helpful to vary instructional style and intentional focus. As with any technologies that come and go, this Padagogy Wheel will need to be continually revised. In the meantime, it's the best out there and worth your time. Clever twist on the name, Allan Carrington. |
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How do you take on the 21st Century version of Bloom's Taxonomy? Begin with baby steps - iittle by little and step by step. This new Bloom's Taxonomy Padagogy Wheel 2.0 gives all of us the opportunity to give our students a more engaging and higher level of learning while introducing emerging technologies that help them create, collaborate and communicate. Let's stop doing all the work and make sure the students have the bulk of the designing. I have an Algebra lesson coming up soon and I am going to frame the standard with a particular level that I am targeting. For the app, I choose action verbs and then was able to easily look to the Padagogy Wheel for suggestions of activities and the technologies to implement the idea. Summer time is coming quickly. Take a few weeks off and when the gears start turning towards planning for next year, please consider using the revised Blooms Taxonomy for a creative edge to student engagement.
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| What is "tuesdays with Karen"?
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"tuesdays with Karen" is a weekly newsletter/blog designed to encourage, equip and empower teachers to be creative with educational technology. Please add your technology comments to my "tuesdays with Karen" blog. |
