I have rarely referred to Bloom's Taxonomy while writing or revising my course objectives. I appreciated being forced to place one of my existing syllabi next to Bloom's structure. It became immediately obvious that I could improve the "verb-age" (sorry :-)) of many of my objectives by making them more active and measurable. It was also very helpful to see a list of verbs presented for each of the levels. I got excited as I started to think about what it might look like to engage each of Bloom's levels in each of the 4-coordinates....it seems like one might stumble upon some insights while working this out, as some of the coordinates might predispose you to particular Bloom categories. For example in engineering Creational Structure seems to point to the lower levels of Bloom's hierarchy but wouldn't necessarily have to, and I might argue that it shouldn't. I think it would also be interesting (I would be surprised if someone hasn't done this) to consider Bloom in light of the modal aspects which describes ways of being and ways of knowing.
I was also struck by what Bloom was missing as I compared my objectives to the pyramid. There doesn't seem to be a category that contains the development of serviceable insight and other formative endeavors. Perhaps Bloom is missing a level or two? Remembering, Understanding,...Creating, "Loving," "Serving," "Stewarding," "Responding." Or perhaps these would better serve as the context for Bloom rather than as separate categories - the Motive?
Work to be done here!
Worthwhile thoughts, Kevin. Another thing. There are times when I feel guilty using tools like Bloom's Taxonomy. It feels reductionistic--and it is! As you noted, Bloom is missing a level or two.
ReplyDeleteBut, I think I've misplaced my guilt. It shouldn't be for using tools, but for failing to critically evaluate them in light of what I know to be the irreducible whole of existence.
Anyways, it is good that we have Kayt in our department! She's a good resource when we start to get into these sorts of pedagogical discussions.
I love this, Kevin! It sounds similar in concept to what my friend, Dan Beerens, has written about "flourishing" as a goal for Christian schooling. (Dan is an adjunct instructor in our M.Ed. program, and worked for Christian Schools International for some time before staring his own educational consulting agency.) Dan used to run the "Nurturing Faith" blog for CSI, which recently shuttered its windows, though the archive of posts is still available.
ReplyDeleteHe kicked it off with a post on "7 C's for student flourishing" and then explored these in some depth.
Here's his list of "7 C's": https://nurturingfaith.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/seven-cs-for-student-flourishing/
Here's a list of all the blog posts he had on the topic of "Flourishing": https://nurturingfaith.wordpress.com/?s=flourishing
That sounds interesting Dave! Thanks for the link! I am hoping to do some writing around "flourishing" as a goal for our engineering work (and all of life actually) and what this might mean, practically. I'm looking forward to checking this out. I've found that most discussions on the topic reveal some unique insights.
Delete