New Faculty Teaching Newsletter # 18 (February 7, 2007)
Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago, provides three categories of objectives: affective, psychomotor, and cognitive. For this newsletter, we'll just focus on the cognitive. The importance of the taxonomy for teachers is that it can serve to remind us of what we're asking students to do and why. In the cognitive "domain," Bloom arranges the objectives in increasing complexity, from "simple" knowledge or remembering through evaluation. The kinds of words we use in assignments often signal the level of complexity that we're asking of our students. Although it seems reductionist, this is one of the great lessons of Bloom.
The GSI Teaching and Resource Center has an excellent module on using the Taxonomy for designing writing assignments. And if you do a little web searching, you'll find thousands of other examples of how Bloom's Taxonomy can help inform your teaching. Below is one interpretation of the general taxonomy with examples of the kinds of questions appropriate for each level.
1. Knowledge: the recall of specifics and universals, involving little more than bringing to mind the appropriate material.
Examples:
a. Define the term "short term memory."
b. Identify the five major Prophets of the Old Testament.
c. Who won the Battle of Waterloo?
d. Write the equation for the ideal gas law.
e. What are the five sections of a research report?
f. List the characteristics peculiar to the Cubist movement.
g. What are gram-positive bacteria?
2. Comprehension: The ability to process knowledge on a low level such that the knowledge can be reproduced or communicated without verbatim repetition.
Examples:
a. From a "story problem" description, set up the mathematical manipulation needed to solve the problem.
b. Describe in prose what is shown in graph form.
c. In one sentence give the point of a written passage.
d. From a blueprint describe the article depicted.
e. Given an experimental paradigm, state the question being asked.
f. Translate the following paragraph from "Der Spiegel" into good English.
3. Application: The use of abstractions in concrete situations.
Examples:
a. Relate the principle of reinforcement to classroom interactions.
b. Describe an experiment to answer the question of the effects of weight on the fall of an object.
c. Determine the centroid of a plane figure.
d. Write a short poem in iambic pentameter.
e. Train a rat to press a bar.
f. Apply shading to produce depth in a drawing.
g. Reduce the following circuit by Thevenin's theorem and find the current.
4. Analysis: The breakdown of a situation into its component parts.
Examples:
a. Identify the assumptions underlying a geometric proof.
b. Given an argument for the abolition of guns, enumerate the positive and negative points presented.
c. Analyze the following oscillator circuit and determine the frequency of oscillation.
d. Given a research design, identify the predictor and criterion variables and the constraints on external and internal validity.
5. Synthesis: The putting together of elements and parts to form a whole.
Examples:
a. Write a logically organized argument in favor of a given position.
b. Given a set of data derive an hypothesis to explain them.
c. Given two opposing theories design an experiment to compare them.
d. Design an overhead condenser for a distillation column which will condense 75.0 percent of the vapor. Specify number and size of tubes, flow rate of cooling water required, and control equipment for maintaining necessary pressure in shell-side of condenser.
e. Construct an original work which incorporates five common materials in sculpture.
f. Write a short story relating a personal experience in the style of a picaresque novel.
6. Evaluation: The making of judgments about the value of material/methods.
Examples:
a. Given an argument on any position, enumerate the logical fallacies in that argument.
b. Given the data available on a research question, take a position and defend it.
c. Given any research study, evaluate the appropriateness of the conclusions reached based on the data presented.
d. In a given clinical situation, select the most reasonable intervention and predict the main effects and possible side effects.
e. Evaluate a work of art, giving the reasons for your evaluation.
f. On the basis of operating data for the past six months, decide whether the company should buy steel used in our manufacturing process from Company A or Company B.
Nagging: Have you provided some early feedback to your students? February 16 is the deadline for dropping classes.
Campus Tour of the Week: Head for the Eucalyptus Grove. These Tasmanian Blue Gums were planted in 1882 as a windbreak for an old cinderblock track. This is the tallest stand of hardwood trees in North America and the tallest stand of this type of Eucalyptus in the world.