Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is about “levels of thinking and the processing of learning experiences” (Frangenheim, E 2006 p. 22). Learning is divided into six processes; Create, Evaluate, Analyse, Apply, Understand and Remember. These six processes are then divided into two groups; lower order thinking (Remember, Understand and Apply), and higher order thinking (Create, Evaluate and Analyse). (Frangenheim, E 2006). Although lower order thinking does have a place in the classroom, if the focus is on higher order thinking, learning experiences will be more authentic and engaging for learners.


Within the Essential Learnings by the end of Year 9 for English (Queensland Studies Authority, 2009), there is a clear focus on higher order thinking within the Ways of Working. Seven out of the nine Ways of Working require students to analyse, construct, justify and reflect, which are all higher order thinking processes (Queensland Studies Authority, 2009).


The table below is Blooms Digital Taxonomy (Churches, A 2008) and helps identify verbs associated with each level of thinking. It also gives some great digital examples of activities for each level of thinking.






References
Churches, A 2008, Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. Viewed 15.11.2010 from
http://pkab.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/peta-konsep-ranah-belajar-bloom-taxonomy/

Frangenheim, E 2006, Reflections on Classroom Thinking Strategies. Loganholme: Rodin Educational Publishing.

Queensland Studies Authority 2009, Essential Learnings by the end of Year 9. Viewed 01.07.2010 from http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/7284.html

Hello all,

I have just set up my wiki with an exercise attached. Please feel free to contribute. It is however a fictitious situation so feel free to be as creative as you like. In my mind I have every resource available to me :)

http://aprilswiki.wikispaces.com/

Thanks,
April

Websites and Wikis

I have always thought that the idea of incorporating a class website with links to class notes, activities, discussion boards, etc would be a fantastic tool for learning; however, I also always thought that it would require a specialised IT expert who knew coding not only to set it up but to maintain it. These skills I have never possessed and therefore my idea was hidden in the back of my brain and never executed.

When I read that we would be setting up a webpage this week, I was very apprehensive. I really did not feel that I had the skills needed to create one, but I was pleasantly surprised by how simple it was. Basically all you did was type in your details, decide on a name, and then drag and drop formatting options according to how you want your webpage to look and then you start adding your personal touches like text and photos, etc.

A classroom website would be such as effective tool for any subject. Teachers would be able to keep absent students up to date with class information, parents and support staff could be kept informed on class and student progress, and students could have access to assignment task sheets and class activity sheets, eliminating the excuse of students losing important information and not knowing what to do.

The wiki was even simpler to create, and would be extremely useful in any context involving the need for students to liaise with one another, across all subjects. Students could contribute their own part of the activity on the wiki whenever was convenient for them, and then remainder of the group could do the same. Wikis would also be beneficial used for rough draft work and peer reviews. The student could upload their assessment rough draft on the wiki, and the teacher, or peers could comment or make changes where needed. This process could continue until the assessment was completed.

Within my teaching context, I would use the website and wiki as an assessment piece for a novel. In groups, Students would need to create an overview of the novel for the homepage then link it to pages containing character profiles, a plot synopsis, word definitions, and a summary of themes and historical context of the novel. These pages would be incorporated as exercises throughout the unit of work so that the workload was distributed throughout rather than the task being too overwhelming to be completed at the end of the unit. The wiki would serve as a means of communication between groups in relation to both the planning and completion phases of the assessment.

Learning Theory

Learning Theories are a very interesting topic for me. I find myself testing them out and analysing people's behavior around me, especially that of my 4 year old. Behaviourism is one which has worked very well in my house, particularly when we were going through potty training. Every time he went to the potty he was praised and given a treat. Within 2 weeks he had mastered it, during which time we had slowly stopped praising him everytime.

Further to this it is very interesting to observe the students at high school and their behaviours and how they learn. A lot of which mirror those of my 4 year old! However, whenever looking at learning theories it is important not to get too caught up with just one theory and expect it will suit all students all the time. Every student is different and will learn in a different way. And a student's learning style may change over time, or be dependent on the task, the other students in the class, or even what mood that student is in at the time. No matter what framework, theories, content or delivery method is looked at, knowing your learner is the single most important aspect of teaching.

Here are a few points on the 4 theories looked at this week:

Behaviourism
- Positive reinforcement encourages desired behaviours
- Over time, reduce reinforcement
- Completely withdraw reinforcement when behaviour is internalised

Cognitivism
- Sensory Memory (Visual/ Auditory) – used to perceive incoming information
- Working Memory – used to attend to information
- Long Term Memory – Permanently stores all knowledge and skills in an hierarchical network

Connectivism
- Knowledge exists in the world and is accessed through networks
- Learning is the process of creating connections and developing a network
- Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning

Constuctivism
- Knowledge and meaning come from an interaction between experiences and ideas

Learning Styles

I was not surprised to find out that I am a Musical/ Linguistic learner. I am studying to be an English teacher and music has always been a passion of mine. I was surprised though to see that I was not very Visual/ Spatial smart. My other subject area is Film and TV and therefore I felt that I would have been visual smart as this is the foundation for Film and TV.

Lessons centred around music, or the use of music to demonstrate or accompany learning would suite my learning style. Anything involving writing or reading would also suit my style, and if the two could be combined it would be even better. An example of this would be to write a list of facts and then make them into a song or rhyme in order to remember them.

The best way to cater for all learning styles is to know your learners well, and their learning styles. Vary class activities and teaching methods to suit each style, and create an environment of acceptance and support within the classroom where diversity in learners is celebrated. Also draw on the skills of students to help cater for the needs of each group.

Digital Pedagogy enables teachers to bring new technologies into the classroom which help all learners from all learner groups, no matter what their learning style. Delivery of class content can be varied according to each students' preferred learning style, increasing learning outcomes in all students.

Mind Maps

Text2mindmaps
These mind maps were not as visually appealing as Bubl.us, but it was a lot easier to keep track of the information. You simply wrote a list, and the site created the map. It was very basic and you were left with the one starting point, which made it a lot more complicated if you needed to start adding new tangents.

Bubl.us
This site was very easy to use, although once there were a few strands it became a little harder to keep track of all the information. Once colours were introduced, it made it a little easier to distinguish between groups of information. Visually, this mind map looked more interesting than Text2mindmaps. It was a little hard to move things around when creating it through the webpage.

Either of these sites would be useful within the English classroom, especially in situations where you were analysing characters, settings or situations from a novel. The character, setting or situation could be in the middle of the mind map, then the characteristics would run from this middle tangent. This could lead into feelings about themes, relationships between characters and even It would also be useful for Vocabulary. A word would be the starting point and then words with the same meaning or different ways of using that word could go around it.

Blogs in the classroom

If closely monitored and used in an appropriate way, blogs can be an effective tool within the classroom.

An online blog can enable students to acquire and maintain a bank of information where they can not only store information, but reflect on their learning. These blogs can also act as a tool for teachers to check for learning, and inform further lessons.

Peer assessment is also possibly through the use of a blog. Students would upload their work, and their peers could comment on this work. However, very clear rules and regulations would need to be established prior to this happening. Teachers would need to monitor this closely to avoid issues such as plagiarism and cyber-bullying. Collaborative learning between students is also possible through blogs as each student will be able to read each other’s blogs then reflect on their own, making changes where they feel appropriate.

Blogs could also help teachers keep in contact with absent students and be used as a tool to keep parents, care-givers and support staff up to date with class information.