June | 2019 | Abomody's space

In the course of professional development in our school “HIS” (Alhossam Integrated Language Schools) and for the preparation of the new school year , I decided to give a workshop on “Bloom’s Taxonomy and Learning objectives”. The main purpose was to help teachers write SMART objectives and approprite test items in the light of Bloom’s taxonomy and the six levels of learning and thinking.

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Objectives of the workshop:

Mention what Bloom’s taxonomy is.
Illustrate the six levels of learning and thinking.
Explain Bloom’s hierarchy.
State the importance of Bloom’s taxonomy in writing learning objectives.
Apply Bloom’s taxonomy levels in writing test items (Formative & Summative).

To start with, I used the following video for orientation.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Why, How, & Top Examples

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for their students. (learning objectives)

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The six levels of learning:

These 6 levels can be used to structure the learning objectives, lessons, and assessments of your course:

Remembering: Recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long‐term memory.
Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure for executing, or implementing.
Analyzing: Breaking material into components or elements, determining how the parts (components) relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose.
Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and assessment.
Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.

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Bloom’s Hierarchy:

Bloom’s taxonomy is hierarchical, meaning that learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels.
Bloom’s Taxonomy is often displayed as a pyramid graphic to help demonstrate this hierarchy. Each level is built on a foundation of the previous levels.

Bloom’s Taxonomy and Learning Objectives:

Bloom’s taxonomy is a powerful tool to help develop learning objectives because it explains the process of learning:

Before you can understanda concept, you must remember
To applya concept, you must first understand
In order to evaluatea process, you must have analyzed
To create an accurate conclusion, you must have completed a thorough evaluation.

Bloom’s verb charts:

Bloom's verb charts

Steps towards writing effective learning objectives:

Make sure there is one measurable verb in each objective.
Each objective needs one verb. Either a student can master the objective, or they fail to master it.
If an objective has two verbs (say, define and apply), what happens if a student can define, but not apply? Are they demonstrating mastery?
Strive to keep all your learning objectives measurable, clear and concise.

Activity:

In your group:

Analyse the following content and decide what the learning objectives are.
Write test items that will help you measure to what extent you have achieved lesson objectives. (Make sure that you measure all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, in the light of MOE test specifications).