Incorporating Blooms Taxonomy into your lesson objectives

Posted on February 3, 2014 | 2 Comments

In my previous post I mentioned Blooms taxonomy as a source of inspiration when developing lesson objectives. Now is the time to look at this framework in more detail and think about how it might hel us de!elo meaningful and a"tionable ob#e"ti!es$

Who was Bloom? %en#amin %loom was an edu"ational sy"hologist who, in 1&'(, "reated a "on"e tual framework for student learning ob#e"ti!es$ )es ite "ertain ob#e"tions and modifi"ations, %loom*s +a,onomy is still being widely used today$

What is Blooms taxonomy? %loom model was re!ised in 2001 to enable edu"ators to gain a more thorough understanding of the learning ro"ess$ +his re!ision brought greater fo"us on a"tionable !erbs within the hierar"hy of the si, "ategories, as seen in the diagram below$

Why use the taxonomy to develop objectives? %asi"ally, in"or orating %loom*s +a,onomy into lesson ob#e"ti!es will enable both you and your learners to !isuali-e the .bigger i"ture$* /ore im ortantly, we as tea"hers "an use the "ogniti!e domain of the +a,onomy to reali-e what e,a"tly we are asking learners to do in "lass$ 0et*s look at ea"h le!el and see what it means in terms of de!elo ing an ob#e"ti!e$

1. emembering 1t the most basi" le!el of the framework, learners are asked to re"all information$ )efining terms and "orre"tly identifying the meaning of "ertain words are ty i"al "ourse book tasks that re resent this le!el$

Example objective: Learners will be able to match vocabulary items to the correct definitions. !. "nderstanding 1t this le!el, learners are asked ty i"ally re2uired to inter ret fa"ts and "om are and "ontrast newly learned information$ +rue or false a"ti!ities and reading "om rehension 2uestions are at the understanding le!el$

Example objective: Learners will be able to answer comprehension questions for a reading text. #. $pplying 1t the a lying le!el, learners a ly "on"e ts and te"hni2ues that they learned in "lass to authenti" situations$ 1 ty i"al task at this le!el would be to write a aragra h based on a model resented in the "ourse book$

Example objective: Learners will be able to write a paragraph based on information given in a table. %. $naly&ing 1t the ne,t le!el, learners are re2uired to un"o!er atterns and dis"o!er meaning by differentiating information$ 3rammar bo,es that re2uire learners to dedu"e the rules are e,am les of a"ti!ities at this le!el$

Example objective: Learners will be able to deduce the grammar rules for using who and whose in relative clauses. '. (valuating 1t the e!aluating knowledge le!el, tea"hers are starting to really "hallenge learners to build u high4le!el "riti"al thinking skills$ +asks might in"lude, for instan"e, making "hoi"es about a te,t and ro!iding e!iden"e for these "hoi"es$

Example objective: Learners will be able to identify the authors stance and provide evidence to support this viewpoint. ). *reating 1t the highest le!el of %loom*s +a,onomy, learners are re2uired to "reate some kind of tangible rodu"t$ 5e ty i"ally see su"h a"ti!ities at the end of a "ourse book unit, in whi"h all of the in ut leads to the rodu"tion of a oster or a set of rules, or some su"h inter retation of what has been learned$

Example objective: Learners will be able to create a PowerPoint presentation summarizing what they have learned about todays topic. +umming up +here are se!eral benefits to using %loom*s +a,onomy to hel you write ob#e"ti!es6

7ou will ha!e more insight into the relati!e ease or diffi"ulty of all the tasks you are setting in terms of "ogniti!e load$ 7ou will ha!e better understanding of how "ourse books are ut together and how the diffi"ulty of tasks rogresses a"ross a unit of study$ 7ou will be able to re"ogni-e whether or not you are setting too many e,er"ises that are either "ogniti!ely easy or demanding$ 7ou will more understanding of how to set u a rogression of a"ti!ities so that the "ogniti!e load in"reases a ro riately$ ear here soon:, 8 will look at how ob#e"ti!es fit into o!erall lesson

8n my ne,t ost 9a link between the osts will a lanning$