Cognitive skills are any mental skills that are used in the process of acquiring knowledge; these skills

include reasoning,
perception, and intuition. Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (1998) describes the importance of cognitive skills
in acquiring literacy skills:
"Reading and writing rely on a specific set of cognitive skills such as attention, memory, symbolic thinking, and self-regulation.
As children learn to read and write, they continue to improve these skills, making them more purposeful and deliberate.
Deliberate attention is required to differentiate between letters, even if they look alike, and to isolate specific portions of a word
for encoding or decoding it. Children must remember the previous words as they decode the subsequent words in a sentence. If
they do not make a purposeful attempt to remember, they cannot extract what the sentence means. Writing and reading are the
use of symbols and if children cannot think symbolically, they cannot learn to manipulate letters and words. Finally, self-
regulation must be in place so that children can monitor their own understanding of the print so they can abandon ineffective
reading strategies and move on to more effective ones."

 Bloom’s Levels of Cognitive Skills. . . More subtle distinctions can be made among types of cognitive skills, and
these are important because they are what we are most concernedwith in education. Probably the most famous
instance of classifying cognitive skills can be found in Bloom’s taxonomy. He established six ascending levels of
thinking: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.

Knowledge is the lowest level of cognition, and it involves merely remembering factual material. Although
knowledge is important, it may not be significant in and of itself. That is, knowledge is valuable mainly insofar as
you can use it to think in more profound ways. Knowledge gains its importance primarily because it may underlie
the other five types of cognition. Thus, when we give students lessons that involve memorization of facts, we
should be sure not to stop there. We need to take them to other levels as well. When we access whether someone
has gained knowledge, we usually do so by having them recite facts, list them, identify the correct response, and
so on. For example, we might ask students whose three laws of motion underlie much of classical physics (Sir
Isaac Newton).

The second level, Comprehension, takes us another step. Certainly, we have all known people who can support
facts without convincing us that they really understand what they are talking about. At the Comprehension level,
we are checking for understanding. We might do this by asking students to paraphrase a theory rather than simply
recite it. For example, we could ask them to explain what Newton’s third law of motion means. Certainly this is
more valuable than just knowing disconnected facts, like Newton’s birthplace, the date of his death, or how old he
was when he “discovered” gravity.

Application is the third level of cognition in Bloom’s taxonomy. At this level, learners can take what they already
know and use it in some way. For example, Newton’s third law states that F=ma, which means force equals mass
times acceleration. It is relatively easy for most of us to memorize the formula and its verbal equivalent
(Knowledge). It is a bit more difficult for many of us to describe in our own words what it means (Comprehension).
Even harder is to use the formula to solve a real-world physics problem (Application). Clearly, to assess student’s
ability to apply what they
know, we need to assign tasks that require them to actually solve problems, complete challenging projects, and so
on.

Next in Bloom’s taxonomy is Analysis. This skill is more complex still and involves taking an object, a process, or a
situation and breaking it down into its constituent elements. For example, faced with a new piece of hardware, an
electronics engineer might study its design to figure out what it does and how it works. A scientist can analyze a
chemical by literally breaking it into its elements. A historian might analyze the causes of the American Revolution
by examining specific aspects of the historical experience. This is not a skill that comes automatically when you
know,
comprehend, and apply a topic. It takes a student a step beyond those levels of learning. Some of the thinking
processes involved in an analysis might include deduction, induction, generalization, specification, comparison and
prediction. When Sir Isaac Newton formulated his third law of motion, he had to analyze which factors most
affected objects in motion, and he came up with mass and acceleration as the two that contributed to the force
imparted by moving objects.

The next level, Synthesis, is a mirror image of Analysis. Instead of breaking things down into their constituent
elements, with Synthesis we are building them back up. Synthesis is the ability to put back together to form new
ideas, new theories, or new creations. Often it is a design process. An architect might examine the various needs,
opportunities, and constraints of the situation and address them in the design of a building that has never been
seen before. Or a teacher takes ideas from several different sources to create a lesson that grabs students’
attention and makes that day’s work special. Newton was able to synthesize what was known about the force with
which objects move into a formula that established the relationship between the critical variables (F=ma).
Finally the sixth level of Bloom’s taxonomy, Evaluation, involves intelligent critiquing of a product, a process, or a
theory. It may rely upon any of the five types of cognition. To make a reasoned and accurate judgment, one may
need to have knowledge, comprehend the situation, be able to apply skills and knowledge, analyze the situation
and synthesize your ideas. Otherwise, the evaluation is likely to be ill-informed and mere opinion. By Evaluation,
Bloom meant an assessment by an expert, not the uninformed opinion of a novice. For example, Einstein evaluated
the Newton’s formulations about the universe and knew that his laws did not fully explain all phenomena. Einstein’s
theory of relativity was developed to explain aspects of physics that Newton’s laws did not account for.

Why are we telling you all this? We believe that good teaching requires us to push students further up through the
progression represented by Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. Merely teaching facts and Knowledge isn’t
enough. Comprehension is better, but moving from here to Application is even better. As students progress, they
should acquire skills in Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation as well. Similarly, if the vast array of instructional
technologies that we now have at our disposal, including the World Wide Web, is used primarily for fact finding,
then we have not made good use of them. However, if we incorporate the use of these technologies into lessons
that require higher levels of thinking, then we can improve instruction considerably. To summarize, there is little
doubt that the Web can be a tremendous source of educational materials and experiences. But we all know that it
is not enough for us merely to point students to a networked computer and tell them to find important information.
Students deserve well-constructed lesson plans, engaging them in important tasks that could benefit from the use
of Web resources. When the Web is harnessed to a powerful teaching strategy, it can have a major effect on the
teaching and learning
process and on the achievement of students.

 
*BLOOMS REVISED TAOXONOMY (Lorin Anderson)
CLARITY OF LEARNING TARGETS - CreatingClassroom Lesson Objectives That are SMART
A simple acronym used to set objectives is called
SMART objectives.
 SMART stands for:1.
 
Specific  Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.
What do the students need to learn?
2.

measurable  You should be able to measure whether you aremeeting the objectives or not.
A
n objective must be measurable. Only an objective that affectsbehavior in a measurable way can be optimally effective.How will you know
you've progressed?
3.
 
Attainable - Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?
An objective must be attainable with the resources that areavailable. It must be
realistic.
 4.
 
Result Oriented

The objective should be central to the goals of theteaching learning process.
5.
 
Time-bounded  When do you want to achieve the set objectives?
Good Teaching Practice is to
STATE THE OBJECTIVE 
 Well-designed Objectives are Measurable 
measured throughassessment
Lesson Objectives are Best When Aligned to Activities 
Learning targets must be stated in BEHAVIORAl

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner of Harvard has identified seven distinct intelligences. This theory has emerged from recent cognitive research and
"documents the extent to which students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand
in different ways," according to Gardner (1991). According to this theory, "we are all able to know the world through language,
logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an
understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these
intelligences - the so-called profile of intelligences -and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry
out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains."

Gardner says that these differences "challenge an educational system that assumes that everyone can learn the same materials in
the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test student learning. Indeed, as currently constituted, our
educational system is heavily biased toward linguistic modes of instruction and assessment and, to a somewhat lesser degree,
toward logical-quantitative modes as well." Gardner argues that "a contrasting set of assumptions is more likely to be educationally
effective. Students learn in ways that are identifiably distinctive. The broad spectrum of students - and perhaps the society as a
whole - would be better served if disciplines could be presented in a numbers of ways and learning could be assessed through a
variety of means." The learning styles are as follows:

Visual-Spatial - think in terms of physical space, as do architects and sailors. Very aware of their environments. They like to draw,
do jigsaw puzzles, read maps, daydream. They can be taught through drawings, verbal and physical imagery. Tools include models,
graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, 3-D modeling, video, videoconferencing, television, multimedia, texts with
pictures/charts/graphs.

Bodily-kinesthetic - use the body effectively, like a dancer or a surgeon. Keen sense of body awareness. They like movement,
making things, touching. They communicate well through body language and be taught through physical activity, hands-on learning,
acting out, role playing. Tools include equipment and real objects.

Musical - show sensitivity to rhythm and sound. They love music, but they are also sensitive to sounds in their environments. They
may study better with music in the background. They can be taught by turning lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically, tapping out
time. Tools include musical instruments, music, radio, stereo, CD-ROM, multimedia.

Interpersonal - understanding, interacting with others. These students learn through interaction. They have many friends, empathy
for others, street smarts. They can be taught through group activities, seminars, dialogues. Tools include the telephone, audio
conferencing, time and attention from the instructor, video conferencing, writing, computer conferencing, E-mail.

Intrapersonal - understanding one's own interests, goals. These learners tend to shy away from others. They're in tune with their
inner feelings; they have wisdom, intuition and motivation, as well as a strong will, confidence and opinions. They can be taught
through independent study and introspection. Tools include books, creative materials, diaries, privacy and time. They are the most
independent of the learners.

Linguistic - using words effectively. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and often think in words. They like
reading, playing word games, making up poetry or stories. They can be taught by encouraging them to say and see words, read
books together. Tools include computers, games, multimedia, books, tape recorders, and lecture.

Logical -Mathematical - reasoning, calculating. Think conceptually, abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and
relationships. They like to experiment, solve puzzles, ask cosmic questions. They can be taught through logic games, investigations,
mysteries. They need to learn and form concepts before they can deal with details.