Okay, okay I finally gave in to my adult creator. She says I have to teach the who, what, where, when, why and then how of thinking skills before I can dive into the fun activities. I think she is under the assumption that sometimes adults are fuzzy on what thinking skills are. Just in case she’s right, (How am I to know? I’m just a kid.) I’ll back up and start with the who and what.
Who is behind all this thinking skills stuff?
Back in 1956 a man named Benjamin Bloom developed a way to rank, order, sort or classify thinking skills. He called it Bloom’s Taxonomy. Actually, he didn’t do this all by himself, others helped him out. Since his work many others have added their two cents worth to the understanding and knowledge of thinking skills. For today we’ll look at Bloom’s work.
What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
If you look this up, you’ll read things like “levels of intellectual behavior essential in learning…” or “knowledge and development of cognitive skills…” I don’t know about you, but to a kid even a smart one, all that is just boring. I like to think of Bloom’s Taxonomy as the way we learn and remember things; how we use the things we learn; and what we can create with it. This sounds a lot more fun and interesting then intellectual behavior or cognitive skills or any other fancy way of saying it. (Remember I’m and kid and like things to the point.)
The Levels of Learning
Since Bloom was nice enough to come up with the levels of learning we’ll take a look at then, both the old and the new. (BTW the learning at the bottom is the easiest. The learning at the top of the chart is the hardest.)
Evaluation | Create |
Synthesis | Evaluate |
Analysis | Analyze |
Application | Apply |
Understanding | Understand – Describe, Explain |
Knowledge | Knowledge - Remember |
Self Check
Bloom’s work found that most of the work students are required to do is in the lower three levels, learn, understand and use it. During this next week do a self check, (hey this will get you ready to move to the higher levels of thinking). How often do you ask questions, give assignments or do things that are in the lower end of thinking? Keep a record of this, tally marks or check would be just fine.
Next Time
Next time we’ll take a look at characteristics of the higher level thinking skills. Until then just notice and record how you use learning.
Until Then,
Edison U. Ratio Smart
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