Before focusing on Bloom’s Taxonomy,
Dr. Smirnova talked about the learning pyramid. She had everyone in the class
guess the percentage of students we think understand material from certain
learning styles. My guesses were completely wrong except for the last two!
Learning Pyramid Data
|
Real Statistics
|
My Guesses
|
Lecture
|
5 %
|
50 %
|
Reading
|
10 %
|
30 %
|
Hearing/Seeing
|
20 %
|
75 %
|
Demonstration
|
30 %
|
85 %
|
Discussion
|
50 %
|
80 %
|
Practice doing
|
95 %
|
90 %
|
Teaching others
|
90 %
|
90 %
|
When I look at the actual data based from studies, I agree
with most of it. I knew the lecture percentage would be lower than some of the
other ways, but I did not think that low. Lectures are definitely boring for
students. They do not want to listen to their teacher talk for the whole
lesson. Most students being lectured are going to space out and not pay
attention to the teacher at some point or multiple times. This is not an
effective way to teach students. For demonstrations, I thought that a large percentage
of students would learn in this way. Only about a third of students do. One reason demonstrations are not as
effective is that students who do not see a demonstration will learn the same
material as students who do see the demonstration. The material learned in a demonstration
is no different than if it was not performed. However, there is a positive difference
in the learning experience. “Learning is enhanced, however, by increasing
student engagement; students who predict the demonstration outcome before
seeing it, however, display significantly greater understanding” (Crouch,
Fagan, Callan, & Mazur, 2004). The reason thirty percent of students learn
this way is because of how much more involved they can be. The teacher asks the
students questions to try to get them thinking, predicting, and encourage them
along the right track to know what to look for during the demonstration. If a
student does not predict correctly, his or her understanding is not greater. I
think demonstrations should be done once in a while, but not often.
Based on observations and
experiences working with students, I knew most kids learn best by practicing
doing and teaching others. In my classroom, I will have my students teach one
another after they have become familiar with the information. I will do this
both in pairs and in groups. Lets say my students are learning the causes and
effects of World War I. This would be a group of students teaching one another.
I would assign each student a cause or effect that he or she would have to
explain and give the details about it to his or her classmates. I would tell
the students to pretend that their classmates have never even heard of the war
before and need to be given as much information as possible to fully
understand. “When
compared to learners expecting a test, learners expecting to teach recalled
more material correctly, they organized their recall more effectively, and they
had better memory for especially important information” (Nestojko,
2014). This method has students take the time to understand their specific part
and figure out how they will share the information so their classmates can
understand it. This is an effective method because the students have to master
the information in order to relay it to others.
When Dr. Smirnova discussed Bloom’s Taxonomy, I had heard of
it before but never actually studied it closely. The revision of Bloom’s
Taxonomy was created to reflect a more active form of thinking. The pyramid is
as follows. Remembering is being able to recall terms and information. I will
have students use dictionaries, text reading, magazine articles, recordings,
and more. Understanding is comprehending and translating information to other
situations. For students to comprehend, photographs, posters, cartoons, and
graphs will be good tools to me. Application is applying what was learned to
other situations. Students are to complete projects, puzzles, create sculptures
and other unique ideas of showing knowledge. Analysis is taking information and
organizing it or finding relationships. Students will draw conclusions, create
a report, graph, questionnaire, or model to see relationships and organize
information. Evaluation is judging the experience based on observations or
specific criteria. I want my students to self-evaluate as well as have group
discussions and recommendations. Creating is generating or producing a product.
The students might create a set of rules, a game, a song, a poem or even a play
(Ferlazzo, 2009). This hierarchy structure is how learning objectives are
classified. At first the students learn the simple information, so the
objective is based on the lower levels. As the students move up to critical
thinking, the objective gets more in depth. There are three different domains,
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Cognitive is developing knowledge,
affective is attitudes and beliefs, and psychomotor is putting physical and
bodily skills into affect. As a teacher, I will make sure to focus on all three
domains to have my students receive a holistic form of learning.
The video below provides more about information about using
the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy as a college student. You can target the level
and what type of learning you need to be successful.
The learning pyramid and Bloom's Taxonomy will influence your teaching for the better!
Works Cited:
Crouch, C.H., Fagen, A.P., Callan,
J.P., & Mazur, E. (2004). Classroom demonstrations: Learning tools or
entertainment? American Association of
Physics Teachers, 72(6), 835-838. Retrieved from http://www.otffeo.on.ca/wp-
Everding, G. (2014, August 12). Students learn more if they’ll
need to teach others. Futurity.
Retrieved February 10, 2015, from http://www.futurity.org/learning-students-teaching-741342/
Ferlazzo, L. (2009, May 25). The Best Resources For Helping
Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/05/25/the-best-resources-for-helping-teachers-use-blooms-taxonomy-in-the-classroom/
S, Lucas (Producer). (2012). Bloom’s Taxonomy [Motion Picture].
United States.
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