Inquiry+Skill

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall of facts (knowledge) as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest level- evaluation. Bloom found that over 95 percent of the questions that students encounter require them to think only at the lowest possible level - the remembering of information. (Blue Book, p. 129)
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This lesson concentrates on the skills of of analysis and synthesis from Bloom’s Taxonomy – and at the eighth grade level – evaluation. In analysis, one separates something into its component parts in order to understand how the parts contribute to the whole. (Blue Book, pg.275) In synthesis, one combines ideas in order to create new meaning. Synthesis would also include organizing and communicating the results of an inquiry. Evaluation can be defined as making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. Eighth graders will apply this skill as they detemine how specific literary and sound devices added meaning to the poem. Bloom’s Taxonomy is the basis for the Critical Core – a set of skills identified as necessary for both media literacy and information literacy. (Blue Book, pg. 73)

I wasn’t aware that there was a new version of Bloom’s Taxonomy. There are changes in terminology between the two versions. Basically, the names of Bloom's six levels were changed from nouns to verbs (e.g., Application became Applying). Also, the lowest level of the original - “Knowledge” - was renamed “Remembering” and “Comprehension” was renamed “Understanding.” “Evaluation” became “Evaluating” and was flip-flopped with “Synthesis” which is now referred to as “Creating.”
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