2: Organising the Toolkit: Two Models: Bloom’s and Dimensions of Learning
Word Association (to generate new questions or solutions):

‘my teaching philosophy’ (questions)

‘remembering and using the range of strategies in lesson plans’ (solutions)
launchpad word (as dissimilar as possible): fish
Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy: ‘doing what (cognitively) to what
(knowledge)’
Cognitive dimension
Foundational thinking
Higher order thinking
Teacher ownership
Student ownership
1.
Remember
2.
Understand
3.
Apply
4.
Analyse
5.
Evaluate
6.
Design/Creat
e
Acting like an
encyclopaedia
where one finds
information,
facts, data
Acting like
Thomas
Edison the
inventor of
the light bulb,
always
improving,
designing,
planning
Acting link a ‘how
to’ manual,
applying
previously learnt
data in similar or
new situations
What icon could
we draw to
represent each?
Acting like a sorting
Which metaphor tray, examining and
breaking up an issue
fits which
into its component
cognitive level?
parts
Factual
knowledge
Knowledge dimension
Conceptual
knowledge
Procedural
knowledge
Meta
knowledge
Acting like a
dictionary,
understanding
words, concepts,
cause-effect and
‘reasons for’
Single pieces of
information e.g.
frogs are amphibians
Groups of facts e.g.
amphibians
Skills (single) and
processes (groups of
skills)e.g.
Ways of
learning/learning
strategies for
particular types of
knowledge e.g.
classifying
1
Acting like a
judge, based
on the
evidence
How to use it to organize/select strategies?
Teaching strategies can be located in one or more of the cognitive/knowledge levels. (e.g. KWHL, 321:RIQ,
PMI, MAS, comparing, classifying, jigsaw/envoy, round robin/rotating papers) used to facilitate what kind of
thinking?
How to use it to focus student thinking within a strategy:
explicit thinking intentions and explicit thinking instructions . . .
Think-pair-share . . . what’s hard for students when doing the first part of this?
Cognitive Level
Draw lines to link correctly
Thinking Tool/Strategy
Remember
Explain-pair-share
Understand
Rate/decide-pair share
Apply
List-pair-share
Analyse
Improve/design-pair share
Evaluate
Write/draw-pair-share
Design/create
Discuss-pair-share
So we need to decide what kind of thinking we’re asking students to do, and choose strategies and instructions that help them do
that kind of thinking . . .
Applying it . . .
Some questions:
1. To what extent have you been successful in your teaching?
2. What are the main subjects you will be teaching?
3. Discuss your life as a student-teacher.
4. Why do you want to go into teaching?
5. How could you improve your lesson delivery?
6. Show how being a teacher will make your more employable.
Activity 1:
Rank these questions from simplest to most complex from a cognitive point of view.
Activity 2:
Pick a thinking tool to help develop depth to the task:






SWOT analysis chart (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
Fishbone diagram
Cause-effect map (one or more causes, effects, sub-effects, depending on the question focus)
Extent barometer (divide question into various sub-areas)
MAS chart (modify or replace elements, add new feature, change size of one or more elements)
Word Association (random word, word association with it until link develops to answer problem/question)
So the ANATOMY of a TASK or QUESTION . . .
1.
2.
3.
Cognitive outcome (purpose e.g. analyse, evaluate)
Knowledge context (topic i.e. the stuff you’re teaching about)
Thinking tool(s) (evidence i.e. the material you’ll base your assessment on e.g. a SWOT analysis)
2