Bloom’s taxonomy was developed in the 1950’s
and is still used today to categorize ways of learning and thinking in a
hierarchical structure. A revised model was developed in the 1990’s to better-fit
educational practices of the 21st century. Teachers can employ the revised
Bloom’s taxonomy in the Saudi EFL Classrooms to help plan effective instruction and challenge
students to move from the most basic skills (remembering) to more complex
learning which leads to higher order thinking (creating).
Bloom's six major categories were changed from
noun to verb forms.
Bloom's
Digital Taxonomy isn't about the tools or technologies rather it is
about using these to facilitate learning. Outcomes on rubrics are measured by
competence of use and most importantly the quality of the process or
product. For example. Bookmarking a resource is of no value if the
resource is inappropriate, invalid, out of date or inaccurate. Bloom's
Revised Taxonomy describes many traditional classroom practices, behaviors and
actions, but does not account for the new processes and actions associated with
Web 2.0 technologies, infowhelm (the exponential growth in information),
increasing ubiquitous personal technologies or cloud computing. The learners
have to think to learn by themselves.
Bloom's Digital Taxonomy lends itself to problem
and project based learning where the student must work through the entire
process of development and evaluation.
So, Bloom’s
Taxonomy is very well evident in setting learning objectives in the Saudi EFL
classrooms. It is necessary for teachers to use it in their classrooms. Because
It provides an organizational structure
that gives a
commonly understood meaning to objectives
classified in one of
its categories, thereby
enhancing communication which can
improve the students' critical thinking.
I as a teacher will utilize
Bloom’s Taxonomy to improve my instructions and my students’ achievement but
first I want you to remember that
·
Blooms Taxonomy was originally created Benjamin
Bloom for categorizing and classifying the levels of intellectual learning that
commonly occur in the classroom setting.
So first :
1-
It is
important that I do not just teach lower order thinking skills at the bottom of
Blooms Taxonomy such as knowledge and comprehension, but also teach higher
order thinking skills at the top of blooms taxonomy such as synthesis and
evaluation.
2-
When
students are using the higher order thinking skills they are more likely to retain
information, perform better on standardized tests, and most importantly,
achieve the ultimate goal of becoming lifelong learners.
