Bloom Revisited

If you are an educator, you have heard of the name Benjamin Bloom.  In all of the coursework that is done by potential teachers,  there is at least a reference to his Taxonomy.  Before I get into my point for this blog, I want to make sure that it is clear his name was on this Taxonomy because he chaired the committee.  It has been Bloom's Taxonomy since 1956.

I was seven years old in 1956 and a second grader in Laporte, Indiana.  There was no indication at the time that any teacher I had that year or any in the years after that they had any knowledge of the levels of this concept.  For those unfamiliar with the Taxonomy it is simply six levels of learning: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The objective of any class should be to get the highest three levels to assure that learning has  I had my first foray into the innovation in my methods class.  I have to say that I don't remember that anyone checked to see if I remembered it in student teaching or even in my first few years of teaching.

It was in the early 80's that I came back to the Bloom theories.  I participated in a training that would have 11 other teachers go out with me to fellow educators and give them more tools for their "teaching toolbelts."    It was called Methods of Teaching.  It was all based on the three upper levels of  Bloom's Taxonomy.  Finally, I realized why I absolutely knew that my students made it where I was taking them.  I helped them to get to the higher levels of Bloom's Taxomony.  I loved teaching those methods because I knew teachers had techniques that would inspire students to a higher order of thinking.

Fast forward to 2013.  It is called Rigor now.  Absolutely nothing is different from 1956.  We haven't added anything to it since the early 80's.  It is simple.  When we allow students to seek out their learning through our guidance, they not only learn, but they can apply it.

I want to close this with an an example.  As some of you know I am a grandfather.  I have had a chance for two years to watch Coen learn a vast amount of knowledge in just those two years.  I have seen his eyes as he is mulling a topic, an idea.  I see him test it out.  I know he makes adjustments, and test it out again.  Now I see it in Cali as well.  What Bloom and the committee really could have done to come up with this idea is just look at small children.  They are great teachers!