Learning Taxonomies BSP Research Residency Institute 7/24/14 Miriam Segura-Totten, Ph.D.

Education goals and objectives are classically grouped into three domains: Cognitive (intellectual skills) Affective (emotions or behavior) Psychomotor (manual or physical skills)

Education goals and objectives are classically grouped into three domains: Cognitive (intellectual skills) Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain Anderson (2001) revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and applied verbs to the different categories in the original taxonomy, which facilitates its use for assessment. Affective (emotions or behavior) Krathwohl’s Taxonomy Psychomotor (manual or physical skills) Harrow’s and Simpson’s taxonomies

Education goals and objectives are classically grouped into three domains: Cognitive (intellectual skills) Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain Anderson (2001) revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and applied verbs to the different categories in the original taxonomy, which facilitates its use for assessment. Affective (emotions or behavior) Krathwohl’s Taxonomy Psychomotor (manual or physical skills) Harrow’s and Simpson’s taxonomies

Education goals and objectives are classically grouped into three domains: Cognitive (intellectual skills) Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain Affective (emotions or behavior) Krathwohl’s Taxonomy Psychomotor (manual or physical skills) Harrow’s and Simpson’s taxonomies Overview and tools for other taxonomies can be found at

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domains Application (apply) Synthesis (create) Evaluation (evaluate) Analysis (analyze) LOCS HOCS Comprehension (understand) Knowledge (remember) (Crowe et al., 2008) LOCS/HOCS

Blooming Biology Tool (BBT): “[…] assist science faculty in better aligning their assessments with their teaching activities and to help students enhance their study skills and metacognition” (Crowe et al., 2008) But it is also useful in SoTL!

(Crowe et al., 2008)

So--how can I use the BBT in my research? Can design assessments (to test your hypothesis) that target a particular level of Bloom’s Taxonomy Can students better comprehend a particular topic? Does a particular intervention increase student knowledge? Is there improvement of student higher order thinking? Can score assessments for a particular level of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Segura-Totten and Dalman (2013) JMBE paper Research question: Can dissecting the primary literature increase student critical thinking skills? Problem: Need to define critical thinking (CT) to measure it. CT is difficult to define. No real consensus on what critical thinking is. Example from my research

Defining Critical Thinking (CT) Skills Higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) necessary for the analysis and evaluation of data, as well as the synthesis of information to create new knowledge or inferences (Crowe et al., 2008; Zoller, 1993). Critical thinking skills can be measured by examining student performance at the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domains (Bissell and Lemons, 2006; Crowe et al., 2008).

Hypothesis Using the CREATE approach will lead to gains in student critical thinking skills. Research Design CREATE approach (Experimental) vs. traditional article discussions (Control) Pre/post assessments that target analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills (CT). Exam questions (used BBT to design these) Critique of a primary article

Hypothesis Using the CREATE approach will lead to gains in student critical thinking skills. Research Design CREATE approach (Experimental) vs. traditional article discussions (Control) Pre/post assessments that target analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills (CT). Exam questions (used BBT to design these) Critique of a primary article

How would you classify parts a and b of the question above? Question Design

How would you classify parts a and b of the question above? Question Design Evaluation Synthesis

Hypothesis Using a structured approach to dissect and analyze the primary literature will lead to gains in student critical thinking skills. Research Design Structured approach (Experimental) vs. traditional article discussions (Control) Assessments target analysis, synthesis and evaluation skills (CT). Exam questions (used BBT to design these) Critique of a primary article

Using BBT to score an assessment Rubric designed from critique instructions. Learning objectives align with what we asked students to do in instructions. Determined components of correct answer. Categorized components by level of Bloom’s. By adding score, we can determine how proficient students are at HOCS/CT.

The take home message Learning taxonomies can allow you to: Think about a research question and create/choose a definition that will help you address your question. Design assessments to test your hypothesis. Score assessments to tease out the particular skill you’re interested in.

References Bissell, A. N., and P. P. Lemons A new method for assessing critical thinking in the classroom. BioScience 56:66– 72. Crowe, A., C. Dirks, and M. P. Wenderoth Biology in bloom: implementing Bloom’s Taxonomy to enhance student learning in biology. CBE Life Sci. Educ. 7: Zoller, U Are lecture and learning compatible? Maybe for LOCS: unlikely for HOCS. J. Chem. Educ. 70: Segura-Totten, M., and N.E. Dalman The CREATE model does not result in greater gains in critical thinking than a more traditional method for analyzing the primary literature. J Microbiol Biol Educ. 14(2):