Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy has been widely used as a framework for designing educational curricula. Its six cognitive levels of learning, ranging from knowledge to evaluation, have been integrated into conventional educational design for several decades. This blog post explores the advantages of Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, provides guidance on incorporating it into eLearning design, and emphasizes the importance of adopting a comprehensive approach to eLearning design.
Understanding Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy
Before getting started with its application in eLearning, let's briefly revisit Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Building upon the original Bloom's Taxonomy, this revised version provides a more contemporary and comprehensive view of the cognitive processes involved in learning. It categorizes these processes into six levels, from lower-order thinking skills to higher-order thinking skills:
- Remembering
- Understanding
- Applying
- Analyzing
- Evaluating
- Creating
Aligning Learning Objectives with Anderson's Taxonomy
The first step in applying Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy to eLearning design is aligning your learning objectives with the taxonomy's levels. Each level represents a different depth of understanding, which guides you in creating specific and measurable objectives for your eLearning course.
For example, if your course aims to teach basic concepts, your learning objective might align with the "Understanding" level, whereas if you want learners to solve complex problems, your objective should align with the "Creating" level.
Designing Assessments that Measure Cognitive Skills
Effective eLearning assessments are essential for gauging learner progress and understanding. Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy offers a blueprint for designing assessments that align with your learning objectives.
Consider designing a variety of assessment types that correspond to different cognitive levels.
Multiple-choice questions may assess "Remembering" and "Understanding," while open-ended questions or case studies could evaluate "Analyzing," "Evaluating," and "Creating" skills.
This diversity ensures a comprehensive evaluation of learners' cognitive abilities.
Creating Content that Fosters Learning
The heart of any eLearning course is its content. To effectively apply Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, instructional designers must create content that facilitates the development of cognitive skills. Here are some strategies:
Multimedia Elements: Incorporate videos, animations, and interactive simulations to enhance understanding and engagement.
Real-world Scenarios: Present learners with real-life scenarios that require them to apply knowledge to solve problems, encouraging higher-order thinking.
Collaborative Learning: Use discussion forums, group projects, or peer assessments to promote critical thinking and evaluation skills.
Feedback Mechanisms: Provide timely and constructive feedback to guide learners towards improving their cognitive abilities.
The Benefits of Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy
Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy is a cognitive tool that provides educators and learners with an effective framework for teaching and learning. It categorizes the different levels of thinking skills needed for successful learning. This taxonomy can be applied to modern eLearning design, giving educators the ability to create effective digital strategies for teaching and assessing content using a taxonomy lens.
The six cognitive domains of Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy include knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
By understanding each domain, educators can analyze how to enhance the reading, writing, listening, and speaking abilities of learners in their classrooms or through their Learning Management System (LMS). Through this taxonomy-based approach to instruction design and assessment creation, educators will be able to assess how technology such as videos, podcasts, interactive activities, or role-playing can foster meaningful deep understanding for their students. Educators will also be able to interpret Anderson's revised framework for designing assessment questions that enable learners to acquire knowledge, recall facts, and gain an understanding of complex concepts.
Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy not only removes the memorization approach from teaching but instead focuses on problem-solving decision-making, and abstract thinking. This powerful cognitive tool helps align instructional materials with intended outcomes and goals while promoting higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creation. The use of this powerful instructional tool allows learners to develop critical and creative thinking skills, preparing them to become productive members of our society.
Applying the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy to eLearning Design
RBT consists of six levels of knowledge acquisition: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. Each level requires learners to use different cognitive processes, such as memorizing facts or analyzing data. Besides, each level has associated verbs, such as "define" or "analyze," that help educators identify the type of activity they must create to guide learners through the task at hand.
When designing eLearning activities based on RBT principles, it is important to consider both the type of content being presented and how best to engage learners in higher-level tasks. For example, if the content involves complex concepts related to physics or mathematics, creating activities that require analysis may be beneficial for learning outcomes. On the other hand, if the content focuses on history, providing multiple-choice questions may be appropriate for helping learners remember key facts and dates quickly and easily.
By incorporating Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy into modern eLearning design, educators can provide students with rich learning experiences while optimizing learning outcomes!
Bottom Line
In conclusion, leveraging Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy is a crucial strategy for crafting impactful BrainCert-based eLearning designs. Integrating Anderson's Revised Bloom's Taxonomy into contemporary eLearning design is a fundamental process for granting learners access to profound digital content, facilitating knowledge acquisition, factual recall, and a deeper comprehension of intricate concepts through BrainCert.
