Bloom’s Taxonomy

This study proposes to present a sample design of a flipped learning instructional model for teaching Islamic Studies course at an Indonesian higher education institution. A bottom-up flipped learning model was developed in this study, based on Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. A Learning Management System (LMS), Schoology, was employed as a platform to share pre-class video lectures for student learning activities outside-of-class. Three main activities proposed by the researchers outside of the class activities, namely, Watching, Summarizing, and Notetaking (WSN), whereas give and take conversation is the main class activity. This study implies that the bottom-up flipped learning model could potentially be implemented for teaching Islamic studies course in Indonesian higher education institutions, with the aim of fostering students' highest level of cognitive domains and independent learning skills. This study has implications for the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education and the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia or policymakers to consider the flipped classroom as a contemporary teaching model for teaching Islamic studies course and other subjects at any in Indonesian higher education institutions.

Designing standardized exams for EFL undergraduates is a matter of great concern in pedagogical practices that assess learners’ academic achievements. This case study was conducted at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia, to explore the significance of educational exam standardization and its impact on the process of implementation, leading to a balanced and equitable assessment of English language skills. During the study, 250 final English skill exam questions of two semesters were analyzed. A mixed-method approach using a questionnaire and Focused Group Discussion was adopted to collect relevant data. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS 16, and the qualitative data was processed by thematic analysis. The quantitative data results showed that questions were balanced, valid, and reliable in language skill exam papers designed for undergraduate English students. The qualitative data revealed four major themes – standardization of questions, the efficacy of Bloom’s taxonomy, assessment/evaluation, and alignment of the question with learning outcomes. These emerging themes highlighted the effectivness of standardizing exam papers, identified problems, and suggested ways of improvement. The study indicates that exams must be scrutinized for the sake of standardization in terms of maximum course coverage; the variety in the question item; clear, concise, and precise instructions; validity and reliability of exam papers; and the alignment of questions with the course and program learning outcomes to ensure the implementation of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. The study suggests, to generalize the results, that further investigation should be done in another Saudi university for the sake of comparison.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics and strategies of the Harvard Case Study Method (HCSM) with university students. In the new millennium, college students have become learners that are more sophisticated. Instructors need to move beyond the textbook-driven pedagogy as a singular focus in the delivery of knowledge. Utilizing this method can provide an added dimension to the delivery of knowledge. Historically, this pedagogy model has proven its effectiveness in both teaching theoretical concepts and accentuating the development of higher order thinking skills. HCSM engages students and challenges them to think creatively with problem solving. This teaching method enhances the learning experience. The HCSM method provides key advantages to bridge the gap between theory and application in various disciplines.

Due to the recent paradigm shift in ELT, the focus of the attention of both instructors and researchers has also shifted to the learner and all the forces that drive them to function, including the classroom activities which learners use to grasp the new concepts. Similarly, the present research was formed to study one aspect of classroom activities; namely the type of thinking that activities promote - as defined by Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) - in Iranian EFL context. To get a general picture of the kind of thinking Iranian EFL teachers preferred their classroom activities to invoke, Bloom’s taxonomy questionnaire was mailed to 250 language instructors from twenty-five Universities. Furthermore, to cross validate the data and to examine the congruence between the teachers’ responses to the items on the questionnaire and their actual practice in real classrooms,  two cases of EFL reading comprehension classes were directly observed  for  fifteen sessions during the second semester of 2010. The results of the data analysis uncovered a discrepancy between teachers’ preferred options and their actual actions in their classrooms. Moreover, it was also discovered that factors such as gender, experience, and level of education had a direct influence on the results. The findings of this study can inform educational planners and language instructors in designing and exercising new activities because as the findings indicated classroom activities are good regulators to develop the right type of thinking.

Recent high profile hackings have cost companies millions of dollars resulting in an increasing priority to protect government and business data. Universities are under increased pressure to produce graduates with better security knowledge and skills, particularly emerging cybersecurity skills. Although accredited undergraduate computing programs recognize the need to solve this problem, these computing programs are constrained by accreditation standards and have limited ability to modify their curricula. This paper discusses a case study on how one Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredited undergraduate IT program created a strategy to continue to teach existing security-related topics as well as emerging cybersecurity topics within its IT curriculum without increasing credit requirements. The faculty developed an IT Security-related and Cybersecurity Curriculum Taxonomy to identify strategies to move security-related topics taught in the higher level courses to lower and intermediate courses. Thus emerging cybersecurity topics could be added to high-level courses. The faculty also created the IT Student Learning (Security-related) Taxonomy by combining Bloom's Taxonomy's six levels of thinking with Webb's Depth of Knowledge Model. This student learning taxonomy enabled the faculty to review the student learning outcomes for each of the existing security-related core topics and develop new ones for the emerging cybersecurity topics. Challenges, benefits, and application of this strategy to other disciplines are discussed.

The Algerian English foreign language (EFL) baccalaureate is a high stake exam that assesses both students' learning and their critical thinking skills. Thus, devising appropriate and effective exam questions may be a problematic issue for tests designers. Under the requirements of the current Algerian English curriculum, the exam questions must cover the lower and higher-order thinking skills of Bloom's taxonomy. On this basis, this research paper seeks to investigate the effectiveness of the EFL baccalaureate exam papers, and aims to answer the research question: 'To what extent does the Algerian EFL Baccalaureate exam paper cover the lower and higher-order thinking skills of Bloom's taxonomy?' This research is a descriptive content analysis; the researcher analyzed the exam questions of the Algerian EFL Baccalaureate under the cognitive domains of Bloom's taxonomy. This study is significant as it helps tests' designers to design practical EFL exams that develop students' thinking skills and language competencies. The findings of this study revealed that the EFL baccalaureate exam does not establish the students' higher-order thinking skills and does not assess their communicative abilities. Accordingly, some recommendations are suggested to hopefully help test designers to improve the quality of the EFL Baccalaureate questions.

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Bioinformatics training has important similarities and even more important differences as compared to bioinformatics “education” within a degree program. Typically, the training opportunities are highly focused and short, while the more formal educational opportunities are longer, embedded within other instruction, and may require assessment like tests, papers, or independent research projects. However, there are key features of adult learning and educational psychology that can help teaching in both the training and educational contexts. This workshop will define and explore teaching goals, which often feature what the instructor feels must be “covered” or conveyed; and contrast these with learning goals, which represent what the instructor intends that students will be able to do after the instruction. In the four hours we have together, we will have some lecture based foundational material with exercises around existing training course descriptions, followed by small group work to create or revise learning goals that can engage attendees in one course or sequences of courses. We will also explore how to efficiently plan a course and utilize the limited time to achieve learning goals and promote ongoing engagement with the tools and reasoning that are essential to modern biological sciences and bioinformatics. Participants are encouraged to bring course descriptions and/or learning goals to share, discuss, and work on.

This exploratory study developed a measure of classroom assessment called Test of Thinking Skills in Chemistry (TOTSIC) for secondary school students in Malaysia. The framework used for test specification was based on alternative taxonomy, which derived from Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy. The alternative taxonomy of thinking had been redefined and categorized into lower-order and higher-order thinking skills. Seventy items of the initial version of TOTSIC were assembled and constructed based on this alternative taxonomy, and has been confirmed by experts in chemistry subject. Apart from that, item analysis procedure has refined the test into forty items for the final version. The internal consistency of the overall scale as well well as LOTS and HOTS items were also found to be adequate for multiple-choice format. In the field test, the overall attainment of students from the test were found to be slightly below the average. Unfortunately, only small percentage of the students having respectable performance in HOTS items. This study suggests that TOTSIC is a viable preliminary measure for thinking skills in chemistry that can be applied as a formative assessment instrument in classroom setting. However, there is a room for improvement to assess students’ level of thinking skills in chemistry primarily for HOTS items. Most importantly, the current study is advocating the immersion of high order thinking skills among students as stipulated in the Malaysia Educational Blueprint 2013-2025 (PPPM).

This article describes the results of Action Research conducted in an ESP classroom of Dhofar University located in Oman. Following the call of Oman Vision 2040 to emphasize educational practices that promote the development of higher-order cognitive processes, this study raises the following question: Can an online multiple choice question (MCQ) quiz tap into the higher-order cognitive skills of apply, analyze and evaluate? This question was also critical at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic when Omani universities switched to the online learning mode. The researchers administered an online MCQ quiz to 35 undergraduate students enrolled in an ESP course for Engineering and Sciences. The results showed that MCQ quizzes could be developed to tap into higher-order thinking skills when the stem of the MSQ is developed as a task or a scenario. The study also revealed that students performed better on MCQs that tap into low-level cognitive skills. This result can be attributed to the prevalent practice in Oman to develop assessment tools that tap only into a level of Bloom’s taxonomy, which involves the cognitive process of retrieving memorized information. The significance of the study lies in its pedagogical applications. The study calls for the use of teaching and assessment practices that target the development of higher-order thinking skills, which is aligned with the country’s strategic direction reflected in Oman vision 2040.

Children normally feel unable or less confident to express their ideas clearly, freely, and critically both orally and in writing when learning a language. Research has demonstrated that children's early exposure to Bloom's Taxonomy levels in stories has a "remarkable power" on them (Dickinson, et al. 2012) and helps develop their language and critical-thinking skills (Egan, 1997; Curtain & Dahlberg 2004). The aim of this research project is to investigate the role of Bloom's Taxonomy in the development of the vocabulary and critical-thinking skills of young Moroccan English learners. The study adopts a qualitative approach and addresses two research questions, namely, (i) To what extent does Bloom's Taxonomy contribute to the development of the children's vocabulary and critical thinking skills? (ii) How can the children's vocabulary and critical-thinking skills development be justified? The comparison and analysis of the children's story reviews at the start and end of a term reveals significant improvement, among the Moroccan young learners, especially the average ones. They are able to use a wider range of more appropriate and accurate vocabulary and to make use of a more extended, analytical and relevant discourse. Hence, children's early exposure to Bloom's Taxonomy is highly recommended as it contributes to the development of their vocabulary and critical-thinking skills.

Cognitive dimensions development is one of the objective of education. This research aimed to identify the structure, evaluate the focus, analyze the conformity toward the referred adoption standard, and evaluate the emphasis of thinking skill order of cognitive processes in the e-textbook for 4th grade students. Evaluation was carried out for the curriculum 2013 e-textbooks published in 2014, including theme 2, 3 and 4. Identification of cognitive process dimensions was carried out using revised Bloom's taxonomy, while the conformity was anayzed using Alzu'bi's preference. Statistical analysis was carried out with chi-square test. The result showed that the structure of cognitive dimensions in three examined e-textbooks were not consistent one another. Theme 2 emphasized on the high order thinking skill focused on the creating dimension. Theme 3 emphasized on the low order thinking skill focused on the understanding dimension. While theme 3 facilitated both thinking skill orders with a little tendency to the evaluating dimension. There was no conformity of the cognitive dimensions structure of the three themes toward the referred adoption standard. Statistical analysis showed that there was significant difference on the structure of cognitive dimensions between themes, and between each themes and the referred adoption standard.

A textbook is the main source of learning in many universities, yet there are only a few studies which specifically evaluate accounting textbook. This research aimed to evaluate the accounting textbooks used in some Indonesian universities and is expected to provide recommendations of accounting textbooks which are potential to develop students' critical thinking ability. This study was a content analysis. The analysis was based on the Bloom's taxonomy as well as the indicators of contextual representation intensity level. The results demonstrated that critical thinking receives little attention, either in the components of learning objectives, practice exercises or the materials/main content. Accounting textbook written by foreign authors seems to have higher quality than those written by local authors. It is suggested that the accounting academicians in Indonesia collaborate with accounting practitioners to develop a better quality textbook by adapting the superiorities of textbooks written by foreign authors and eliminating the weakness.

The aim of this qualitative survey was to investigate what kind of teaching methods have been used in biology to promote biodiversity education (BDE) and how the methods support biodiversity (BD) learning. We found, in total, 317 international scientific articles published since 2000 which described the teaching methods regarding BDE and the teaching, and/or the learning. From these ones 12 articles specifically addressed the teaching methods of BD. The content of these articles was analysed in detail. The detailed analysis was based on (a) the categories of the teaching methods used, (b) the conception of learning in the Finnish National Core Curricula for Secondary schools and (c) the revised Bloom's taxonomy and Stanny's verbs concerning the levels of taxonomy. The most used teaching methods were hands-on instruction, experiential learning, and teacher presentation. The least used ones were games, roleplay, debates, service learning, study trips, and visits. In all the articles, various teaching methods used during the lessons were described. The items concerning the teaching methods, which supported students learning were active participation and interaction-mentioned in all the articles-followed by observation, experimental work, experiential learning, and techniques for increasing environmental awareness. The understanding of the different perspectives of BD and the development of self-evaluation were addressed in only four and two of the articles, respectively. The four types of knowledge were supported by the used teaching methods in nine articles jointly. The lower levels of thinking skills were well-supported by the used teaching methods. The highest level of thinking skills, such as synthesis and evaluation, received the least amount of attention.

The initial idea of the taxonomy was to offer a mechanism for classifying instructional objectives . There are three domains of learning; cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The three domains are hierarchical; which means that the levels increase in difficulty, and each level builds on the ones below. However, we need to remember that the students' progress will differ due to individual differences.

This study was conducted to compare two grade-ten mathematics textbooks according to Bloom's Taxonomies. In the Arabic version, 37 out of 70 periods (55.29%) were given to plane geometry and trigonometry, whereas 29 out of 70 periods (41.41%) were allocated for geometry and trigonometry. Also, 12 periods (17.14%) were allocated for algebra in the Arabic version, whereas 19 periods (27.14%) in the English version. As concluded in the above percentages, more concentration was given to geometry in the Arabic version compared to Algebra in the English version. The results indicated that in the geometry chapter in the Arabic version, the educational objectives percentages ranged from 40.0 %(comprehension) to 8.75 (synthesis and evaluation), and 62.86 % of the educational objectives were in the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomies. Whereas in the English version the Geometry chapter ranged from 45.65 % (application) to 10.87% (synthesis), and for the same chapters, 63.04 % were in the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomies. For the Algebra chapter, the objectives ranged from 56.25% (application) to 6.25 %(synthesis and evaluation) and from 47.62 % (application) to 4.76 % (comprehension and synthesis) in the Arabic and English versions respectively. With respect to educational objectives, 79.11 % of the educational objectives were at the application level in Arabic version compared to 93.27 % for the application in the English one. Full Text available at: http://www.lectitojournals.com/Article/Detail/CCD52QJ8

“Are You a Werewolf?” (AYAW?) is a deception based party game that forces a group of villagers to pick out a pair of werewolves from the group and eliminate them before the werewolves destroy the village. Andrew Plotkin created this game as a derivative of Dmitry Davidoff’s “Mafia” and is a favorite of gamers as a representation of a “social game” (Chittaranjan & Hung, 2010). The game is often played late at night with many of the popular gaming conventions in the United States (Origins, GenCon, San Diego Comic Con, Dragon Con, etc.) as a way for gamers to socialize, to “decompress” from the convention experience, and as a means to participate in the act of gaming in a more “adult” manner (language, alcohol consumption, and other adult behaviors that normally frown upon at a family-friendly event).

Along the same style of game, “The Resistance” was inspired by AYAW? with only 5 to 10 players needed to make the game work, as opposed to the 15 to 21 players needed for AYAW? This change in the player structure allows for, according to the manufacturer of the game, “increase the resources for informed decisions, intensify player interaction, and eliminate player elimination.” Both “The Resistance” & AYAW? fit the classic definition of a social deception game (SDG)

One of the strengths of SDG is the primary interactions are communication-based. It is not a traditional role playing game (RPG) that uses dice rolls and generated player stats as the primary mode of interaction, nor is it a traditional card/board game where the main mode of interactions being the elements present on a tabletop. Bluffing and perception are the tools that players use within a typical game of AYAW? It is these two elements that make a great platform to teach about small group communication, specifically the power roles within small groups and the structures within a small group (Verderber, Verderber, & Sellnow, 2013).

Many of the academic studies of SDGs either relates to the mathematical probabilities connected to the various structural co-constructions based on role configurations and village engagements (Midgal, 2010) or as a proxy for analysis of deception (Chittaranjan & Hung, 2010). As communication scholars, it is important to look at the communication interactions themselves, rather than a proxied representation of social interactions present in the previous research.

The focus of this case study is to show how SDGs were used to teach aspects of small group communication (specifically the developments of roles with small groups & power structures that emerge with small group structures (Harris & Sherblom, 2011)) to multiple groups of students taking the basic communication course at a large university in the United States. The framework of the case study will begin with an explanation of the game. The next element will be a brief discussion of the previous literature related to SDGs are the ludological aspects of small group communication. This will be followed be a description of the lesson plan/course objectives that were used to frame the class time. An analysis of the reflective assignments will help describe the benefits of approaching small group communication with a ludological technique. There will also be artifacts from interviews with other werewolf players from popular gaming conventions to show how the students’ impressions of the game match “the reality” of playing the game with others (as opposed to playing the game in the academic realm). Finally, there will be a discussion of the effectiveness of SDGs within the college communication curriculum. 

Two of the major themes that were present in the reflective analyses conducted by the students were the understanding of “task-based” communication patterns and the impact of power roles and leadership within SGC. Artifacts will be presented in this case study to provide context behind these two themes.

This paper describes an approach for teaching environmental control systems that combines the lecture and the studio formats. Content delivery of the class sequence uses Bloom's Taxonomy model to align students' learning outcomes in the ECS classes with those required of the students at their level of educational development. This integration of students' learning outcomes allows products from other classes or studios to be used in the ECS classes. Projects are designed to meet and challenge students at their various levels of development in skills, abilities, and cognitive processing. The result is an intensive sequence of classes that work in harmony with studios and other lecture classes.

In this essay I consider the challenges faced by non-specialists in comparative philosophy. I address several familiar objections to incorporating non-Western material into standing philosophy courses (i.e., the view that the material is, indeed, not included in the category philosophy, or the worry that there simply is not enough time to cover such material). In answering these objections, I emphasize that what we today call the “Western” canon has historically been shaped by a plurality of cultures. I then conclude with several sample course modules, designed to help non-specialists incorporate sessions on Islamic and Chinese philosophy into introductory classes.