Bloom’s Taxonomy

“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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.