Using Bloom’s taxonomy to measure your lessons: Critical thinking and material design
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues gifted us teachers with a guide for how to design lessons. It is still used today in various subjects and outside of teaching too. In its most basic description, Bloom’s Taxonomy is a way of describing different levels of thinking. It has been revised numerous times; however, the general principle of the taxonomy remains the same.
There are six levels of thinking (or seven depending on who you speak to).
Here is a revised version:
As we go up the graph, the level of thinking gets more demanding (the cognitive load increases). Different types of tasks and activities in coursebooks need different cognitive thought processes, so it is possible to map activities to the taxonomy.
So what does this have to do with ELT?
Well, many things. With regards to spoken fluency and the acquisition of grammatical structures and lexis, we can use this taxonomy much the same as gears on a car to ensure that the activities we ask students to take part in are congruent with our aims, and that we are addressing the needs of our students.
Let’s take a look at the acquisition of language first.
In his book How to teach vocabulary, Scott Thornbury makes reference to ‘the principle of cognitive depth’, which means ‘the more decisions the learner makes about a word, and the more cognitively demanding those decisions, the better the word is remembered’(Thornbury, 2002)
Using a new word in a sentence is an example of ‘deeper’ thinking ( higher up the taxonomy), yet simply matching rhyming words together is lower on the taxonomy.
There is a useful picture of question stems for the different types of thinking floating around the internet. You can see it here:
HTTP://www.flickr.com/photos/vblibrary/4576825411/sizes/l/in/pool-27724923@N00/
Obviously, the more we recycle a word, the more we can ask a student to do with it. The level of the taxonomy you decide to take the activity, of course, will depend on how familiar the students are with the vocabulary / grammar structure, and their abilities in English. Few of us would argue, for example, that asking students to assess and justify someone’s dietary choices would be appropriate for low-level learners in a class which presents them the vocabulary for the first time.
I have found this a very useful tool in my lessons, particularly in those which are heavy in grammar or lexis. Doing the recycling over a series of lessons, I simply adjust the task to make it higher on the taxonomy.
Meanwhile, I tend to do the opposite when we are talking skills — particularly spoken fluency.
Many of my students have problems with spoken fluency, so I dedicate a lot of class time to improving this. How does this apply to the taxonomy?
Ellis (2003) and Nation (2008), note that students will struggle to focus on form and meaning simultaneously. So when introducing new language, I try not to pressure the students. I will usually focus on meaning. After that, form. Then, once students have had practice in both of these, I make tasks more difficult (higher up the taxonomy. This gives students the chance to use both aspects together. With students who have poor fluency, or aren’t confident, I use tasks that are low down on the taxonomy. This reduces cognitive load, and with repetition, helps students improve their fluency. An example would be something like:
Early fluency tasks (Few or none of which might implicitly force students to use recently learned vocabulary):
Summarize what you heard from your partner and tell it to other members of the group. (As a 4–3–2–1 activity)
What is the difference between staying in a hotel and staying in an AirBnB. Discuss with your partner.
Later fluency tasks (Some of which might implicitly force students to use recently learned vocabulary)
What solutions might you suggest for your friend with the hotel problem?
What criteria would you use to assess whether a hotel is good value for money or not?
This not only challenges students to think outside of their experiences, but also gives them practice in building fluency while handling abstract ideas and thought. This is a common criterion in many English language exams.
On top of this, I can also create tasks using the taxonomy as a jumping off point and either deliberately increase the chances of recycling vocabulary, or avoid it completely, depending on the needs of my students.
Let’s take a look at some activities from coursebooks and classify them on the taxonomy.
Keep these questions in mind when you are looking at the activities:
What level of learners is this activity likely written for?
How could I make it more / less cognitively demanding for acquisition / fluency building?
How could I change or supplement the activity so that it implicitly forces the use of language items (if you wanted it to!)
How could I change the activity to remove the / add an implicit focus on accuracy?
1.
A. Match the verbs 1–10 to the groups of phrases they collate with a-j.
1. Be stuck
2. Wear
3. Work
4. Buy
5. Try
6. Show
7. Complain
8. Earn
9. Live
10. Do
A. behind a desk all day / in front of a computer all day
B. the garage up the road / the newsagents round the corner
C. about the service / to the manager
D. three pounds fifty an hour / thirty thousand a year
E. from home / with computers
F. in a nice little cottage out in the country / on the thirty-fifth floor
G. the vacuuming / the washing up
H. you round the house / you where everything is
I. a uniform at work / a suit to work
J. it in a sale / her latest CD
You have one minute to memorise the collocations a-j. Now cover the exercise above. Your partner will read out the verbs 1–10. How many collocations can you remember?
From Innovations Intermediate Review Unit 5–8 — Heinle Cengage
2.
Sociological studies have shown that people commonly associate a number of distinct attributes with particular leisure activities. What adjectives would you use to describe the people below? Try to think of two or three for each.
Weight Trainer Guitarist Kayaker Volleyball player Chess player
From Focus on IELTS Unit 6 — Pearson Longman
So, finally, here is a little form you might want to use to analyse your lesson plan and see if it is congruent with your aims and your learners’needs.
Is the activity to improve fluency or for grammar / lexis?
Fluency
Where does the activity sit in the taxonomy? Does this suit the level /skills of my learners?
Is there a way I can repeat the task in a similar fashion — only next time moving it higher up the taxonomy?
Is the wording of the task obvious to students that particular forms / vocabulary should be used? How can I remove if so?
Grammar and Lexis
Where does the activity sit in the taxonomy? Does this suit the level of my learners?
Am I introducing the language for the first time? Would my learners benefit if I changed the task and moved it down the taxonomy?
Are my students familiar with the language in the activity? How much? If so, how far should I move the task up the taxonomy?
Do you think this taxonomy is useful? How would you use it?
References and suggested reading:
O’Connell, S., 2010. Focus on IELTS. Harlow:Pearson
Dellar, H and Walkley, A., 2004. Innovations Intermediate. Andover:Heinle
Ellis, R., 2003 Task-based learning and teaching. Oxford:OUP
Nation, P., 2008. The four strands. Innovation in language learning and teaching, 1(1)
Thornbury, S., 2002. How to teach vocabulary. Harlow:Pearson
