Bloom's Taxonomy and Case Study

Bloom's Taxonomy
Learning objectives for each level

Knowledge: The student will make flash cards for a test on vocabulary.

Comprehension: The student will summarize a piece of prose.

Application: The student will create a concept map for a paper.

Analysis: The student will make an outline for a paper on literary analysis.

Synthesis: The student will perform an experiment in a laboratory.

Evaluation: The student will write a final draft of a paper.

Paul's case study

The assumption that the students were less capable than he had originally thought is probably false considering that the majority of the students misunderstood why we have seasons. There is a chance that perhaps the students were not paying attention, but considering that he thought they had seemed interested in the topic, that may be incorrect, also. Sometimes, when students try to create a finished product such as an essay, what the student may have meant could possibly be misconstrued. Or they may have not been able to properly formulate their thoughts under time constraints or other environmental factors, in comparison to straight forward multiple choice or fill in the blank assessment choices. However, the concept that the students had misunderstood was a fairly straight forward fact. I think the missing link here is a cultural, or previous learning, experience. Paul had told his students that thinking the seasons are due to the distance of the earth from the sun was a false assumption. If this is an assumption that the students had thought throughout previous experience in science classrooms, or something their parents had told them, it is possible that those reinforcements were stronger than the ones Paul used in his classroom. Next time he teaches this, maybe he should have a more vivid demonstration. Perhaps he could use a video on the internet that incorporates visual and audio representations of the lesson.