Learning Taxonomies

This last week I have been researching into, learning about and distilling down texts on learning taxonomies. This has been in order to accurately analyse the learning materials and worksheets I have chosen as well as assign game elements to them.

There have been countless theories of learning throughout history but the most prominent in modern day is Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning. Created in 1956 by Dr Benjamin Bloom the idea was to promote higher forms of thinking in education in lieu of more traditional methods such as rote learning (basically just remembering the facts). This taxonomy is mostly used for designing educational processes.

Learning in this taxonomy is split into three domains, cognitive, affective and psychomotor. First off I want to leave out psychomotor as it bases itself on manual or physical skills such as learned in physical education, the learning I am looking at is defiantly NOT psychomotor learning.

Affective learning is based on personal growth in areas such as emotions and feelings etc.

Cognitive learning is the learning of mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge. These are common traditional education such as maths and science. This is most likely the type of learning I will be gamifying in this project.

Cognitive learning includes the development of intellectual skills and the recall and recognition of specific knowledge. Cognitive learning is divided into six categories, Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. Each category sits in a hierarchy with the stages being considered difficulty levels. Usually the previous step must be mastered before the next is acquired. In 2000 a revised version of the cognitive domain was released by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl. This revisions most notable changes were the changing of category names from nouns to verbs, rearranging the stages to a more fitting hierarchy and creating a processes and levels of knowledge matrix.

Below is a picture of the new domain hierarchy:

I will be using this hierarchy to base my gamification on as it is widely considered to be the more accurate. Bellow is the table taken from The Performance Juxtaposition website explaining each of the above categories in order from lowest to highest in difficulty. 

Table of the Revised Cognitive Domain

Category	Examples, key words (verbs), and technologies for learning (activities)
Remembering: Recall or retrieve previous learned information.	Examples: Recite a policy. Quote prices from memory to a customer. Recite the safety rules. Key Words: defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states Technologies: book marking, flash cards, rote learning based on repetition, reading
Understanding: Comprehending the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words.	Examples: Rewrite the principles of test writing. Explain in one's own words the steps for performing a complex task. Translate an equation into a computer spreadsheet. Key Words: comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives an example, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates Technologies: create an analogy, participating incooperative learning, taking notes, storytelling, Internet search
Applying: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place.	Examples: Use a manual to calculate an employee's vacation time. Apply laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test. Key Words: applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, uses Technologies:collaborative learning, create a process, blog, practice
Analyzing: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences.	Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information from a department and selects the required tasks for training. Key Words: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates Technologies:Fishbowls, debating, questioning what happened, run a test
Evaluating: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials.	Examples: Select the most effective solution. Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and justify a new budget. Key Words: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports Technologies: survey, blogging
Creating: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure.	Examples: Write a company operations or process manual. Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. Revises and process to improve the outcome. Key Words: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes Technologies: Create a new model, write an essay, network with others

For now I have seen enough to be able to analyse the type of learning within my first worksheet. There is another breakdown on The Affective Domain which I will cover when necessary and please see my next post for the analyses of my first worksheet.

References:

Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains: The Cognitive Domain. 2015. Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains: The Cognitive Domain. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html. [Accessed 19 November 2015].