Bloom's Taxonomy: Affective Theory

BLOOM'S AFFECTIVE THEORY
Surprisingly, the educational community gives little emphasis on the two other areas of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Even with the recent scientific knowledge about the amygdale, emotional intelligence and intuitive knowledge, Bloom’s Affective theory is almost entirely neglected. Similarly, his research on the psychomotor realm of learning remains largely ignored by the academic community.
Perhaps this is because other theorists have built upon Bloom’s work. (Which, in all honesty, was led by an entire team of researchers.) Bloom’s protégé R.H. Dave has gained notoriety for his contribution to psychomotor behavioral objectives.

Affective Domain

Receiving– A student will be able to receive a stimulus. On an emotional scale, this means that a student must be wiling to learn and to pay attention. On a more observable scale, this means that a student should be paying attention, listening and on-task. At this stage, a student is attentive, but not necessarily actively engaged. Example: A student sits passively in a classroom

Responding – At this point, a student will be actively engaged, but not necessarily internalizing any information. The student is not only willing to engage (receiving) but is actually engaging in the information. Here the student feels enough involved in the classroom community that he or she feels safe sharing information. Example: A student raises his hand in a class discussion

Valuing – The student believes that the subject and the people are important. Rather than merely being a participant, the student desires to be there and feels a sense of importance and meaning in what is being accomplished. A student at this stage does not feel outside pressure to comply, but an internal compulsion to participate and contribute. Example: A student wants to be in class and volunteers to lead a group.

Organizing – Here is when a student attempts to fit the idea, class or activity into a greater philosophical framework. There is a notion of compromise and harmony involved. It is not unlike Bloom’s notion of synthesis. This is also where a student clarifies values into priorities. Example: A student sees connection between life and the class. The student leads a petition because of skills learned in a government class.

Internalizing – The learning, ideas or community has become a part of the student. This is also where a student has the greatest sense of self-control and a strongest sense of a personal philosophy that guides him or her. Example: The learning is now a part of the student’s core values. A student creates a life philosophy based on what he or she knows.

This has been presented as a hierarchy, but the reality is that it is more like a continuum. Students fall back and forth between the two rather than climb to the top. For example, a new situation might cause a student to fall back to receiving. A student might be in valuing until trust has been broken and it goes back to responding or receiving.

Bloom's Taxonomy: Criticisms

Criticisms of Bloom's Taxonomy
Educational theorists have criticized Bloom’s Taxonomy on a few grounds.

1. Learning is not sequential – Bloom’s Hierarchy seems too artificially constructed. It is a very linear, straightforward view of how humans comprehend information. Although each concept or classification has its place, researchers are beginning to see the mind as more of a web. A person might skip from knowledge to application then analyze the application, come to a conclusion (evaluation) and then re-analyze the conclusion all working toward a greater synthesis of information. Constructivist teaching has suggested that teachers need to spread higher-order thinking skills throughout a task rather than begin with the imparting of knowledge.
2. It is incomplete – Bloom concentrated his efforts on learning, yet there is little about motivation or about classroom management.
3. It is too precise – Classifying and separating learning into three spheres and nice hierarchies is a very modern, scientific view of learning. Yet, a postmodern critique would attempt to deconstruct this idea. For one, they would suggest that brain science is still in its earliest formation and that we do not entirely understand the mystery of the mind. In addition, postmodernists would suggest that many of the terms are simply artificial constructs used as ideology to conceal the messy side of learning.
4. It is individualistic – Unlike the Social Learning Theory, Bloom’s Taxonomy focuses heavily on how an individual learns. It misses what occurs when there are social forces. For example, an individual’s ability to reach “evaluation” can easily be clouded by “groupthink.”

Responses to Criticism
Critics make valid points. However, they need to keep a few things in mind. First, Bloom saw his work as scientific and therefore contributed to the larger, democratic pool of scientific reserach. If his theories were incomplete, this is because he saw them as always changing and he validated many outside theories. In addition, his taxonomy focuses on learning and assessment more than on how to teach. When critics take the time to read his work, they realize it was much broader than first assumed. In terms of being too precise and too individualistic, that is understandable. He lived during a period of rugged American individualism. He was a modern man, which meant that he took individualism, science and objective knowledge for granted.

Service Learning: Criticisms

There are some critics of service learning. For various reasons, they believe that service learning does not work.

Criticisms of Service Learning

1. Neo-imperialism - Service learning can begin with a presupposition that the community is bad and that they need the students to "fix" it. This can have a shaming effect on the community and breed resentment over the long run.
2. Not academic - The activities themselves can sometimes lack the academic rigor that other curricular activities require. It is hard to justify making phone calls and planning an activity rather than reading a book.
3. Too isolated - Many of the projects are singular, isolated experiences that do not lead to long-term, sustainable change.
4. Not enough reflection - Many programs fail to engage students in deep thinking during the reflection. Thus, students end up summarizing what they did rather than delving deeply into the reflective process.
5. Reinforces stereotypes - If they are not careful, it can reinforce stereotypes (all Africans are poor, for example) In the activities themselves, there can be a tendency toward gender stereotypes or unintended reinforcement of hierarchichal structures.

Service Learning: Ideas

SERVICE LEARNING IDEAS

The following is a list of some of the service learning ideas:

Food Bank - Students organize a food drive, visit a food bank, research issues of hunger and interview people about the causes of poverty and hunger in our city. They can write reflections about the experience as well as writing poems, developing a website or creating a short video about their experiences.

Flower Power - Students decorate pottery and place flowers in each pot. From there, they deliver the flowers to a nursing home, where they interview the residents and create a podcast. Afterward, they reflect upon generational differences and their own feelings about age and agism in society.

Graffiti Busting - Students do a community Needs Assessment, where they interview neighbors about the influence of graffiti on the community. They can go beyond this, into research and explore their own ideas. Then, on a weekend, they paint over graffiti in the community. Afterward, they write reflections on the process and can even write new reflections if the areas get tagged up again.

It Takes a Village - Students find ways to honor the people in their community (and at the school) who make their education happen. They can write thank you notes or put on a breakfast for classified staff members.

Nothing But Nets - Students research the effects of malaria on the body and use Google Maps to find areas of Africa with high malaria rates. Afterward, they find innovative fundraisers to raise money for nets. Within their reflections, they should consider the difficulty of serving people who live so far away.

Soldier Letters / Care Package - Students write thank you notes and create care packages for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. This can work well with additional interviews with soldiers.

Service Learning: Description of the Theory

DESCRIPTION OF THE THEORY

Service Learning is an elusive concept. There are so many definitions that it can be difficult to determine exactly what service learning means. For some, it is an excercise in civic virtue and patriotism- a sort of Boy Scouts in school. For others, it is an excercise in Critical Pedagogy. In some schools, service learning is simply a mandatory time of community service. In other schools, it is an entire program with a curriculum and classes.

In general, all service learning should include the following:

1. A cycle of action and reflection. The reflection should lead to some type of inquiry that leads to more action. The reflection is critical, because without it, we fall into mindless activism. Yet, without action, we fall into meaningless intellectualism.
2. Partnerships with organizations. Over the long term, service should lead to deeper partnerships within the community.
3. A connection to the curriculum. Whether this is a separate class or a connection to social studies or language arts, service learning should be integrated into the curriculm in general.
4. Studetns should be involved in all phases, including the intial planning and inquiry.
   

Multiple Intelligences: Criticisms

CRITICISMS

1. Too many "intelligences" without enough science. For some, the addition of naturalistic and culinary intelligences are unrealistic to a classroom and do not seem to be a different way of information processing.
2. Why classify students? In other words, in the goal to reach all students, there is a certain danger in labelling students. If we tell a child that he is kinesthetic because he works on cars, it could simply be his socialization that led him to that point. When teachers make that assumption without knowing the science of multiple intelligences, we can accidentally stereotype students.
3. Knowledge doesn't fit into cute categories. The fact that we dice up intelligence into all these categories suggest a very Newtonian, modern view of knowledge. This denies the post-modern critique of fluidity and the newer sciences that break away from rigid classification.
4. It doesn't take account for the cultural and social changes that occur. For example, Neil Postman developed the theory that Western civilization began with an oral culture and shifted to a print (or text) culture after the printing press. This was followed by the emergence of a visual culture and now a digital culture. Is it any wonder, then, that students would be so visually-driven?
5. It leads to excuse-making. Rather than encouraging a student to develop another form of intelligence, teachers (or worse, parents) can use multiple intelligences as an excuse for failing to learn. In fact, this seems to be the most common critique of Multiple Intelligences: that it denies the fact that there are smarter students and that all students need the same skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. Those within the Core Curriculum movement are often the most vocal opponents to integrating Multiple Intelligences into instruction. Instead, they advocate a return to the traditional modes of instruction. A critic might quip, "A kid doesn't need to split a pie to learn fractions or hit a baseball to learn percentages."
6. Some have argued that multiple intelligences might be better understood using the older, Jungian archetypes and the newer ideas of the Myers-Briggs tests. For example, sensate and intuitive processing might be more accurate than the views that Gardner posits.
7. It can reinforce negative stereotypes associated with hereditary intelligence. While Gardner does not suggest an either / or approach to hereditary, the application is often that children are born with a specific intelligence, which some critics say reinforces stereotypes.

Multiple Intelligences: Visual-Spatial

Some have argued that visual and spatial learners should have separate categories. The argument is that the brain does not process abstract visual and spatial visual information in the same way. Furthermore, some people have a difficult time with visual but excel in spatial thinking (or vice versa). Yet, Gardner has linked the two together.

VISUAL

Visual learners need to see the information being presented. They prefer to think about information in a way that is more visual and graphic. If a teacher sits and lectures without providing graphs or images, the visual learner can feel lost. A teacher will often hear a visual learner say, "I'm trying to picture it," and an overwhelming amount of abstract information can seem like overload.

Teaching Strategies

• Graphs
• Graphic Organizers - charts, Venn Diagrams
  
• Images
• Outlines
• Concept maps
  
• Metaphors
• Collages (also kinesthetic)
  
• Spreadsheets
  
• Pictures
• Videos (to a certain extent)
• Slides
• Ranking information in a visual way - timeline, etc.
  
• Video editing

SPATIAL

Spatial thinkers can visualize information well in a way that relates to physical space. For example, they find it easy to visualize an object rotated at different angles. In think of the world, they find it easy to envision a globe with various zones of countries. Spatial thinkers can take verbal information and apply it to a physical space. Thus, they'll think of a conversation by imagining where they sat. They'll take notes and lay them out spatially into separate areas.

Teaching Strategies

• Belief Walk - where they walk from the agree to disagree side
  
• Rank from 1-10 - where students hold up an item and physically move according to their rank
  
• Divided Areas - having students divided up according to the space; for example, "this area is the house and this is the senate. Each desk represents one space."
  
• Manipulatives designed to separate space - for example, having them place note cards on a long timeline or using hula hoops for Venn Diagrams
• 3-D modelling - Google Earth, for example

Multiple Intelligences: Kinesthetic

KINESTHETIC

Kinesthetic learners can find school frustrating, because they learn best when they are actively engaged with the physical environment. Kinesthetic learners learn by doing rather than by seeing or listening. Often a kinesthetic learner can understand something through the five senses - being able to touch the cotton rather than hearing a lecture on slavery or doing a "belief walk" rather than a debate.

Teaching Strategies

• Move around - walk from table to table and analyze information
• Physical artifacts - being able to touch and feel an item
• "Mock" history - turning the class into a factory, into a slave ship, etc.
  
• Belief Walk - also a spatial method (walk from 1-10) according to beliefs
• Use of JavaScript - roll over an object and discover something
• Video Games (although there is strong debate on this one)
• Acting out
• Role playing
• Collages (also visual)

Multiple Intelligences: Kinesthetic

KINESTHETIC

Kinesthetic learners can find school frustrating, because they learn best when they are actively engaged with the physical environment. Kinesthetic learners learn by doing rather than by seeing or listening. Often a kinesthetic learner can understand something through the five senses - being able to touch the cotton rather than hearing a lecture on slavery or doing a "belief walk" rather than a debate.

Teaching Strategies

• Move around - walk from table to table and analyze information
• Physical artifacts - being able to touch and feel an item
• "Mock" history - turning the class into a factory, into a slave ship, etc.
  
• Belief Walk - also a spatial method (walk from 1-10) according to beliefs
• Use of JavaScript - roll over an object and discover something
• Video Games (although there is strong debate on this one)
• Acting out
• Role playing
• Collages (also visual)

This could be your classroom if you took kinesthetic learning to an extreme.

Multiple Intelligences: Logical-Mathematical

LOGICAL / MATHEMATICAL

The Logical / Mathematical learner has an easy time using reason to solve problems, with a penchant for discovering patterns and relationships. It is not uncommon for this type of student excel in both math and science and, within writing, to do well in grammar or syntax. This does not mean that a logical / mathematical person will excel in all math. For example, for this type of thinker, geometry can be difficult if there is too much spatial or visual thinking.

Teaching Strategies

• Organized outlines
• Sequential order / chronology
• Find the facts - analyze information for reason / logic
  
• Ranking ideas or arguments based upon logic
• Problem-based learning - analyzing a problem and creating a solution
• Critiques
• Using the scientific method
• Integration of math into other subjects
• Analyzing data
  

Multiple Intelligences: Logical-Mathematical

LOGICAL / MATHEMATICAL

The Logical / Mathematical learner has an easy time using reason to solve problems, with a penchant for discovering patterns and relationships. It is not uncommon for this type of student excel in both math and science and, within writing, to do well in grammar or syntax. This does not mean that a logical / mathematical person will excel in all math. For example, for this type of thinker, geometry can be difficult if there is too much spatial or visual thinking.

Teaching Strategies

• Organized outlines
• Sequential order / chronology
• Find the facts - analyze information for reason / logic
  
• Ranking ideas or arguments based upon logic
• Problem-based learning - analyzing a problem and creating a solution
• Critiques
• Using the scientific method
• Integration of math into other subjects
• Analyzing data

Multiple Intelligences: Intrapersonal

INTRAPERSONAL

It is a misnomer to label intrapersonal thinkers as loners or shy. Often, they are very intuitive and introverted, but that does not mean they are quiet. It simply means they find their motivation and passion from within and they enjoy delving into the depths of themselves to find answers and ask questions. Intrapersonal learners can have a difficult time in group work if they have to compromise too much of their own autonomy.

Teaching Strategies

• Reflections
• Journals
• Goal-setting
• Online publishing
• Reading
• Self-paced independent projects
• Introspective questioning
• Poetry
• Creative writing
• Personal collages

Multiple Intelligences: Interpersonal

INTERPERSONAL

Interpersonal learners prefer to collaborate and share ideas with a group. To them, learning should take the best parts of all group members so that they can broaden their perspectives. Rather than looking within introspectively, they prefer to spur dialogue as a group and hash out ideas through conversation. To them, learning needs to be interactive.

Teaching Strategies

• Role-playing
• Video conferencing
  
• Mock Trial
• Discussions
• Group activities
• Socratic Seminars
  
• Collaborative technology - Google Documents, Wikis, Discussion Boards
• Podcasts

Multiple Intelligences: Existential

EXISTENTIAL

Existential thinkers to tend lean toward the deeper, philosophical questions. They prefer to ask, "Why am I doing this?" and "How does this help me to live well?" An existential thinker typically has a strong sense that education must be meaningful - not simply to pass a test or earn a scholarship, but to think better about life. An existential thinker will often add a spiritual, intuitive, philosophical or abstract component to education.

Teaching Strategies

• Socratic Seminar
• Philosophy of _______
  
• Developing difficult questions to spur dialogue
• Adding a human dimension to a class
• Examining epistemology - the journey of truth
• Journaling with difficult questions
• Dialogues about ethics within politics
  
• Writing Socratic dialogues
• Analyzing writing with concepts such as world view, character development and theme
• Inquiry and guided inquiry
  
• Activities that begin with "What if . . .?"
  
• Analyzing social issues through an existentialist filter - "Why is there injustice?"

Multiple Intelligences: Auditory-Linguistic

AUDITORY-LINGUISTIC

This type of intelligence is the most commonly seen in school and the least common in the population. Those who have a high level of audio-linguistic intelligence connect well to language. Often, they write well, read well and have a fairly easy time staying on track with lectures. It is not uncommon to see an Audio-Linguistic person write quickly and nearly flawlessly with a broad range of prose and poetry.

Teaching Strategies

• Lecture
• Reading
• Writing
• Discussion
• Debates
• Web publishing
• Blogs
  
• Mock Trial
• Podcasts

Multiple Intelligences: Theorist

THEORIST: HOWARD GARDNER

As a professor of cognition (the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at theHarvard Graduate School of Education) John Howard Gardner pioneered brain research that challenged the prevailing assumptions that a paper and pencil test could measure intelligence. Within the early 1980's, his theories were already being accepted within academic circles.

In 1993, Howard Gardner wrote Framing Minds in an effort to provide a mainstream method of communicating his theory of multiple intelligences. Since then, he developed the theories to include naturalistic and existentialist intelligences.

In addition, Gardner continued to write books for a semi-popular audience. For example, his book Responsibility at Work surveyed various professions with the goal of discovering what types of intelligences were used in various places of employment. Changing Minds dealt with the topic of why and how people change their minds - and why it is so rare.

Multiple Intelligences: Introduction

INTRODUCTION

For many teachers, multiple intelligences has been drilled into their minds. From the beginning of a bachelor's program, professors have emphasized the need to reach all students in the best possible modality. One student might need a hands-on lesson while another needs to listen verbally to a long description of what happens.

Sadly, many of the teachers who heard about the importance of multiple intelligences never experienced it in their schooling. A professor would stand in front of a PowerPoint and lecture students about not lecturing. "Use kinesthetic learning, because those are the students who fall the furthest behind," a teacher would explain and drop it at that.

People fail to take into account the fact that Multiple Intelligences is a theory based upon sound, solid brain research. A light, superficial knowledge of it can actually do more harm than good. In this sense, it can be dangerous when a teacher uses Multiple Intelligences as an excuse for students failing to read or write. "She's just a visual learner, so I'll show a movie instead." A better goal is to use differentiated instruction from a Multiple Intelligence framework so all students can learn; not to replace reading, but to help them to improve in reading.

The goal here is to explore the underlying theories of multiple intelligences and offer instructional strategies for teachers. Multiple Intelligences can be difficult to implement, because it often requires teachers to think differently and creatively in planning lessons.

Morever, in a subject where the written word is highly prized, a kinesthetic or spatial activity can seem like a loss in academic learning time. This is especially true when there is increased pressure to perform well on standardized tests.

Critical Pedagogy: Ideas

IDEAS FOR APPLYING CRITICAL PEDAGOGY

Applying this to . . .
Classroom Management – How the group interacts
This means that management needs to be more democratic. Teachers need to do less “talking to” and engage in fewer power struggles. Instead, they ought to generate discussions and engage in a meaningful dialogue. Rather than seeing a classroom as something to be dominated and tamed, they can create a democratic feel that will allow students to express tehmsevles respectfully.
Example: A student disrupts class and a teacher pulls him or her aside for a conversation about why the student did that and what the student believes about the action.

Teaching Philosophy – Why you teach
Why do students learn? The traditional answer is to prepare students for the workforce. Yet, critical theory rejects that notion as a byproduct of an industrialized, factory-based model. Instead, they see education as something that “humanizes” and helps build “concientousness” (to use Freire’s term.) In low-income settings, teaching should be a means of empowerment and should connect to the community as a whole.
Example: A teacher would encourage students to create their own philosophies of education. A class might work collaboratively on a class purpose statement.

Assessment – How you know student’s learn
The only way to assess knowledge is to see life change. Rather than using standardized tests, or even letter grades, critical pedagogy advocates alternative modes of assessment. Even the rubric is seen as an artificial construct. Therefore, the only way to see if students have learned is to evaluate how a student has applied that knowledge to life as a whole. Often, this leads to a certain social activism that is absent in traditional education. Criticis point out how subjective this can be. It can seem to miss the rigour of an academic assessment. Yet, proponents of these alternative methods point out that it is more authentic to life. Many proponents of critical pedagogy also believe in the notion of differentiated instruction so that students are more active in the learning process.
Example: A class goes on a service learning project and has a reflective dialogue when the project ends. This would then lead into a letter writing campaign and a protest.

Instruction – How you teach
In terms of instruction, critical pedagogy offers very few practical applications. For the most part, they advocate a constructivist style of education. Students are encouraged to challenge theories and ideas that are dominant in society. In a math or science class, this means that students engage in dialogue and test hypotheses. In social sciences and language arts, they study the relationship between power, culture and beliefs. There is a blending of subjects in critical pedagogy which also has a constructivist bent. Students are encouraged to connect knowledge from one subject area to another.
Example: A class has a debate about the role of the media in politics. They might read various textbooks or state standards and analyze them for bias, then contact those in power to share their findings.

Cooperative Learning: Criticisms

CRITICISMS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING

Cooperative Learning can have some drawbacks, especially if it is not applied correctly:

1. The use of competition: Whether this is between groups or within the group, competition tends to fight against collaboration. Often teachers will add this as an additional motivational factor only to watch the motivation move from intrinsic to extrinsic and the quality drop as result.
2. Classroom Management: If groups have not learned the specific procedures of Cooperative Learning, they can easily get off-task (hence the need for accountability) or get too noisy.
3. Group Think: Groups can reinforce misonceptions and engage in groupthink when members do not have a chance to challenge others. It creates a culture of conformity, which can be dangerous to any child's education.
4. Group Dysfunction: If groups are chosen too poorly, students at the bottom do no work while the students at the top do all the work. At times, this can be an issue of perfectionism at the top or a low sense of self-efficacy at the bottom. Other group dysfunction includes bullying, gossip, slander and avoidance.
5. Too complicated: Often times, teachers make Cooperative Learning too complicated. It might be an issue of creating elaborate roles or instructions that are too detailed. Simplicity is key to Cooperative Learning success.
6. Dependency on Groups: Students who are too accustomed to cooperative learning can have a hard time adjusting to learning environments where it is entirely independent. For example, they might have a hard time in college, when a professor stands up and lectures.
7. Not enough collaboration: Some critics have suggested that students need to develop roles in an authentic process and work collaboratively on a larger project without being confined to the procedures of cooperative learning. The chief criticism is that cooperative learning is not reflective of how true collaboration occurs in the real world.

Cooperative Learning: Ideas

COOPERATIVE LEARNING IDEAS

For some teachers, it might be best to begin cooperative learning with partner work and move from there. In general, cooperative learning works best when students are placed into groups of four where they can see one another. Although tables work well, moving desks so that they can face one another is a valid option. The following are some of the most common cooperative learning activities.

1. Jigsaw - Each student from the group goes to another group to do a reading or an activity. In the process, that person becomes an expert on the subject and then reports back to the main group to explain the information. This process works best when students recieve a graphic organizer that they can share with classmates.
2. Brainstorm - Cooperative learning works well when every member has a chance to add to the discussion. For this reason, a brainstorm works well. Each student has a chance to participate. A brainstorm also works well when coupled with the Pair-Share concept. In addition, Brainstorm works well when it goes beyond the traditional idea of "how many" and into higher-order thinking. For example, students work well when they are told to brainstorm at least five pros and five cons of the United Nations.
3. Three-step Interview - In a group of four, each pair interviews the other pair. Afterward, the second person interviews the first. Finally, each member shares information from their interview to the entire group.
4. Pair-Share - The most common of cooperative learning activities, students begin by working or thinking silently. Afterward, they pair up and share information. It could be a discussion question, a brainstorm or a story. From there, the pair shares with the small group or the larger group.
5. Technology - Using shared Wikis, Google Documents or Blogs, students can engage in cooperative learning activities with the added aide of technology. Again, it is important to assign roles and offer ideas for organization (for example, a team editor, group leader, visual person, etc. ). This works especially well when students use Problem-Based Learning activities and must see the issues from multiple perspectives.