2. Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain
Remembering Recognizing or recalling knowledge from memory.
Remembering is when memory is used to produce definitions,
facts, or lists, or recite or retrieve material.
Understanding Constructing meaning from different types of information.
Achieved through activities like explaining, comparing,
classifying, summarising, interpreting, giving examples.
Applying Either applying what you have learnt to a situation or applying
a process e.g. inquiry.
Analysing Breaking material or concepts into parts, explaining how the
parts relate to one another or to an overall structure or
purpose. Pupils output will often include charts, or diagrams,
or graphic representations (e.g. mind maps).
Evaluating Making judgments based on criteria.
Creating Putting learning together in a new way
3. Creating
Evaluating
Analysing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering
8 LEVEL SCALE
R
e
m
KS4
KS3
KS2
KS1
5. Cognitive process -
understanding
VERBS RELATING TO
'UNDERSTANDING'
Explain
Illustrate
Interpret
Represent
Compare
Give an example
Paraphrase
Summarise
SAMPLE QUESTION STEMS
Can you write in your own
words...?
Who do you think...?
What was the main idea...?
Can you distinguish
between...?
What differences exist
between...?
Can you provide an example
of what you mean...?
7. ANDERSON AND
KRATHWOHL’
S TAXONOMY
(BRT) 2001
What is a Christian? (i) A follower of Jesus.
How did Jesus teach his followers to behave?
Examples of Jesus' teaching that Christians try to copy e.g.
• The foundations of Christian morality -The two greatest
commandments
• The parable of the Good Samaritan (children's version) 'Love your
neighbour'
• The parable of the prodigal son. 'Forgive; however much someone
has hurt you'.
Remembering: • Pupils can recall the two great commandments
• Pupils can retell the main points of each story
Understanding
:
Pupils can summarise parables in their own words
pupils can explain the point of each parable i.e what is its
message/meaning
Pupils can explain what 'love' means in this context
Pupils can distinguish between examples of 'loving God' and of
'loving your neighbour
Applying: • pupils can explain how Christians today might try to apply the
message of each parable to their own lives.
Analyzing:
Evaluating: • Pupils decide how difficult it would be to live by these principles
Creating: • Pupils can create their own parable for today on the theme of one of
Jesus' parables.
8. MASTERY LEARNING
the main difference between children is the speed at
which they learn rather than ability
the essential purpose of assessment is to check that
pupils have grasped what they have been taught NOT to
compare children against each other i.e. formative
assessment
nearly all children can achieve 'mastery' of a subject n.b.
'mastery' is not the highest standard that can be reached
but the standard that can be reached by most pupils.
don't move on to new work until all pupils have
'mastered' or reached the expected standard on the
present one.
Pupils who complete the work to ‘mastery’ are given
work at greater depth
9. Standards and Testing Agency[1]
on testing at KS1
• Most pupils will be working at the expected
standard.
• Other pupils are said to be 'working towards
the expected standard' and
• 'working at greater depth within the
expected standard'.
10. ANDERSON AND
KRATHWOHL’
S TAXONOMY
(BRT) 2001
What is a Christian? (i) A follower of Jesus.
How did Jesus teach his followers to behave?
Examples of Jesus' teaching that Christians try to copy e.g.
• The foundations of Christian morality -The two greatest
commandments
• The parable of the Good Samaritan (children's version) 'Love your
neighbour'
• The parable of the prodigal son. 'Forgive; however much someone
has hurt you'.
Remembering: • Pupils can recall the two great commandments
• Pupils can retell the main points of each story
Understanding
:
Pupils can summarise parables in their own words
pupils can explain the point of each parable i.e what is its
message/meaning
Pupils can explain what 'love' means in this context
Pupils can distinguish between examples of 'loving God' and of
'loving your neighbour
Applying: • pupils can explain how Christians today might try to apply the
message of each parable to their own lives.
Analyzing:
Evaluating: • Pupils decide how difficult it would be to live by these principles
Creating: • Pupils can create their own parable for today on the theme of one of
Jesus' parables.
11. ANDERSON AND
KRATHWOHL’
S TAXONOMY
(BRT) 2001
What is a Christian? (i) A follower of Jesus.
How did Jesus teach his followers to behave?
Examples of Jesus' teaching that Christians try to copy e.g.
• The foundations of Christian morality -The two greatest
commandments
• The parable of the Good Samaritan (children's version) 'Love your
neighbour'
• The parable of the prodigal son. 'Forgive; however much someone
has hurt you'.
Remembering: • Pupils can recall the two great commandments
• Pupils can retell the main points of each story
Understanding
:
Pupils can summarise parables in their own words
pupils can explain the point of each parable i.e what is its
message/meaning
Pupils can explain what 'love' means in this context
Pupils can distinguish between examples of 'loving God' and of
'loving your neighbour
Applying: • pupils can explain how Christians today might try to apply the
message of each parable to their own lives.
Analyzing:
Evaluating: • Pupils decide how difficult it would be to live by these principles
Creating: • Pupils can create their own parable for today on the theme of one of
Jesus' parables.
12. ANDERSON AND KRATHWOHL’S TAXONOMY
(BRT) 2001
CONTENT/KNOWLEDGE
The importance of the following to the theory and practice of
assessment:
•Bloom's revised taxonomy
•Bloom's theory of mastery learning
•Anderson's planning matrix
COGNITIVE PROCESSES
1. Remembering: Teachers know:
•The sequence of 6 cognitive processes in Bloom's revised
taxonomy
•Bloom's theory of mastery learning
•Anderson's planning matrix
2. Understanding:
•Teachers can give examples of tasks in relation to illustrate the six
cognitive processes.
•Using the example given (Jeus' teaching), teachers can identify
the expected standard for a year group they teach.
•Teachers can explain what changes they would have to make to
their present planning and assessment in order to apply mastery
theory.
3. Applying: •Teachers can use Anderson's planning matrix to planning their
next topic
•Teachers can use the theory of mastery learning to their next
topic.
4. Analyzing:
5. Evaluating: Teachers can evaluate the effectiveness of these three theories
6. Creating: Teachers can create a planning and assessment scheme for their
class, putting all of these principles into practice.
I'm going to finish by applying Anderson's planning matrix to another
topic, which I hope will make the process clear.
13. You can't do all of this now. As I said at
the beginning, the strength of this project
lies in the involvement of you, the
teachers. We will continue to produce
examples of planning and assessment
like the one on Jesus' teaching. But only
you can try these out in the classroom
and tell us what works and where we
need to go back to the drawing board. We
need you to do the evaluating task and
send us the results.
Hinweis der Redaktion
Assessment. I'm not talking about assessment in RE because what I have to say should apply to any subject. The only thing that is RE specific in this presentation are the examples I will use.
What I'm going to do this morning is to take you through some of the basic principles which we have used to design an assessment scheme. Some of this will be familiar to you already I'm sure.
1Bloom's REVISED taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001))
2Bloom's theory of mastery learning
3Anderson's matrix for planning learning objectives.
Let's start with Bloom's revised taxonomy.
Taxonomy (from the Greek taxis) is simply about putting things in an order or sequence. Bloom as an educationalist was interested in learning. His is one of a number of taxonomies for learning. We have decided to use Bloom’s because the processes he identifies are particularly familiar to teachers.
Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl’s revision of Bloom’s work in 2001 includes three taxonomies. The one we have worked on so far is the Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain - a sequence of learning knowledge and skills. Our next task will be to look at the affective domain, which is about the development of attitudes.
Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain
The diagram above shows the cognitive processes in the taxonomy.
If this looks familiar - it should do. It's underpinned the 8 level scale for 30 yrs.
Make no mistake - we are all having to think very differently now. And here's why
This is the last 30 years - now old think.
Learning is linear and sequential. In KS1 pupils do little more than acquire factual information (e.g. Pupils recall and name different beliefs and practices, including festivals, worship, rituals and ways of life…)
At KS2 Describe and make connections between different features of the religions and worldviews they study.. Consider and apply ideas
KS3 Explain and interpret.. consider and evaluate
You can find a similar approach to learning in other subjects. We did it that way because we had to - well we didn't have to in RE because it wasn’t in the National Curriculum but for the sake of teachers it seemed best to use the same structure as the NC subjects.
Bloom would be turning in his grave if he saw this. This - the 8 level scale - says that we progress through Bloom’s 6 stages as we get older. It's a model of vertical progression.
It suggests that only older pupils are able to analyse, evaluate and so on. We know that this is nonsense. 5 year olds can evaluate at their own level - they can analyse - if after they have grasped the nativity story you show them a selection of Christmas cards and ask them to sort them into two piles according to whether the picture relates to the nativity story or to modern Christmas customs, most will be able to do it. That's analysis for 5 year olds.
The other questionable implication of the 8-level claim that progression is linear or vertical is that you pass through each stage only once. Once you have reached L6 there's no going back. This is obviously nonsense. We go back to square 1 every time we learn something new. Y7 pupils learning about Sikhism for the first time won't start learning at L6. They will have to start by finding out some information about Sikhism before they can move on to understand or analyse the material in depth.
Bloom would have liked this.
The words describing stages of learning are exactly the same but there are 2 huge differences.
This is a picture of horizontal learning. This was how Bloom intended his Taxonomy to be used. This sequence of learning is repeated over and over again - from reception to Y13 and beyond. Bloom and his successors always intended the taxonomy to be used over short periods of time. The idea is that every time you start to teach a new SoW/unit/topic, your pupils start by recalling and remembering factual information. You then introduce -not more facts/content - but more challenging tasks using the same content. You want pupils to understand what they are learning; to analyse the material. Bloom called this deep learning. Deep because you get to understand a limited amount of content from several different angles. He claimed that we retain deep learning - it stays with us -rather than superficial learning which is the result of rushing through a large quantity of content - giving pupils only a few basic tasks to do. Think of all that last minute revision we all did for exams - we remembered it just long enough to write it all down - here today gone tomorrow.
The second big difference between our vertical and horizontal cones is that while the first assumes a constant moving forward, the second signifies that you move through this sequence horizontally thousands of times in a lifetime, as you learn new things. The beauty of it is for the teacher that once you know the sequence and how to use it the system is the same for everything pupils learn -from reception to Y13.
What's this to do with assessment?
The taxonomy is about learning - so how can it help us assess?
Here's the process-
As a result of your teaching (teaching methods are many and varied- that's OK) you want children to learn. So you give them tasks to do that on the one hand extend their understanding and on the other tell you whether or not they have learnt what you have taught them. The processes in the taxonomy help you set a huge variety of interesting tasks that are increasingly challenging. We have produced six short papers, one on each of the processes, like this one on understanding - which I imagine you would use a lot: Each of these papers includes:
what the process means: (Constructing meaning from knowledge: activities like interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.)
examples of each of these activities, for example: Interpreting - could be converting information from one form to another e.g. pictures to words, paraphrasing. Or producing a labelled plan of a mosque, explaining the purpose of the key features.
a list of verbs to use in setting 'understanding' tasks: explain, illustrate, interpret, compare, give an example, paraphrase, summarise.
sample question stems such as: Can you write in your own words...? Can you write a brief outline...? What do you think could of happened next...? What was the main idea...? Who was the key character...? Can you distinguish between...? What differences exist between...? Can you provide an example of what you mean...?
You will get one of these pages for each of the six processes.
Anderson's matrix for writing learning objectives
Another helpful gadget for making the busy teacher's life easier.
You all know that writing learning objectives is at the heart of good teaching and learning. Learning objectives bring together teacher, pupil and subject. If the learning objectives are wrong - so will everything else be. How can they be wrong? They could be made too difficult, or too easy. They could not be learning objectives at all: I've seen quite a few like this
‘Pupils will take part in a visit to St Michael's Church’
That's not a learning objective - it's an activity. If you assess whether pupils have achieved this 'objective' - all they needed to do was go on the trip. They didn't have to learn anything!
We've made Anderson's original even more simple than the original. Here it is!
This can be used (and is used) for planning anything from reception to university. Here's one I made earlier:
The topic goes in the top right hand box. Very important not to introduce processes at this point e.g. pupils will be able to analyse…explain. Just write down the 'content' of the topic.
Then start with remembering/recalling. Decide what you want them to learn - in this case - what the two commandments were and the main points of the two stories (one at a time)
Then do the same with understanding. I'm not suggesting that you do all of these. How might you do it? Pupils summarise the story in their own words - several ways of doing that, writing, telling it orally, act it out, story board, cartoon strip etc. Distinguishing between loving God and your neighbour e.g. you could give them a few little scenarios in pictures or writing and get them to identify which are examples of loving God and loving neighbour.
You know your class. If you even think that you might have pupils who can attempt application, analysis, evaluation tasks then plan for this at the beginning. There's nothing worse than being caught on the hop by pupils who have finished everything and done it well - but having nothing planned to give them. That's when there's a danger of telling them to ‘draw a picture'.
Five important points about this:
This work is planned to take about 8hrs. It could be taught over 8 weeks, 1 hr a week or, e.g. in a block of lessons over 3-4 weeks.
Note that as time went on we haven't increased the content - we didn't say 'you've understood those parables very well so here's another one' - instead we took pupils on a journey in depth - to consider the parables from several different angles.
Note - nothing has been written against analysing. You don't have to work through the complete taxonomy. Some topics won't lend themselves to certain processes - don't force the issue.
Above all this process illustrates that it is very difficult to distinguish between a task i.e a piece of work you ask pupils to do and an assessment tasks. All of the LOs in this unit can be both learning objectives that help pupils extend their understanding and assessment objectives in that how pupils perform the tasks tells you, the teacher, how well they have understood the work.
It's not a race - or a competition. Don't be tempted to rush pupils through the taxonomy. It's not about being able to say 'all my 5 year olds can evaluate'. It's about giving pupils the time to really get to grips with their learning and to manipulate information to the best of their ability..
Mastery learning
Have you heard of Tim Oates? Government adviser on assessment. What you hear from Oates (2014) is based securely on Benjamin Bloom. Bloom developed a theory which he called mastery learning. In a nutshell:
the main difference between children is the speed at which they learn rather than ability
the essential purpose of assessment is to check that pupils have grasped what they have been taught NOT to compare children against each other i.e. formative assessment
nearly all children can achieve 'mastery' of a subject n.b. 'mastery' is not the highest standard that can be reached but the standard that can be reached by most pupils.
don't move on to new work until all pupils have 'mastered' or reached the expected standard on the present one.
This last point is key. When I was an inspector one of the most worrying things I found in schools were the large number of exercise books etc, full of unfinished work. What had happened? The teacher had planned after a set number of lessons to move on to the next task or part of the topic, whether pupils had finished or not.
We found the term 'mastery' unhelpful and were pleased to see that latest guidance from Standards and Testing Agency[1] on testing at KS1 has also abandoned the word while keeping the ides.
Most pupils will be working at the expected standard. Other pupils are said to be 'working towards the expected standard' and 'working at greater depth within the expected standard'. Hence the same idea as mastery but a more realistic name.
[1]
Interim teacher assessment frameworks at the end of key stage 1
The question is - what is the expected standard? That is a question that you will ask yourself every time you plan a new topic.
Let's look again at our plan: you have decided what tasks you want to set for developing and assessing pupils’ abilities in relation to the 6 cognitive processes. What you have to do now is crucial - you have to identify the learning objective that describes the expected standard.
Once you have identified the LOs that you expect most pupils to reach, you are left with the more demanding LOs for the pupils who finished early to move on to.
What we get from assessment is the information about which pupils achieved the expected standard etc. These three outcomes are the same for every key stage and year. They tell us precisely what we want to know - whether or not pupils have grasped what they have been taught.
Follow-up TASK
We need to know which of these LOs your class can achieve.
SUMMARY
We're taking on some very different principles here for structuring learning and assessment.
We have established that learning in the humanities is cyclical.
Every time we come to study something new, we go through the same sequence of learning and assessment regardless of age.
This method of assessment will give us the same information about pupils' achievements whatever their age: working at the expected standard. Other pupils are said to be 'working towards the expected standard' and 'working at greater depth within the expected standard'.
BUT – this approach does leave us with a big question:
If pupils aged 5-18 are all expected to work within the same 6 cognitive processes, and if assessment provides the same three achievements for all pupils regardless of age, how do we secure progression over time? Put another way, how do we ensure that the standard of e.g. analysis and evaluation among 14 year olds is higher than for 5 year olds?
To find our answer, see the forthcoming paper about progression on the website.
Your comments and feedback can be sent to Barbara on barwintersgill@gmail.com copied to Linda Rudge, project director, on lrudge@waitrose.com
Please provide your name and the name of your school in your response.