1. Higher Order Skills in Early Years – How Useful is Bloom’s Taxonomy 13 th February 2013 Yvonne McBlain yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk 01324 501985

2. Learning Intentions: We are: Exploring how useful Bloom’s taxonomy is/can be Developing our ability to plan for higher order skills

3. Success Criteria? Participants will be able to: 1.Describe the cognitive skills listed in Bloom’s taxonomy 2.Identify how their existing practice makes use of these skills 3.Assess how Bloom’s or other taxonomies might influence the quality of their planning for Higher Order Skills

4. Format : 1.Group formation & review activity 2.Video & other support available 3.Presentation & exemplification 4.Bloom’s matching activities 5.Study of other taxonomies 6.Present group responses to the question “How useful is Bloom’s taxonomy?”

5. Group Formation Tasks Use jigsaw to find your group – meet & greet Table mat exercise – what do you know about Bloom’s taxonomy? 5 mins Feedback - display and discuss briefly

6. Bloom’s Taxonomy 1956

7. Bloom’s Taxonomy Classification of cognitive skills 1956 booklet – has become one of most influential publications for a wide range of educators Defines a hierarchy of skills – more complex as they move up the triangle Uses triangle to show how “higher” levels include (subsume) those lower down http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title =Bloom%27s_Taxonomyhttp://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title =Bloom%27s_Taxonomy

8. Anderson and Krathwohl 2001 Revision of Bloom’s More relevant for planning, delivery and assessment Breaks Bloom’s categories down into a wider range of verbs

9. Cognitive Skills Re-defined Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory. Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing. Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing. Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 67-68)

10. Bloom’s matching activities Work with your group to match each activity with its skill 5 mins Tour groups Any comments? What did you notice?

11. Kier Bloomer on HOS Video Clip

12. Study of other taxonomies Skills Path HOS Excellence Group SOLO http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/solo.htm http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/solo.htm Other? What do you think? Further Reading: SQA paper http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/ResearchReport10_Taxonomies.p df

13. Let’s Build a Bloom’s

14. What’s the verdict? How useful is Bloom’s taxonomy to you? How will this session affect what you do? Immediate next steps?