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RAISE TEST SCORES

Critical Thinking and Bloom's Taxonomy in the Classroom

By Marion Hindes, Remedia Publications

      With today's emphasis on meeting standards and raising test scores, teachers are well advised to build higher level thinking skills into a solid, basic curriculum. Thinking skills such as logic and reasoning are clearly linked to better academic performance and higher test scores.

      How does a teacher incorporate these skills into an already demanding schedule? It may not be as difficult as one might think.

      The purpose of this article is threefold. First, we will briefly review Bloom's Taxonomy. Next, we will provide a model of how to apply it in the everyday classroom. Finally, we will offer suggestions for supplemental materials that can be used to foster thinking at a higher level.

Bloom's Taxonomy of Thinking Skills

Note: please bear in mind that in educational settings these categories will overlap and intertwine.

Knowledge: This is the foundation. If a student does not know the basics of any subject, how can he think critically about it?

• Recalling information
• Knowing dates, places, and events
• Knowing major ideas
• Mastering subject matter

Comprehension:

• Understanding information and its meaning
• Interpreting facts
• Comparing and contrasting
• Ordering and sequencing
• Grouping and classifying
• Understanding cause and effect
• Predicting consequences

Application:

• Making use of knowledge learned
• Using information already acquired to expand information and build skills
• Applying knowledge to real life
• Converting abstract content to concrete situations

Analysis:

• Taking apart the known
• Breaking a whole into its component parts
• Seeing how parts relate to the whole
• Seeing patterns
• Recognizing hidden meanings

Synthesis:

• Combining parts of a whole in a new and different way
• Using old ideas to create new ones
• Generalizing from given facts
• Predicting outcomes
• Drawing conclusions
• Relating knowledge from several different areas

Evaluation:

• Making judgments
• Forming personal values
• Recognizing bias
• Judging source credibility
• Evaluating facts for accuracy
• Weighing value of evidence

      How does all this apply to the real classroom? Following are examples of story questions that can be used to correlate with each level of Bloom's Taxonomy. (Of course, the wording will need to be adapted to the grade level). Questions pertain to the story The Lion and the Mouse.

Knowledge: Literal comprehension questions.

• Who was sleeping under the tree?
• What did the mouse promise the lion?
• When did the lion and the mouse meet again?

Comprehension:

• What is the main idea of the story?
• Tell the main events in the order they happened.
• What caused the lion to let the mouse go free?

Application:

• Can you think of an example of a person returning a favor like the mouse did?
• Draw a picture of the mouse helping the lion.
• How are the mouse and the lion like real people?

Analysis:

• What are the two main parts (or scenes) of this story?
• What pattern of behavior do you see in the lion and the mouse?
• What is the moral of this story?

Synthesis:

• Tell this story in a new way. Use people instead of animals as characters.
• What do you think the hunter will do when he finds the lion gone?
• Do you know any other stories about mercy or kindness?

Evaluation:

• How important do you think it is to be kind?
• Do you think the lion and the mouse did the right thing? Why or why not?
• If you were the lion, would you let the mouse go free? Why or why not?

  Not only can critical thinking be fostered through the regular curriculum, it can be taught directly as well, through materials created for that purpose. Remedia Publications' newly revised Critical Thinking Series (Grades 3-6) targets these important skills. Based on Bloom's Taxonomy, this entertaining 16 book series fosters creativity while building language, reading, math, logic and reasoning skills (REM 201G). Younger learners will be challenged by our Primary Thinking Skills 4-book set (REM 205E) and our Cut, Paste & Color 5-book set (REM 52F). Both series deal with primary thinking skills. For information on these and other skills-based materials, visit our web site at www.rempub.com. or call 1-800-826-4740 and request a catalog.

Material adapted from Internet sources: http://www.ops.org/reading/blooms_taxonomy.html;
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.html;
http://www.kent.wednet.edu/KSD/MA/resources/blooms/teachers_blooms.html.