Bloom (1913-1999) one e-learning paper you must read plus his taxonomy of learning

Bloom and e-learningOne famous paper by Benjamin Bloom, The 2 Sigma Problem, compared the lecture, formative feedback lecture and one-to-one tuition. Taking the straight lecture as the mean, he found an 84% increase in mastery above the mean for a formative approach to teaching and an astonishing 98% increase in mastery for one-to-one tuition. Google s Peter Norvig famously said that if you only have to read one paper to support e-learning, this is it. In other words, the increase in efficacy for one-to-one because of the increase in on-task learning is immense. This paper deserves to be read by anyone looking at improving the efficacy of learning as it shows hugely significant improvements by simply altering the way teachers interact with learners. E-learning, in the widest sense of the word promises what Bloom called one-to-one learning , whether it s through self-paced structured learning, scenario-based learning, simulations or informal learning.Bloom s taxonomyHowever, Bloom is far better known for his hugely influential classification of learning behaviours and provided concrete measures for identifying different levels of learning. His taxonomy includes three overlapping domains;

1. Cognitive (knowledge)
2. Psychomotor (skills)
3. Affective (attitude)

It was devised to assist teachers to classify educational goals and plan and evaluate learning experiences. Unfortunately, this is about as far as most people get. They rarely dig deeper into his further six levels in the cognitive, six different aspects of psychomotor skills and his less useful, three types of affective.Six levels of learningThis domain consisted of six levels, each with specific learning behaviours and descriptive verbs that could be used when writing instructional objectives.Cognitive learning1. Knowledgeöb7         Observation and recall of informationöb7         Knowledge of dates, events, placesöb7         Knowledge of major ideasöb7         Mastery of subject matteröb7         Verbs: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, , name, who, when, where, etc2. Comprehensionöb7         Understanding informationöb7         Grasp meaningöb7         Translate knowledge into new conceptöb7         Interpret facts, compare, contrastöb7         Order, group, infer causesöb7         Predict consequencesöb7         Verbs: summarise, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend, etc3. Applicationöb7         Use informationöb7         Use methods, concepts, theories in new situationsöb7         Solve problems using required skills or knowledgeöb7         Verbs: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover, etc4. Analysisöb7         Seeing patternsöb7         Organising of partsöb7         Recognition of hidden meaningsöb7         Identification of componentsöb7         Verbs: analyse, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer, etc5. Synthesisöb7         Use old ideas to create new onesöb7         Generalise from given factsöb7         Relate knowledge from several areasöb7         Predict, raw conclusionsöb7         Verbs: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalise, rewrite, etc6. Evaluationöb7         Compare and discriminate between ideasöb7         Assess value of theories and presentationsöb7         Make choices based on reasoned argumentöb7         Verify value of evidenceöb7         Recognise subjectivityöb7         Verbs: assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarise, etcPsychomotor LearningReflex:Objectives not usually set at this basic levelFundamental movementsApplicable mostly to young childrenDescriptive verbs: crawl, run, jump, change direction, etc.Perceptual abilities:Descriptive verbs: catch, write, balance, distinguish, manipulate, etc.Physical abilitiesDescriptive verbs: stop, increase, move quickly, change, react, etc.Skilled movements:Descriptive verbs: play, hit, swim, dive, use, etcNon-discursive communication:Descriptive verbs: express, create, mime, design, interpret, etc.Affective LearningAttitudes of awareness, interest, attention, concern, and responsibilityAbility to listen and respond in interactions with othersAbility to demonstrate those attitudinal characteristics, or values, which are appropriate to the situation and field of studyCriticismJust three years before behaviourism was to receive its fatal blow from Noam Chomsky, Bloom published his now famous taxonomy of learning. Few realise that this taxonomy is now 50 years old. There have been lots of taxonomies since then that slice and dice, many variations on existing categories. Indeed we've had dozens of taxonomies which sliced and diced in all sorts of ways. We've had Biggs, Wills, Bateson, Belbin and dozens more. We seem to got stuck in the Bloom  taxonomy. The problem with taxonomies is their attempt to pin down the complexity of cognition in a list of simple categories. In practice, learning doesn t fall into these neat divisions. It s a much more complex and messier set of cognitive processes, so attention has shifted to how learning meshes with memory and techniques that improve organisation, chunking, encoding, practice and recall.Another danger is that instructionalists, like Gagne, take these taxonomies and attempt to design learning that matches these categories, destroying much of the more useful approaches which an understanding of brain science brings; such as cognitive overload, working memory limitations, top-down processing and so on. Learning theory has moved on in terms of a more detailed understanding of memory, which has put everything on a more empirical and scientific basis.ConclusionWe have Bloom to thank for addressing the basic but important issue in education endash that group learning is not always better learning. He showed that formative feedback and one-to-one tuition are indeed powerful amplifiers of learning. Bloom was also the first to really establish a solid, working taxonomy of learning, had to have his theories extended, as people realised that the tripartite classification was too narrow. The cognitive, psychomotor and affective distinction is still widely used today, which is either a testimony to Bloom s vision, or a tendency for the training world to become stuck in old models. His taxonomy was at least a start, which ultimately led to a more professional approach to instructional practice.BibliographyBloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. Longmans, Green.Bloom, B. (1984). The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring, Educational Researcher, 13:6(4-16).Guskey, T. R. (2005).Benjamin S. Bloom: Portraits of an educator. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education.