Blooming...learning!

Maslow then Bloom?

Let's first consider Maslow, the psychological, the safety - developing a feeling of belonging, self esteem - and self actualisation.

Maslow links?learning?through motivation to?learn. The claim here is that when all students needs are met, students can then begin to flourish in their?learning.

However Blooms taxonomy looks at cognitive skills and empowering the learner.

Self belief

There is no doubt that a learner needs self belief and confidence to become a robust learner who is resilient and innovative.

Education is schools was designed to have a curriculum, an assessment strategy, teaching or instruction, data, and if there is time, schools my address the issue of how students think or learn – usually by chance.

Irrespective of their well being, their self esteem, schools decide to look at student well being.

However, still the majority of the time is to focus is on covering the curriculum .... not trying to understand the child's thinking and understanding.

The main aim is task based, focusing on checking on the things you expect students to learn rather than what they are going to be thinking about and how they’ll prove to you that they understand them.

21st century learning

Bloom’s Taxonomy help hasbeen with us for years.??

Blooms focus on knowledge, memorisation, comes at lower levels of his hierarchy.

Memorisation seems to be a word that is becoming an anathema in the new educational sphere. If we don't know it we can Google it.

But what really is wrong with learning and remembering???

Surely the more diverse a student’s knowledge background the quicker that can move up the levels of Blooms?

How can you move on to applying mathematics if you don’t know your tables, or write creative stories if you don’t know your alphabet?

Some elements of memorising??allows students to rapidly access and apply rather than looking for the information first, understanding it and then applying it.

Without knowledge, it is very difficult to access the higher level cognitive skills.?

Rapidly transferring understanding and applying does not mean searching for information first.??A good knowledge base enables them to apply their learning to new and unfamiliar situations on their own.

Learning facts?

There is nothing wrong with learning facts!

As Blooms spirals up,?recalling, defining, explaining, the level of thinking is increased.

So for example, drawing an animal cell, defining its structure, then explaining its characteristics, comparing it to other cells, arguing for and against the function of different cells, and then finally designing theory to prevent cancer or explain how COVID can be prevented at cell level.

But you still need to remember the structure of the membrane, the process of osmosis, diffusion, translocation....

As with any learning??all students start with learning, memorising, defining, before they can use their creative cognitive abilities.??

Learning objectives and using Blooms create a learning environment for students of all abilities – an inclusive approach to learning as they spiral up the way they can - more creative students may be the least competent at memorising/

Malsow, talks about best self-actualisation in the right environment,

Any learning task can within it have elements of assessment, ( Teachers!! ) clear expectations project-based learning, self and peer assessment … true learning where it’s the evidence that is important.?You can still test....if that is relevant.

Most important is inspiring learning for rapid progress.

There is no doubt that create in Blooms challenges students to become more??innovative.

Collaboration

Collaboration in classrooms is now being recognised as a more effective way of giving every student the opportunity to learn cognitively and creatively being challenged by peers and teachers.

They use digital technology and social media to enable asynchronous collaboration.

This allows students to access learning objectives at their own pace, adding to their own thinking, and being able to observe, sit back, internalise,?and then offer strategic ideas according to what they know and when they are ready.?

Learners as teachers

After all, as learners all students have something to contribute, work at their own pace most effectively, develop more self-confidence and self-belief and when they are empowered and challenged and not forced to learn they develop their own true meaning and relevance of the learning.

They become much more confident learners. Students who have to tackle test after test ... focusing on failures rather than successes being to slip down the Maslow hierarchy.

This Blooms approach is particularly good for leaners who are very introverted but creative without having to compete with the class dynamics or hierarchy and proving oneself.

As the class becomes more creative, more student led, more about students developing their own projects around the intended learning objectives.

For example -doing a project on healthy eating, looking the basics in at lower levels, where the student recalls, defines, and identifies what is meant by healthy eating, linking it to Biology objectives, perhaps digestion, obesity, heart disease, exercise etc.??

The, students can analyse the cause and effect using so many factors which can still be directed by the teacher to ‘cover the DP objectives’ for example and be creative in design.

Most important is to empower the student perhaps to evaluate the effectiveness of a healthy eating strategy – and create their own approach, even testing it themselves and collecting data to look at effectiveness, validity, reliability…

To many of us who have now been in education and lived through the changes, it is clear to us that?thinking is still thinking!

It's how the teachers reframe??learning experiences to maximise effective?memorisation, for learners to learn to collaborate, and to innately spiral up Blooms with confidence, self-belief, self-actualisation , and have the confidence to challenge, evaluate, create and become more innovative – while still meeting all learning objectives and passing examinations.??

New generation learning

This is our new generation of learners who no longer depend on books to learn.

Lets use their experience of being born in a technological era, and not lose the focus on quality learning which is no different. It's the process of teaching that has been modified ... right?

It never been more exciting to be a learner… so let’s as teachers grasp these wonderful opportunities to uncap all learning and put a real personal value on learning.??

The traditional expectations will actually be exceeded as you will find 12 year old students accessing A level or DP objectives…. !!

Dr. Tassos Anastasiades