Teaching and Learning are inextricably linked.
Some teachers have the philosophy that their job is only to present the information.
What do you think? If learning has not taken place, have you taught??
There are many theories about how learning takes place.
Be sure to read about them in Chapter 4!
We are going to concentrate on a couple of concepts.
First, Bloom's Taxonomy.
You probably remember that from your education classes.
The levels you see represent different levels of thinking
Here is another way to look at it with a little more detail.
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things
Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.
Justifying a decision or course of action
Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Using information in another familiar situation
Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding
Notice that 'Remembering' is at the bottom of the food chain and that 'Creating' is at the top. It is helpful to assess our classroom activities and categorize them. Are we concentrating too much on the lower levels?
Take a look at this planning guide:
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Planning Framework
One pitfall for music teachers is to consider 'exploring' to be 'creating.' You know what I mean, when we put an instrument in a student's hand, let him/her noodle around, and then call that 'improvisation.'
Hmmmm. . . . .
Creating, at least in this sense, is the highest level of thinking, so as we discuss this week, be sure to use 'creating' as a higher form than 'exploring.'
Now let's look at another concept:
Multiple intelligences is a theory developed by Howard Gardner. He said that intelligence based upon IQ tests was too limited and that there are actually 8 different kinds of intelligence that we all possess to various degrees.
For an explanation of this theory, follow the link below. Here is an example of a good use of Wikipedia. There is a brief description of the theory and its parts. If you scroll down to the bottom, there is an excellent bibliography. Check it out:
Now, take the test yourself
Multiple Intelligence Test
The link below is a website that gives very helpful information to educators about using the knowledge of multiple intelligences in the classroom.
Now, what if you were to combine Bloom's taxonomy with Multiple Intelligences and apply the two to your classroom.
Here is a master chart called
Blooming Smarts Master Planning Matrix
This chart combines the different levels of thinking (Bloom's Revised Taxonomy) with the different kinds of intelligence (Multiple Intelligences). You can use this to plan activities that incorporate all levels of thinking and all kinds of intelligence. It will challenge your creativity, but just think of the ramifications of addressing the strengths of all of your students on every level!