Bloom's+Revised+Taxonomy

**Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy**
As described by Noble (2004), Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is an educational hierarchy, used to organise and distinguish cognitive activities and objectives on a scale ranging from lower order thinking skills, such as remembering, through to high order more complex abilities, where students evaluate and create. This educational pedagogy is an approach to educating special/additional needs students that focuses on differentiating or altering the curriculum and activities so that lessons are focussed around the individual student – their strengths rather than weaknesses – while maintaining a level of flexibility that fosters a student centred approach (Noble, 2004)//.// This focus on utilising a student’s strengths to reach the most appropriate academic outcome for the students is one rationale behind teachers often incorporating the notion of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences into the use of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (Noble, 2004)//.//

Blooms Revised Taxonomy is able to be adapted for use in any year level and across a broad spectrum of KLA’s, with Noble (2004), finding that Blooms Revised Taxonomy is an effective method of including students with learning difficulties into mainstream classes, as it is a method that has positive benefits for all students in the class. Lindstrom (1995), found that for students with learning difficulties, they often posses the ability to learn, take in and make sense of new information, but it often is the instructional method used by the teacher that is preventing them from doing so. Through utilising Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, students with learning difficulties are able to use the metacognition strategies of divergent and reflective thinking processes (Lindstrom, 1995). These thinking strategies help to empower students to take control of their learning and provide a sense of accomplishment (Lindstrom, 1995).

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is able to include students with learning difficulties, as all students in the class are working through activities based around the same topic. No one student is labelled as being different or defective as other students in the class can chose to complete the same activity as students with learning difficulties (Noble, 2004). While implementing a taxonomy requires more planning and preparation time than many conventional classroom activities, it’s ability to be used as a whole class activity that supports the effective inclusion of students with learning difficulties, has the potential to out way the extra resources (Noble, 2004).

Utilising Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy allows special/additional needs student’s to achieve the same level of academic success as their typically developing peers, but in an area or activity that fosters confidence and allows students to show off their strengths to their peers, thus reducing any sense of failure (Noble, 2004). Students have more opportunity to spend additional time on developing knowledge and understanding about particular topics, often as a collaborative process with their peers, as it has been found that students of all ability levels tend to work with those who they normally don’t, if they are skilled in a particular area (Noble, 2004).

As students with special/additional needs often have a curriculum based around life skills and real world experience, as a teacher, planning the activities to be included in the taxonomy in a class based setting, allows students with special/additional needs to see the purpose of the different activities and how they are personally relevant to their learning and their life (Reilly, 2004 & Noble, 2004). This taxonomy also assists teachers to develop a deep understanding of their students with special/additional needs strengths and weaknesses, so they can further tailor other learning experiences to students’ individual needs (Noble, 2004).

As Krechevsky and Gardner (in Noble, 2004) stated, Bloom’s Taxonomy “opens up options for individuals for whom the traditional educational program has failed.”

Lindstrom, C. (1995). Empower the Child with Learning Difficulties to Think Metacognitively. //Australian Journal of Remedial Education//, 27.2, 28-31. Noble, T. (2004). Integrating the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy with Multiple Intelligences: A Planning Tool for Curriculum Differentiation. //Teachers College Record.// 106, 193-211. Reilly, L. (2004), How Western Australian Parents Manage the Home Schooling of their Children with Disabilities. //Australian Association for Research in Education 2004,// 1-17.
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