Week 5 Reflections

The discussion board was on Bloom's Taxonomy was very interesting this week. Being able to interpret the level of an activity or assessment from a few sentences is not an easy task. At what age are learners able to work at the critical thinking levels? Are there different levels of critical thinking for different age groups?
I was recently introduced to a twist in Bloom's Taxonomy referred to as EASy - Evaluate, Analyze, and Synthesize - putting creating something new as the highest level of critical thinking. An article in APA Online titled Using the new Bloom's Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments explains the thinking that supports the shift.

The site on plagiarism was very informative. Though, as instructors if we move toward more authentic assessments that incorporate applied and personal experiences, the ability to plagiarize significantly decreases.

The activity of just considering how an activity meets or doesn't meet certain criteria for higher levels of a taxonomy is significant for our own practice. Are we asking learners to really dig into topics and discover, make connections, create something new? Then we will have created learning experiences that can't be copied from a book or the web, can't be memorized and forgotten.