Development of Learning Modules to Enhance Students' Higher-Order Cognitive Skills

Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive domains is a well-defined and broadly accepted tool for categorizing types of thinking into six different levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. It is commonly accepted that memorization and recall (knowledge-level skills) are lower order cognitive skills that require only a minimum level of understanding, whereas the application of knowledge and critical thinking (application, analysis, synthesis & evaluation-level skills) are higher order cognitive skills that require deep conceptual understanding. In our Biology department we have begun introducing students to Bloom’s taxonomy during the introductory series to help students recognize the different levels of thinking they will need to master to succeed in the curriculum. First, we indicate on our exams the Bloom’s level required to successfully answer each question (e.g. knowledge or application) and then provide students with the overall “Bloom’s distribution” for the exam i.e. what percentage of the questions require lower-order versus higher-order cognitive skills. To aid students in identifying the levels that are most challenging for them, we are piloting a program that provides students with their individual “Bloom’s score” after each exam. The Bloom’s score indicates how well they performed on questions requiring different levels of Bloom’s. Typically students receive Bloom’s scores that are high for knowledge and comprehension and lower for one or more higher-order cognitive skills. Once these challenging areas have been identified, students need guidance on how to modify their study habits to better prepare themselves to answer those types of questions. We created the Bloom’s-based Learning Activities for Students (BLASt), a complementary student-directed tool designed to specifically strengthen study skills at each level of Bloom’s. However, we found that students were not able to use this chart effectively without further instruction. We have therefore developed a 1-hour workshop to give students practice in developing application and analysis levels of thinking. We will describe the design of these learning modules and student feedback we have received on the modules. Our long-term goal is to track student progress longitudinally to ascertain whether participation in the Bloom’s workshop enhances student performance on future exams