It has been quite some time since I have written anything on my blog. Because I am returning from a long absence, I will share something I have been playing with for quite some time that helps describe where my current passion is with regard to college students ... Bloom's Taxonomy. If any of my current students are reading this, they may be sighing, "oh no, not Bloom's Taxonomy again!" But, it takes many impressions to close a sale and we understand concepts intellectually before we can apply them to our daily lives, so I'm still promoting Bloom:
The theory was born of educational psychology in the 1940s and 1950s, but we are still trying to effectively live the wisdom of Bloom's Taxonomy in higher education today. Since the theory's pivotal assertion in 1956, it has gone through modifications and, as with virtually all theories, there are ongoing critiques of its validity. I have included a picture of the modification I discuss most often with my students where create inhabits the top spot. A key element of my passion is to assist students with their own experiences of creating.
This topic relates to a key concern I have within higher education today. I believe that many academics were indoctrinated into a system of remembering which is causing a cultural block to offering students transformational educational experiences. If we ask students to conform to a daily droning of lectures and algorithmic assignments where they sit well controlled, waiting to be spoon fed and hand held toward enlightenment, it should not surprise us that employers today are finding recent college graduates passive and under-prepared. How can we expect to send creators and innovators into the workforce if we just ask students to conform and remember their way through college? And, if we are not facilitating the development of intrapreneurs, how can we even have a chance at protecting or expanding a culture of American entrepreneurship?
I am confident that students are getting plenty of information to remember as they complete coursework at American community colleges and universities. I also know that students on every college campus are directly, and indirectly, offered opportunities to build skills and create yet many students are participating in college just hoping to check the required boxes and get their diploma without putting much thought into how that diploma will help them achieve their life aspirations.
Two hopes for "blooming" with creativity in Higher Education:
1) We, who are employed in higher education, will keep challenging traditional paradigms so that we can innovate and continue to improve the value of higher education for students who are trusting us to prepare them for post-graduation life in a dynamic world that continues to unfold.
2) Students will not accept the status quo and will actively seek value - becoming aware of what they want and need ... even creating their own transformational college experiences when we fall short as well intentioned individuals and members of well established cultures/systems.
Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and ... CREATE !
Are you buying Bloom yet?
