When considering Bloom's Taxonomy, the act of evaluating is the top of the stack with regards to higher order thinking skills. The revised taxonomy places creating in this position.
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This is due to the fact that when a learner creates their own material they must move through the lower, mid and higher order thinking skills in order to create their product.
The digital technology available today means that publishing of material has never been easier, whether that be videos, music, websites, eBooks, games, apps. The availability of such resources means that teachers have a great opportunity to allow pupils to display their learning in a dynamic way.
During November, I had the opportunity to work with maths department staff and students in order to allow a group of students to express their learning by creating a product as part of a project.
Students were presented with a mathematical problem to solve, they then had to develop a creative way of using technology in order to explain to others how they solved the problem.
By itself the problem solving exercise, although challenging, would have made it to the midpoint of 'applying' in the revised taxonomy. The creative part of the project then allowed students to display their higher order thinking skills by producing a tutorial video.
The obvious additional skills displayed would be ICT (recording audio, creating graphics, editing video), but it was the act of planning the creation that was most powerful.
Students were forced to consider how and why they performed tasks in a certain way. Whether they could have, or should have, completed tasks differently. They were forced to justify decisions made. Then create a narrative that succinctly explained the process to others who had no understanding of the problem.
The act of editing the recorded materiel, audio and video, meant that students listened to their explanations many, many times. This act solidified the learning.
The end product was produced to a high level, but the same outcome could be achieved using basic screencast software such as Quicktime, which is available free on macbooks, or by using a mobile phone, a piece of paper and a pen!
Please enjoy the end product AND please leave a COMMENT.
How to screencast with Quicktime Player
