Tag: Bloom's Taxonomy

The Counsels of the Wise, Part 1: Foundations of Christian Prudence

We began this series with a proposal to replace Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives with Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues. While Bloom and his fellow university examiners aimed to create clarity in teaching goals through a common language, their taxonomy of cognitive domain objectives may have done more harm than good. In rejecting the traditional paradigm of the liberal arts and sciences, they privileged the bare intellect and isolated acts of the mind as if they were the whole of education.  When we compare these bite-sized pieces of “analysis” and “comprehension” to the artistry of grammar and rhetoric, for instance, we

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Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 6: The Transcendence and Limitations of Artistry

In this series on apprenticeship in the arts we have laid out a vision for the role of the arts in a fully orbed classical Christian education. We began by situating artistry or craftsmanship within a neo-Aristotelian and distinctly Christian purpose of education: namely, the cultivation of moral, intellectual, and spiritual virtues. Then we explored the analogy between artistry and morality through the basis in habit development, including in our purview the revolution in neurobiology regarding the importance of myelin. We saw that some types of elite performance have more established pathways to excellence, allowing for deliberate practice, while moral

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Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 1: Traditions and Divisions

The previous two articles have paved the way both for our discussion of Aristotle’s intellectual virtue of techne, artistry or craftsmanship, as well as the intellectual virtue of phronesis, practical wisdom or prudence. In a strict sense, the analogy between artistry and morality is aside from our central argument, which consists in working out the implications of each of Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues as educational goals for school, curriculum, classroom, and pedagogy. The moral virtues are therefore outside the purview of our main purpose, even if they are organically connected to phronesis or practical wisdom. In addition, the moral virtues’

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Practicing in the Dark or the Day: Well-worn Paths or Bushwalking, Artistry and Moral Virtue Continued

In my last article we explored the analogy between Aristotle’s intellectual virtue of artistry or craftsmanship (Greek: techne) and moral virtue, taking our cue from the Nicomachean Ethics book II. Along the way we discovered the foundation for these two types of excellence in habit development or the neural networks of the brain. Excellence, according to Aristotle, comes by the type of practice or exercise that works along the lines of nature. The modern Copernican revolution of neurobiology confirms this thesis by revealing the role of myelin, a white fatty substance that is wrapped around neural circuits that fire together.

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Moral Virtue and the Intellectual Virtue of Artistry or Craftsmanship

It might seem strange after the paradigm delineated above to focus our attention back on intellectual virtues alone, just after arguing for the holistic Christian purpose of education: the cultivation of moral, intellectual and spiritual virtues. But it is impossible to do everything in a single series or book. The cultivation of moral virtues requires a book of its own, at the very least, and the same can be said of spiritual virtues. And there have in fact been many authors that have treated these subjects admirably, even if they have not always traced their practical implications for teaching methods,

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What Bloom’s Left Out: A Comparison with Aristotle’s Intellectual Virtues

In the last three articles in this series, I laid out the good, the bad and the ugly of Bloom’s Taxonomy. After the last two posts it is perhaps worth reaffirming the value of Bloom’s project. While I ultimately believe that Bloom and his colleagues may have done more harm than good, I do affirm the importance of clear objectives in education. The clarity and focus of their project, which raised the issue of teaching objectives in a unique way in the history of education, leaves a real and positive inheritance to the discipline. Moreover, I am convinced that where

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Bloom's Taxonomy

Breaking Down the Bad of Bloom’s: The False Objectivity of Education as a Modern Social Science

In the first two posts of this series (which I am reviving after a 6 months long hiatus) I proposed replacing Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives with Aristotle’s intellectual virtues. The major flaw in Bloom’s taxonomy, which is a hierarchical categorization of educational goals in the cognitive domain, is that it privileges the bare intellect over the heart, like so much of modern education. Even if Bloom and his university examiner colleagues proposed an affective and psychomotor domain as well, and had the modest goal of improving clarity and communication among teachers, curriculum planners and educational researchers, still they codified

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Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Importance of Objectives: 3 Blessings of Bloom’s

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.“–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” Lewis Caroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 71-72 The case of Alice may be considered a good cipher for that of many modern educators. We have a vague awareness in all our modern ‘subjects’

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Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Purpose of Education

One of the major themes in the classical education renewal movement has been to challenge the utilitarianism of modern education. The purpose of education, the argument has gone, is so much broader and more far-reaching than modern educators are making it out to be. It is not merely job training or college preparation, but the formation of flourishing human beings. The cultivation of wisdom and virtue is the purpose of education. There is joy in seeking knowledge for its own sake and as an end in itself.  Next Article in this Series: “Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Importance of Objectives: 3

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