Critical Thinking

     Overall the articles discussed theories of cognitive domain, learning styles and how technology is evolving the process of learning. In the past, learning meant only touching those lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy. In the past, this simply meant memorizing content knowledge demonstrated mastery of content. However, plenty research shows that students who beyond those basic levels of Bloom's taxonomy have deeper learning. Deeper learning as described by the articles is it develops learning, creating and 'doing'. I think this is so important. I remember being in the generation when I was at school that I would memorize everything for a test then forget it after. I was a straight A student, but I don't know how much I really learned. My husband on the other hand did not have the best grades, but can apply any knowledge he was given. Unfortunately most teachers make test that still assess on the lower levels of taxonomy, even though research shows students remember more when they have learned a topic on the higher levels of taxonomy. 

    In the executive summary of A rich seam: How new pedagogies find deep learning, it discusses how teachers and students are teaming up to make learning irresistibly engaging, and steeped in real-life problem-solving. In my current and future classes this I try to make not only my content, but also my assessments founded in those higher levels of taxonomy. Throughout my change in how I present my content, I have found that when I teach something using a real-world problem or tie it to the students lives, the students are more engaged and do well on that content. I feel like the barriers of how we assess students and schools should be broken. It is clear that new measures need to be put in place on how to access students using those higher levels of taxonomy. 

    As we are changing our systems of how we teach and assess to reach those higher levels, we should also being using technology to enhance not substitute our curriculum. Unfortunately , many schools mistakenly believe that providing children with access to digital resources will automatically enhance their learning. When used wrong technology can simple be a substitution. Teachers should be intentional with using technology to reach those higher levels of taxonomy that might not be accomplished without it. For example in science students working through those steps in the scientific method as they do a virtual lab. Then once they have hypothesized, experimented, and analyzed. They then share their findings and have discussions with someone about it in a different school or country. I feel like schools are so far behind where we should be for our students. The first step is teachers implementing higher taxonomies in their content and assessments with technology. I also feel that the school systems need to change how they measure students mastery to higher levels of taxonomy.