Bloom's Taxonomy is a structure that outlines the cognitive steps toward achieving mastery of a specific concept. The structure was developed by a professor named Benjamin Bloom who hypothesized that students go through the steps of knowing, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating in order to learn concepts. The taxonomy was later edited in 2001 by Lorin Anderson, a student of Bloom.
This structure demonstrates a major shortcoming in our education system. Students reach the memorization and comprehension level fairly easily, but often do not go past that. Our curriculum does not often push students to enter the analyze, evaluate, and create steps. Occasionally, there may be a challenge problem or project, but most students do not climb high enough up the pyramid.
Due to this phenomenon, many students do not master mathematical concepts and end up lacking a strong academic foundation.
Here, at Every Student, our curriculum is specifically designed to encourage higher-level thinking and push students up the pyramid. Our lessons are specially designed to fit this model and ensure that every student is able to master every concept.
For instance, when learning about the coordinate plane, students may begin with simple tasks such as memorizing vocabulary and understanding how to plot points. However, our tutors don't stop there. Students will apply their knowledge to plot shapes on the plane, defend their solution, and eventually plot a diagram of their entire house with labeled points.
This strategy has proven to be successful as students are much more likely to retain concepts and understand them at a deeper level. Bloom's Taxonomy is a reminder that we must hold students to higher cognitive standards and encourage a deep understanding of mathematics.
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