Class, memorize, exam, repeat.
Valuable education is about more than memorizing facts and data and passing exams. Students’ thinking is far greater than a GPA. Packback believes that curiosity has a place in every classroom.
One framework that encourages curiosity during the cognitive process is Bloom’s Taxonomy. Packback Questions is a student engagement platform that utilizes this framework to ensure higher levels of thinking that students may not otherwise have the time or confidence to explore within the classroom. Already sold and want to learn more about Packback Questions? Click here. Continue reading to learn more about encouraging high-level thinking.
Packback has developed a way for students to reach the levels of thinking in gold through the use of the Packback Questions platform. Most higher education stops after “Remember” and “Understand” (levels 1 and 2), but there are ways to insert questions and activities to prompt student discussion and ideas for the final four levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy – Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create.
Level 3: Apply
In this level, students should apply solutions to specific problems or situations and explain those solutions. Explaining how one gets to a solution could open up a door for a classmate who took another path or is having difficulty articulating his/her chosen solution. Applying is about experimenting—challenge students.
- Sample questions… Do you know another instance where…? Can you apply the method to an experience of your own…? What questions would you ask…? What factors would you change…?
- Activity… Construct a model or graphic to demonstrate how something works or design a market strategy for your product or service using a known strategy.
What Packback students are asking…
Level 4: Analyze
Be skeptical, be uncertain, be curious. Voice concerns and suggests new solutions or ideas. The analyze stage is critical to separating factual and hypothetical.
- Sample questions… Can you compare your… with that presented in…? What are some of the problems of…? What was the problem with…?
- Activity… Review an article, book, film, solution, piece of art, etc. What do you agree/disagree with and why? How would you approach the situation/problem differently?
What Packback students are asking…
Level 5: Evaluate
Evaluation allows the opportunity to both present and defend judgment, ideas, opinions and solutions. Through the application and analytical steps, solution discussion allows for contradictory ideas or information and for students to reach final conclusions on the discussion or question at hand, a conclusion that might not be the same as what they started with.
- Sample questions… Is there a better solution to…? What do you think about…? Can you defend your position about…? How would you have handled…?
- Activity… Conduct a debate about an issue of special interest. Either let students pick a side or assign one.
What Packback students are asking…
Level 6: Create
The time has come. At this point in the framework, students should not only know the content, but they have exercised it in other situations, questioned and critiqued it and concluded on their solutions, beliefs and ideas. Likely, their conclusion is a new whole of many parts shared between classmates.
- Activity… Ask students to write an opinion editorial on a topic or issue. Ask students to present their solution to solving a problem, step-by-step.
What’s most important is not the piece of writing, but the thinking and creative process that led students to it.
High level thinking aids students’ learning and critical thinking skills. It puts students on a path to not only learn in the classroom, but apply that thinking in their careers after graduation.
With Packback Questions, students have a safe space to ask questions and stir up discussion on difficult or controversial topics that guides them through the final four stages of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Click here to learn more about Packback Questions and its natural ability to encourage curiosity in the classroom.
