Anderson/Krathwohl reviewed the bloom taxonomy in 2001 and changed it to a two dimensional table. The cognitive process to be developed in the student [verb] and the knowledge [noun] in which the cognitive process is to take place: The student will be able to or learn to, [verb] [noun].
As learning professional you build learning solutions for business owners. Objectives can help you to clearly communicate, and asses on what will be achieved with the learning solutions. Objectives help you to decide wich learning theories should be applied.
Layering your objectives in three + one step (following The Kirkpatrick Model):
Your objectives should be start with the business needs supported by, the behaviour the employee needs to expose, into what learning is needed to establish the behaviour:
- Impact: The first step will help you to determine the business purpose of the learning. This purpose is better known as the business impact. It will be stated in business terms and not in learning terms.
- Application: In step two the impact objectives will be expanded to clarify which behaviour the students must apply to achieve the impact objectives.
- Learning: To apply a behaviour certain knowledge, skills, and attitudes need to be learned.
- Reaction: Learning will only take place if students react positively to the learning initiative.
Step 1: Impact: the 9 core business impact according metrics that matter:
- Increasing quality
- Decreasing cost
- Decreasing cycle time
- Increasing productivity
- Increasing sales
- Decreasing risk
- Increasing employee satisfaction
- Increasing customer satisfaction
- Feel confident and comfortable with demands of the job
Step 2: Application: For each of the required behaviours a gap analysis needs to be performed. A gap analysis uncovers the difference between the current behaviours and the required behaviours. Sometimes a behaviour needs to be increased, decreased, eliminated, maintained or created.
Step 3: Learning objectives : Using the ABCD method of writing objectives is an excellent starting point for writing objectives. In this system, “A” is for audience, “B” is for behaviour (verb & noun), “C” for conditions and “D” for degree of mastery needed.
Putting it to practice, an example:
The Gap: In the fast pace economy of today, the development and maintenance of Learning Solutions needs to be optimized, without any loss in quality. This invokes the need to create a Single Source Learning Solution that reaches multiple generations. A Single Source Learning that can be built with PowerPoint.
Step 1: The Bussiness Impact:
- Increase Performance
Step 2: What behaviour will learners apply to accomplish this bussiness impact:
CREATE
- A: The student will be able,
- B: to develop and implement a learning solution,
- C: using PowerPoint,
- D: reaching multiple generations
Step 3: What does the learner need to learn to be able to apply the application objective
- The student will be able to, Create a PowerPoint Master, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create Custom Slide Shows, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create PowerPoint Actions, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create Triggered Animations, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create Slide Narration, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create a Handout, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create an eLearning module, using PowerPoint
- The student will be able to, Create a VIDEO, using PowerPoint
These are all objectives that are placed at the top of Blooms Taxonomy so experiantal learning will be the most appropriate to achieve these objectives.
| L4 | Increase Performance | |||
| L3 | Develop and implement a learning solution, using PowerPoint, reaching # generations
– Create this behavior (Behaviorism & Social) |
|||
| L2 | Create a PowerPoint Master, using PowerPoint | Constructivism | ||
| L2 | Create Custom Slide Shows, using PowerPoint | Constructivism | ||
| L2 | Create PowerPoint Actions, using PowerPoint | Constructivism | ||
| L2 | … | |||
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Hi Low Budget,
Excellent post! Thank you for sharing your thoughts. They are important and worth sharing. Like Lieve, I don’t care for Bloom’s but understand it is something many like…and that is fine. Whatever helps each of us reach those we serve. Each of us is different…and that…is a good thing.
Hi Lieve,
Completely agree that it should be learner first, and what works with some instructional designer does not work for other instructional designers, this is the interesting part of being human. So looking forward on reading your take on human learning.
The blog article itself is part of a series where in this article the focus is on the business side of learning. When you are in a corporate world where you need to enable learning in thousands of students a year, there will be the need to strike the balance between being effective and efficient. In that corporate world it are the business owners that drive the learning budgets with a clear need for results in ROI or ROE. Using Bloom taxonomy (I do not consider a taxonomy a learning theory) it helps out to write unified learning objectives, that can be communicated to those business owners, and in that way work like a contract on what will be delivered. These objectives can then be tested and incorporated in the training efficiency results. Without them it would be like building a house without an architects plan. That architects plan also helps out when you need to make design decisions:you will not apply constructivism where a learner needs to be able to list all the us states. As you will not learn to play the guitar by using cognitivism.
Totally understand, but ROI will not be good if focus is too much on this business side. Testing ‘objectives’ ‘skills’ to calculate ROI is always risky. The importance of life long learning in the present quickly evolving situations cannot be overestimated. Having been responsible of a department in a university college (not totally comparable with business) has taught me a lot. Too difficult to elaborate on it, especially in a language that is not my mother tongue. BTW I have been teaching Project Management in Building Companies for many years as well, not only in college. My dream is that more time (budget?) could be spend on creating a learning climate, involving ‘trainees’ in that process. Some companies do this very well, but only a small minority.
I do not agree with your anology to buildingi I am a civil engineer. Such a plan like you propose here is often created without any reality links to the situation. It is like an architect creating a plan without having tested the properties of the soil he has to build on (was a specialist in soil mechanics). Hope you understand what I mean?
Was smiling about your music example, because I am a musician and have been teaching flute for decades.
Hope you’ll allow me to play ‘devil’s advocate’! I never liked theories about learning, have seen them arrive and leave during my over 30 years long career as professor in Construction, Real Estate, IT applications, Flute playing, Project Management. Bloom taxonomy is one them. The worst colleagues I had were those boasting with theories. As a professor and trainer I got a lot of awards, and even better appreciation of my students of all ages: from children (flute playing) over college students to adults in training (staff members in building companies).
I had to write out those ‘….. wil be able…..’ thousands of times but never felt it really improved the learning. The most important partner in the learning process is the “learner” and learning about that learner should be always the first step in any learning environment. Where is that step in your theory description? It is all about the business goal, forgetting that a learner and his trainer or eLearning developer both are human.
Distant learning/eLearning makes that first step more difficult. Maybe I should write my personal idea about training, away from theories?
Thank you Lieve! I am grateful for the post and the sharing here. Like you, I never connected with Bloom’s but I used it as a way to connect with instructors who loved it. Many times these same instructors had a difficult time connecting with those we served. Like you I use whatever language and techniques my learners need me to use to connect with them and help them move through negative space. Maybe it is a thing those of us who play the flute…or in my case…used to play the flute do. Thank you again for being you. I am glad you are here to mentor me and be my voice.
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