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Using Project-Based Learning To Flip Bloom’s Taxonomy For Deeper Learning

by Drew Perkins, Director of TeachThought PD

One of the central features of high quality project-based learning is the pedagogical relationship between the Driving Question and the “Need to Knows” that stem from it. In the video below I use the Explain Everything app to show how teachers and schools, using a process of rich inquiry, can leverage great thinking and learning by flipping how you approach the concepts behind Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Instead of starting at the bottom and focusing on the teaching and learning of content prior to moving up, consider flipping that approach by starting at the top and asking students to create an authentic product with a strong Driving Question. Doing this can help the teacher facilitate deeper learning of the content and skills we find at the lower level as students identify and pursue what they need to know, remember, and understand to create and meet the challenge of the project.

Interested in growing deeper learning with PBL at your school? Check our PBL Workshop Page >>

* previously published at TeachThought.com

6 Comments

  1. Xavier Owens

    Thanks for posting this. Is there a way we can have a quick phone conference? I am working on PBL and am using Bloom’s revised- Knowledge and Cognitive domains.

    Reply
  2. Dr Laurence Cuffe

    Its a Taxonomy. Not a rating system. Not a running order. Not a meritocracy. Its a system for naming things. Its a system for establishing distinctions between different types of things.

    Flipping Blooms taxonomy is like proposing to revolutionise english teaching by starting at the other end of the alphabet. Project based learning has much to offer, but not by muddying the waters of existing conceptual frameworks.

    Reply
    • Drew Perkins

      Of course it’s not a rating system or a running order but teachers do tend to start at the bottom and work up. I propose we ask students to start at the top and uncover the bottom. I’m sorry you feel like this would muddy the waters. I respectfully disagree.

      Reply
  3. Db

    It was a great presentation need some examples particularly in English Literature ..

    Reply
  4. argemiro amaya

    when criticizing an author’s idea (someone who has been doing research and publishing his/her papers), we may not expect students to start to do it without considering the very bottom of this taxonomy. so, whether starting or not from the bottom or backward it does depend on the task.

    Reply

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