On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Kathy Pusztavari <ka...@kathyandcalvin.com> wrote: > Bloom's Taxonomy reminds me of committees that never get anything done in > the Life of Brian. > > Direct Instruction reminds me of the people that get in there and get the > job done.
Here is how I see these issues. Bloom's Taxonomy is a part of a research and design framework, and direct instruction is a pedagogical methodology. In general, frameworks help people analyze and plan, and methodologies help people to implement ("get things done"). Typically, you need to work with both methodologies and frameworks for sizable research and development projects. Depending on the project's goals, you make or choose frameworks and methodologies suitable to the goals. Constructivism, in particular, is a group of framework for studying how people learn. To contrast direct instruction with something, one can choose a different teaching methodology, for example, the discovery method popular in the sixties and seventies but not as much anymore, or the Socratic method still popular in some circles after a couple of millenia. Relationships between frameworks and methodologies are complex. For example, one can use constructivist frameworks to study how students learn under direct instruction methodologies. One can also use behaviorist or information theory frameworks to study learning under the same methodologies. It's not a one-to-one correspondence. There is a lot of confusion about the matter, because people use theories and frameworks not only for research, but also as ammo in policy wars. Also, sometimes the same person or group works on developing theories and methodologies, and they become twined in people's minds through their authors. In general, relationships between theory and practice are complicated and often frustrating in education, just as they are in medicine and other human-centered fields. The important thing is for everybody to be able to match frameworks and methodologies to their goals. For example, at some point I made a taxonomy of computer learning environments focusing specifically on users' power over representations, because my goals had to do with authoring, and creating representations is a good measure of authoring. I think it may be of interest to people here: http://wikieducator.org/User:MariaDroujkova/UserPower Life of Brian is wonderful - one of my favorite movies. Very quotable. "- You are all individuals! - Yes, we are all individuals!" - this could be used to snark recitation, but I happen to find the technique very useful. Kathy, congratulations on your license!!! What grades do you plan to teach next? -- Cheers, MariaD Make math your own, to make your own math. http://www.naturalmath.com social math site http://www.phenixsolutions.com empowering our innovations _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep