Bloom's Study Group

Bloom's Study Group:  Aligning Course Goals, Assignments, and Assessment

Using Bloom's Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing

Although most of us are sometimes nostalgic about the good old days, when college WAS college and students (that is, us) didn’t expect to be spoonfed, we probably all agree that many of the changes in pedagogy since the 1980s are beneficial to students, to faculty, and to the goal of producing graduates who can effectively use what we have worked so hard to teach them.  On the other hand, having been college students ourselves in the time before learner-centered classrooms, we don’t necessarily have first-hand experience in designing, organizing, or maintaining a learner-centered curriculum

• If you’ve ever wondered if the assignments you’re giving are really teaching students what you want them to learn,
• If you’ve ever been frustrated because students seem to use all their initiative and creativity in finding ways to misunderstand or avoid the assignment,
• If you’ve ever wondered if the course you’ve designed really accomplishes what you want it to,
• Or if you’d just like a chance to spend a few hours with congenial colleagues thinking critically about course design,
  join Dr. Mark Johnson for a three week study group on Bloom’s Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing. 

The focus of the study group will be on how to use course goals as a guide for planning assignments and designing assessments that really teach what you want students to learn and that let you tell whether they’ve actually learned it.

Tuesdays, March 31-April 14, @ 3:30-4:30 in Russ 109.  Participants should plan to attend all three dates.

The study group is sponsored by the Office of the Provost, which will provide a copy of the book for each participant.  Rsvp to jzeperni@pittstate.edu by March 14, 2009.