One of my favorite teaching and learning sites is at Iowa State University. The site explains Bloom’s revised learning taxonomy which provides rich advice to both students and teachers on how to improve learning.The site provides several examples of learning experiences.Some experiences utilize, stretch and develop our abilities more than others. Trying to maximize the learning experience of students is one of the continual challenges and joys of teaching. This CELT can be used by students to push their own learning to more robust levels of complexity.
Teachers and students can use the IOWA site to plan curriculum and lessons. Furthermore, the site could be used as a resource for events that could enhance higher mental and physical faculties. Learning is about using it or you can lose it!
My first lesson on Bloom’s was at Weimar College during my teacher education courses. At that time, I was contemplating going into pastoral ministry or teaching. I was inspired by the capabilities of our chaplain Dick Winn and decided I wanted to be a bible teacher and chaplain. My dad had been a teacher and I was scared by all the work he had to do (see my blog on teacher work ethics). But Dick Winn made it look easy. He had a golden tongue, a gracious way of talking about God. His wonderful writings presented a view of teaching that captured my imagination and my commitment. (Little did I know how much work college teachers have to do.). Thus, teaching and religion became my two areas of learning and Bloom’s taxonomy ended up helping me understand both better.
[pullquote_right]Life is an ebb and flow of learning.[/pullquote_right]. If you look at the interactive scale, it serves as a blueprint for different types of people. It helps parents, supervisors, teachers, as well as physicians and pastors think about the different stages of learning. This would direct the direction of learning for their clients, patients, and students.
I have often wondered how God does the teaching and learning stuff with all of us. Many times in scripture it says: “I will teach all your children, and they will enjoy great peace” (Is 54:13). Again, “they shall all be taught of God.” (John 6:45).I think He might move around the scale even as He hopes to move us up the scale so He grows us. After all, we are made in His image and what He is doing is to us and but a statement of His nature as an amazing teacher.
Sometimes he throws us to a higher levels, letting us wrestle through complex learning. Sometimes he pulls us back to simple levels of learning. Life is an ebb and flow of learning.My parents are in their 80s and have demonstrated amazing complex wisdom of the highest levels of this taxonomy. Lately, i realized that they are practicing the simple techniques they were taught in the hospital. This helps to keep their minds from slipping. They generate lists and do some mathematical calculations -(and try to remember where they laid down their lists). They have been a major inspiration for me. They are being taught by God.
[pullquote_left]“Lead” and “change” . . . didn’t make Bloom’s list. This bothered me.[/pullquote_left] We all are… if we are willing to learn. God is a versatile teacher. I spend most of my time watching how he teaches leaders at Andrews University. I am totally humbled and overwhelmed by their learning. I guess I play a role. I keep wondering when someone will find out that I don’t really know how to help leaders lead. Thankfully, their work places do a lot of the teaching.
It dawned on me that “lead” and “change”, two of the complex skills our participants in leadership show in order to graduate, didn’t make Bloom’s list. This bothered me. These leaders face complex learning challenges. They have to master complex self learning, group learning and organizational learning to lead and make changes. Where can we place leading and change in Bloom’s? Wouldn’t it go somewhere in Bloom’s top six areas: deconstruct, assemble, judge, reflect, create, and design.
I thought about this because I have been fixated on the role of God and human beings as judges. In the Bloom’s taxonomy, judge is in the top six complex areas. I was wondering why it wasn’t top and then wondering where leading and change would fit with judging. [pullquote_right]Leading change is probably a better way of understanding judgment.[/pullquote_right]. I will give you my direct answer. Hamilton has correctly argued that God’s redemptive work through judgment which is the main theme of scripture. I think judgment has been wrongly understood.
For most, judgment is a very passive skill set where you put thumbs up or thumbs down. It could be based on your “taste” or “gut level”. It involves response to an image, post, or some other event or web experience. Hardly a complex process if it just comes from the gut and is more of a reaction than a thorough engagement.
If you read Hamilton’s material and what the Adventists say about the Judgement, it seems to involve more complex sets of skills. This includes deliverance, understanding the role of motives, taking into consideration complex contexts, and acting to remove barriers. (Deconstruct) and develop (design and create) better mechanisms that take care of people. Leading change is probably a better way of understanding judgment.
For those who know me or follow this blog, you will notice I have been focused, even fixated on the role of judging. So be warned, I tend to bring all things back to God’s judgment and His role of developing our judgment. I would mix all the Bloom’s taxonomy, through in leading change and see judgment as the liberating act of God on us and our liberating act to others.
To say my God is a judge is to say He is my personal teacher, my rabboni, my deliverer, and my leader. He is the change agent that will take care of the things that are not right in me and in the world. He will and He can. I must let Him as He doesn’t and can’t force learning. [pullquote_left]To say my God is a judge is to say He is my personal teacher, my rabboni . . . [/pullquote_left]
When God invites me to judge with Him, He is inviting me to grow and not to be more judgmental. It involves being more redemptive to others. He is inviting me to be a change agent, a leader that is more about deliverance than about my reputation (just as He has shown). He is about helping, serving, growing others. Sometimes that requires wrath. Sometimes gentleness. It is complex. What did you think it would be? We are talking Bloom’s here!
After sticking around 15 years of teaching leadership, I feel a little slow on the uptake of learning. I finally see the connection I should have seen at Weimar College. God is teaching us and we can all learn in the school of Christ. (Learning to lead is something my colleagues Shirley Freed and David Ferguson are constantly focused on. Learning is what God is concerned with. Leadership and change are two complex competencies that we can experience and in the process, we learn what kind of judge God is and how we can be that judge).
What God has been doing in my life is showing me that the theological work on judgment is really about learning , His leadership and work of change in the world.Wow, that took a long time to see. And He has to help us see this complex competency of His work….and then we start to see our own complex competency as well.
[pullquote_right]No wonder this invites us to worship. His leadership, change agency and judgment process is amazing.[/pullquote_right] In Revelation 3 we learn that the last church is a group that are called “the people of judgment” but they are condemned because they have underdeveloped abilities. They are judgmental when they should be judges—teaching and learning, leading and changing, helping and serving. How would you relate leadership and change to Bloom’s taxonomy?
The interactive grid gives the example of judging as “efficiency of sampling techniques.” Not a very robust example of judging. How about judging as leading change to something better? How about judging as deciding if the God you serve is worthy of the title and discovering He is a judge who allows you to judge him? Those seem more complex levels of learning. Maybe that is exactly why Adventists correctly understand that we are in the “hour of His judgment,” not only where He judges us but where we judge ourselves, others, and Him. Not in a superficial way but in the complex process of learning. His leadership, change agency and judgment process is amazing.
“And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.'” Revelation 14:6,7
“‘You are My witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed. And there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.'” (Is 43:10,11).
Prayer: God, thank you for teaching us about learning so that we can better appreciate what you are doing to raise us up to heavenly places. You are the change agent of this university. We want to be like you, be redemptive like you are. You are the God worthy of adoration and worship. The God who shares His nature with us, and with me. We are leading change but so much want to do more. Let your judgment continues to show us. May we come to say with John: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Make us the judges you are trying to show the world You already are.
One of my favorite teaching and learning sites is at Iowa State University. Their site explains Bloom’s revised learning taxonomy which provides rich advice to both students and teachers on how to improve learning.
They label learning experiences to help us see that some experiences utilize, stretch and grow some of our abilities more than others. Trying to maximize the learning experience of students is one of the continual challenges and joys of teaching. This CELT can be used by students to push their own learning to more robust levels of complexity.
Both teachers and students can use these to plan curriculum and lessons or find events that will grow their higher mental and physical faculties. Learning is about using it or you can lose it!
I was originally taught Bloom’s at Weimar College in my teacher education courses. I had debated going into pastoral ministry or teaching. I was inspired by the capabilities of our chaplain Dick Winn and decided I wanted to be a bible teacher and chaplain. My dad had been a teacher and I was scared by all the work he had to do (see my blog on teacher work ethics). But Dick Winn made it look easy. He had a golden tongue, a gracious way of talking about God, and his wonderful writing presented a view of teaching that captured my imagination and my commitment. (Little did I know how much work college teachers have to do.) So teaching and religion became my two areas of learning and Bloom’s taxonomy ended up helping me understand both better.
[pullquote_right]Life is an ebb and flow of learning.[/pullquote_right]
If you look over the interactive scale it helps all parents, supervisors, or teachers, as well as physicians and pastors think about the learning they want to help their clients, patients, and students with.
I have often wondered how God does this teaching and learning stuff with all of us. Many times in scripture it says: “I will teach all your children, and they will enjoy great peace” (Is 54:13). Again, “they shall all be taught of God.” (John 6:45).
I think He might move around the scale even as He hopes to move us up the scale so He grows us. After all, we are made in His image and what He is doing is to us and but a statement of His nature as an amazing teacher.
Sometimes he throws us to a higher levels, letting us wrestle through complex learning. Sometimes he pulls us back to simple levels of learning. Life is an ebb and flow of learning. My parents are in their 80s and they have demonstrated a lot of amazingly complex wisdom that touches the highest levels of this taxonomy. But lately they tell me they are just doing the simple techniques taught by their hospital to keep their minds from slipping. They do math, generate lists (and try to remember where they laid down their lists). They have been a major inspiration for me. They are being taught by God.
[pullquote_left]“Lead” and “change” . . . didn’t make Bloom’s list. This bothered me.[/pullquote_left]
We all are… if we are willing to learn.
God is a versatile teacher.
I spend most of my time watching how he teaches leaders at Andrews University to learn. I am totally humbled and overwhelmed by their learning. I guess I play a role, but I keep wondering when someone will find out that I don’t really know what I am doing to help leaders lead. Thankfully, their work places do a lot of the teaching.
It dawned on me that “lead” and “change”, two of the complex skills our participants in leadership show in order to graduate, didn’t make Bloom’s list. This bothered me.
These leaders face complex learning challenges and have to master complex self learning, group learning and organizational learning to lead and make changes.
How would place leading and change in Bloom’s?
Wouldn’t it go somewhere in Bloom’s top six areas: deconstruct, assemble, judge, reflect, create, and design.
I came to thinking about this because I have been fixated on the role of God as judge and our roles as judge. Judging is in the top six complex areas but I was wondering why it wasn’t top and then wondering where leading and change would fit with judging.
[pullquote_right]Leading change is probably a better way of understanding judgment.[/pullquote_right]
I will give you my direct answer. Hamilton has correctly argued that God’s redemptive work through judgment is the main theme of scripture. I think judgment has been wrongly understood.
For most, judgment is a very passive skill set where you put thumbs up or thumbs down based on your “taste” or “gut level” response to an image, post, or some other event or web experience. You Like it or not.
Hardly a complex process if it just comes from the gut and is more of a reaction than a thorough engagement.
But if you read Hamilton’s material and what the Adventists say about the Judgement, it seems to involve more complex sets of skills: like deliverance, understanding the role of motives, taking into consideration complex contexts, and acting to remove barriers (deconstruct) and develop (design and create) better mechanisms that take care of people. Leading change is probably a better way of understanding judgment.
For those who know me or follow this blog, you will notice I have been focused, even fixated on the role of judging. So be warned, I tend to bring all things back to God’s judgment and His role of growing our judgment.
So, I would mix all the Bloom’s taxonomy, through in leading change and see judgment as the liberating act of God on us and our liberating act to others.
To say my God is judge is to say He is my personal teacher, my rabboni, my deliverer, my leader, the change agent that will take care of the things that are not right in me and in the world. He will. He can. I must let Him as He doesn’t and can’t force learning.
[pullquote_left]To say my God is judge is to say He is my personal teacher, my rabboni . . . [/pullquote_left]
And when He invites me to judge with Him, He is inviting me to grow, not to be more judgmental, but to act more redemptive to others. He is inviting me to be a change agent, a leader that is more about deliverance than about my reputation (just as He has shown). He is about helping, serving, growing others. Sometimes that requires wrath. Sometimes gentleness. It is complex. What did you think it would be? We are talking Bloom’s here!
After sticking around 15 years of teaching leadership, I feel a little slow on the uptake of learning. I finally see the connection I should have seen at Weimar College that God is teaching us and we can all learn in the school of Christ. (Learning to lead is something my colleagues Shirley Freed and David Ferguson are constantly focused on.
Learning is what God is after and leadership and change are two complex competencies that we can all can experience and in the process, we learn what kind of judge God is and how we can be that judge).
And what God has been doing in my life is showing me that the theological work on judgment is really about learning and His leadership and work of change in the world.
Wow, that took a long time to see.
And He has to help us see this complex competency of His work….and then we start to see our own complex competency as well.
[pullquote_right]No wonder this invites us to worship. His leadership, change agency and judgment process is amazing.[/pullquote_right]
In Revelation 3 we learn that the last church is a group that are called “the people of judgment” but they are condemned because they have underdeveloped abilities. They are judgmental when they should be judges—teaching and learning, leading and changing, helping and serving.
So how would you relate leadership and change to Bloom’s taxonomy?
Their interactive grid gives the example of judging as “efficiency of sampling techniques.” Not a very robust example of judging. How about judging as leading change to something better? How about judging as deciding if the God you are experiencing is worthy of the title and discovering He is a judge who allows you to judge him? Those seem more complex levels of learning.
Maybe that is exactly why Adventists correctly understand that we area in the “hour of His judgment,” not only where He judges us but where we judge ourselves, others, and Him, not in a superficial way but in this complex process of learning.
No wonder this invites us to worship. His leadership, change agency and judgment process is amazing.
“And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.'” Revelation 14:6,7
“‘You are My witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.'” (Is 43:10,11).
Prayer: God, thank you for teaching us about learning so that we can better appreciate what you are doing to raise us up to heavenly places. You are the change agent of this university. We want to be like you, be redemptive like you are. You are the God worthy of adoration and worship. The God who shares even His nature with us, with me. We are leading change but so much want to do more, like your judgment continues to show us. May we come to say with John: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Make us the judges you are trying to show the world You already are.