Teaching Learning Strategies: Connections to Bloom's Taxonomy

Abstract

In the April 2014 Journal of Food Science Education editorial, Dr. Shelly J. Schmidt emphasized the point that “We need to implement effective teaching practices to fully engage our students in the course content (be the best teachers we can be) AND we need to intentionally instruct our students on how to get the most out of studying (be involved in explicitly teaching our students effective and efficient study skills)” (Schmidt 2014a). Traditionally, we think of study (or learning) skills as time management, good note-taking during class, doing assigned reading, organizing notes, learning to outline, etc. However, one important question we should ask ourselves is: Are study skills specific to the cognitive domain of learning? The cognitive domains of learning, from least to most abstract, were categorized by Benjamin Bloom and his team of theorists (Bloom and others 1956): knowledge; comprehension; application; analysis; synthesis; and evaluation. It would make sense that study skills are related to the cognitive levels of course objectives. For example, study skills at the knowledge level might involve the use of self-study quizzes to learn facts, and to start to make connections among the facts (for example, causes of enzymatic browning). The study skills needed at the knowledge level would be different from those needed at the synthesis and evaluation levels, where students use critical thinking to determine why a specific phenomenon is occurring (for example, devising experiments to test the efficacy and safety of several different antioxidants to reduce enzymatic browning). Therefore, if there is evidence that study skills are related to the cognitive level, then the next question is which learning techniques should we teach at each level? Zhao and others (2014) emphasized the importance of introducing learning strategies early in the term and also early in the students’ college experience, which will give students the best chance for success in the course and the opportunity to apply the skills to other courses in their program. Cook and others (2013) and Zhao and others (2014) documented student success in beginning undergraduate chemistry courses and shared some of the positive feedback from students related to learning strategies. This discussion leads to some questions that we should ask ourselves. Are we giving our students guidance on how to learn? If not, then what do we perceive to be the biggest challenges in teaching students to learn effectively? If we already teach study skills, then what are some of the techniques that we have taught or are thinking of teaching in our courses? Are these learning skills appropriate for the cognitive level of the course objectives? Do they help students to apply new skills, such as using their new knowledge and/or analytical skills to solve a new problem? Do they help students to better comprehend the material? I would like to encourage you to share your thoughts on this topic and/or to provide examples of study/learning skills that you teach in your undergraduate and/or graduate courses. Please feel free to e-mail your thoughts as a letter to the editor (send to Dr. Shelly J. Schmidt [[email protected]]); write an editorial and send to Shelly; post on the Education, Extension and Outreach Discussion in the IFT Community on ift.org; or e-mail me ([email protected]). I look forward to hearing from you! The author would like to thank Dr. Shelly J. Schmidt and Dr. Saundra Y. McGuire for their helpful suggestions.