Middendorf’s Revised Bloom’s Typology

Joan Middendorf's revision of Bloom's Typology applies Bloom's Taxonomy to Decoding the Disciplines in order to classify different types of mental moves. “What kind of thinking is this? Where does it fit in Bloom’s typology? Is it remembering, paraphrasing, applying, analyzing, evaluating, or creating? Bloom’s typology differentiate the functions of various mental moves

Creating

Combining elements to form a new, original entity.

• Verbs to Use: synthesize, create, combine, plan, design, produce, compile, develop, compose, modify, organize, reconstruct
• Hospital Analogy: Designing a new hospital for our city.
• Analogy: “Imagine you wake up to find you are a sponge. Describe visually your adventures during the day.” - Roy Ascott’s Groundcourse

Evaluating

Making judgments based on criteria or standards.

• Verbs to Use: judge, evaluate, conclude, contrast, develop criteria, appraise, criticize, support, decide, compare
• Hospital Analogy: Judging the quality of my care in the hospital.
• Analogy: Judging a Olympic skiing events, downhill race versus freestyle.

Analyzing

Breaking material into constituent parts and determine how parts relate to one another and to an overall structure.

• Verbs to Use: analyze, debate, differentiate, generalize, conclude, organize, breakdown, dissect, diagram, relate
• Hospital Analogy: Investigating charges on my hospital bill.
• Analogy: Taking apart a computer and examining the insides down to the microchips.

Applying

Using procedures to perform tasks or solve problems in new, but similar situations.

• Verbs to Use: demonstrate, apply, use, solve, choose appropriate procedures, modify, produce, construct
• Hospital Analogy: Using procedures for admittance, blood draws, etc.
• Analogy: Filling out one’s tax forms.

Understanding

Integrating new materials into existing schema and explaining it in own words.

• Verbs to Use: explain, interpret, illustrate, describe, summarize, expand, convert, measure, defend, paraphrase, rewrite, comprehend
• Hospital Analogy: Explaining directions to the local hospital.
• Analogy: Describing how to make an elevator pitch in your own words.

Remembering

Recalling or recognizing information from memory.

• Verbs to Use: list, tell, define, identify, label, locate, recognize, describe, match, name, outline, reproduce, state
• Hospital Analogy: Memorizing the local hospital’s address.
• Analogy: Memorizing a phone number.

References

Middendorf, J., & Mondelli, V. (in press.) “Flash Decoding with analogies and game mechanics: Alternatives to the Decoding interview.” Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal.