Blooming Questions

So what is 21st century classroom look like?  It is adaptive, creative, collaborative, and complex.  It breaks the educational mold. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with amazing new problems as well as exciting new possibilities.  Fortunately, we have living proof, and examples to follow, as we saw through our exercise today.

As I breakdown The Bloom’s Taxonomy exercises in class today.  There were many of the essential themes of the 21^st century skills that enriched the lesson. These components brought forth a student driven approach that forces students to take ownership of their learning.

Using critical thinking/ problem solving we critiqued the questions that we created which dealt with specified problems on how to enhance questions using Bloom’s taxonomy. Students made complex choices and decisions on criteria. We analyzed, and made informed judgments about the questions. After critically thinking about ways to enhance the questions, papers were given to students to then reflect/ compare/ contrast on the points made by the other groups and came to a solution to the problem which was the better questions. Communication was an interesting component because we had to articulate our thoughts clearly and effectively through speaking and writing so that the questions would specifically target what outcomes we were looking for. Collaboration was relevant when we worked effectively together as a diverse team.  One of the key components to working together was our ability to be flexible, and our willingness to make compromises to reach the common goal of finding the three questions. Creativity characteristic came out when invented original questions about the 21^st century skills but the second component was when we had to come up with an imaginative way to enhance the other group’s questions. We had to be open and responsive to the different perspective of having the other group changing/ enhance our questions as well. Innovation was evident in thinking/ developing/ and communicating new original questions based on the essential questions of the PD. We had to be Adaptive to each other’s questions plus the evolving class assignment from the different step it took.

I felt the structure of the lesson was right on point. It was a disguised lesson in which we learned to develop higher order questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy but also (hidden part) used 21^st century skills to develop those questions (pretty crafty).  I feel the lesson was simple yet loaded with components that achieved its objective. I thought about putting a discussion about why we choose those essential questions or how are we going to answer those essential questions, but I realize that wasn’t the desired outcome of the lesson. One interesting realization I made after the lesson (it’s only because of discussion with colleagues about technology in the classroom and the question of how do we teach 21^st century goals without technology?) was we didn’t use technology while using the 21^st century skills tools. This is a great lesson to prove to the nay- sayers who always look for that excuse not to evolve as a teacher.

Today’s work environment required far more than thinking skills and content knowledge. Learning ability to navigate through complex discussions required us to pay rigorous attention to developing ideas and concerns. As I play through the activity in my mind I felt how affective the student driven approach to 21^st century skills are. There were many things that I was experiencing during the exercise that I didn’t really think about until I reflected on it. The exercise really showed the correlation between a classroom environment and the workplace. We had to be flexible and adaptable with ideas presented in our groups. Being flexible but keeping to our beliefs was fun when we tried to word the different questions. We also had to work effectively as our priorities changed through exercise. Those are two characteristics in the working world that are a must to have with the ever changing and rigorous global world. We also took initiative to express our ideas to each other which was the first steps in a series of actions that led us to our goals. This characteristic is important because if you get caught sleeping in the real would you will be left behind. We had a high productivity level with everyone interjecting their ideas. If you’re not productive out in the workforce you will be out of a job fast. We showed great leadership and accountability. We were responsible to our facilitator for the outcomes of the exercise and we showed leadership through different people who took charge in their groups to map out their goals. These qualities are all evident in our exercise and they are life and career skills that will make students productive citizens in a global society.

Through discussions, it has become apparent that in addition to deep subject knowledge students must develop 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, to succeed in today's world. If we do not create an education system that intentionally combines knowledge and skills, our students and country will be ill equipped to compete with their international peers.