INTEGRATING BLOOMS TAXONOMY OF CRITICAL THINKING WITH PHYSICAL GEOLOGY CONTENT

Physical geology texts achieve a high level of content delivery in the form of supplementary materials, on-line tools, and advanced artistic depiction of Earth processes. Learning how Earth works is a vitally important element of educating the future generation of decision-makers. However, workshops, focus groups, and surveys indicate that instructors are concerned that techniques for building critical thinking (CT) are not well developed in geology texts. CT was identified by Bloom et al (1956) as a “cognitive domain” skill revolving around knowledge and comprehension of a topic. Over the years, Blooms Taxonomy has come to be “…synonymous with a classification of learning objectives within education, and is considered to be a foundational and essential element within the education community” (Wiki entry, Blooms Taxonomy). Blooms Taxonomy defines six hierarchical learning levels: knowledge, comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. It has been said that approximately 80% of college exams stop at knowledge and do not test higher levels of cognition. To further the goal of developing CT among physical geology students, we use Blooms Taxonomy to integrate CT with subject matter content in a new text (Physical Geology: The Science of Earth; J. Wiley, 2011). Integration is achieved using four strategies: 1) learning objectives characterize each 2-page spread and this knowledge is tested by multiple choice questions; 2) knowledge, comprehension, and analysis are tested with queries tied to page art; 3) chapter content is organized in 2-page spreads that end with queries testing comprehension, analysis, and synthesis; and 4) full spread “showcase” art is accompanied by questions that build through all six levels of Blooms Taxonomy. Our goal is to integrate critical thinking with the high level of content delivery that characterizes the physical geology market.