Thursday 2 April 2009

Bloom's taxonomy

The teaching in all or most of our colleges, including my classes, never go beyond the first tier in Bloom's pyramid.
I teach Coordination chemistry to BSc students and have to go over Werner's hypothesis. The class goes like this:-
"you know, he put forth this hypothesis before the discovery of the
electron "
I get blank looks
"so...?"
"That's intuitive isnt it? isn't it amazing?"
"Duh..?"
Then I give up....at least for that year. Again next time I teach, the same script is rerun like an old serial.

4 comments:

ShantanuDas said...

well yes.. your posts did give me that idea of how you can make this really useful for others.. since I see that teaching is your passion... and a blog which is an extension of your passion can really be something satisfying to your mind... here are some specific ideas:-
1. When you use these terms.. why not also link them to dictionaries or brief explanations or you add your own explanations- if you have the energy and time [otherwise linking is better].
2. If chemistry is your subject then why not slowly and slowl build a blog resource on Chemistry.. and soon enough you may be using this hobby of yours after retirement too to keep earning.. by adding educational modules.. and so on... payment basis..

Keep thinking!... immense opportunities in the teaching line and that too online is the future!!

L said...

Thanks for the suggestions. But as I said perhaps that whould be a different blog. This one is just for my personal rants. Teaching a group of 70 students, gives us a lot of things to rant about. Regarding links, yes I wanted to, but needed to figure out how. Will do so as soon as I can

ShantanuDas said...

Ranting does release your stress. That is true ... and needed...

Right..
Links are easy.. just google for the items.. get the best web page that explains the item.. select the URL and copy it. Then come back to our post.. highlight the word and use the web link in the menu above your post window. That's it!

L said...

Thanks Just put up one with a few links, but I have just pasted the url, I couldnt get teh blogger to do it directly will try some more later

Ceiling fan

 I read somewhere that as a solution for student suicides, IISc has decided to remove fans from hostel rooms. No fan, no suicide. This shoul...