While reading about the MAA's "Characteristics of Successful Programs in College Calculus"
I came across an interesting paper "Describing Cognitive Orientation of Calculus I Tasks Across Different Types of Coursework" by White and Mesa:
In Figure 1 on page 10 of this paper, the authors presents a taxonomy for classifying types of homework questions into one of eight orientation categories:
- Remember
- Recall and apply procedure
- Recognize and apply procedure
- Understand
- Apply understanding
- Analyze
- Evaluate
- Create
The authors also give definitions and examples for each of the eight orientation categories in their paper.
I know that John Jones and others have put a lot of thought, time, and energy into the "Levels" meta data in the OPL that is supposed to indicate levels on something similar to Bloom's taxonomy. Would it be worthwhile to add "Orientation" as a piece of descriptive meta data to OPL problems? To me, the eight orientation categories approach (using numbers and words to indicate the level rather than just a number) seems more intuitive than the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy approach (using just a number to indicate the level, if I remember correctly). Note: I am not suggesting we get rid of or change "levels", but rather that we add "orientation".
Take care (and enjoy break)!
Paul Pearson