128 – Assessing Student Attitudes and Student Understanding
Bloom's Taxonomy and the Teaching of Introductory Statistics Classes
Ilhan Izmirli
George Mason University
Susan C. Surina
George Mason University
In this paper our goal is to map the course outcomes of our introductory statistics courses to Bloom’s Taxonomy. The first section is devoted to a brief overview of the Taxonomy. We then discuss how the objectives and the expected outcomes of our introductory statistics courses fulfill some of the university requirements such as critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, scientific reasoning, and use of information technology skills. In the third section we explore how Bloom’s Taxonomy applies in this setting and what our role, as educators, should be in the implementation of this taxonomy. To promote a learner-centered teaching approach, and shift the role of the instructors from givers of information to facilitators of student learning, we must emphasize the role of the learners in our classes. Consequently, in the fourth section, we discuss some learner-based activities that would parallel and complement the educators’ efforts in rendering the use of the Taxonomy as beneficial as possible to the learners. We conclude by mapping our course outcomes to Bloom’s taxonomy and thus providing a model that can be used in any introductory statistics course.
