Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education ISSN: 1759-667X Issue 24 September 2022 ________________________________________________________________________ A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Richard F Heller University of Newcastle, Australia University of Manchester, UK Abstract There are a number of opportunities for collaboration, within and between universities, locally, internationally, with industry and with other education providers. University graduates are likely to be placed in a work environment where collaboration is required. Collaboration within higher education institutions has been shown to enhance student learning, and collaborative learning to improve student outcomes. A proposal has been made to add ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives, to emphasise the importance of collaboration and to encourage its inclusion in the educational process and assessment. Collaborate is sited between ‘apply’ and ‘analyse’ in the revised Bloom’s taxonomy hierarchy, and the new version named the New Bloom. This opinion piece expands on the concept and adds the specific objective of ‘work or share with others’ with keywords ‘share, cooperate, reciprocate, achieve consensus’. It also offers a non- hierarchical representation of the taxonomy, with collaborate as an important feature of each of the other components. Adding collaborate to Bloom’s Taxonomy is recommended to emphasise the importance of collaboration and its contribution to each of the other components of the taxonomy. Keywords: collaborate; Bloom’s taxonomy; new Bloom; educational outcomes. Introduction This opinion piece expands on a proposal (Heller, 2022) to add ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s Taxonomy, to emphasise the importance of collaboration and to encourage its inclusion in the processes of higher education and its assessment. Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 2 Why collaborate? There are a number of opportunities for collaboration, within and between universities, locally, internationally, with industry and with other education providers. University graduates are likely to be placed in a work environment where collaboration is required. Collaboration within higher education institutions has been shown to enhance student learning (Kezar, 2005), and there is considerable evidence that collaborative learning improves student outcomes (Laal and Ghodsi, 2012; Scager et al., 2016). Networks of universities usually collaborate on research, but there are examples of how educational outcomes can be met by unlocking the power of collaboration (Joo et al., 2019; SUNY COIL Center; European Consortium of Innovative Universities). An OECD report encourages international collaboration to support the future of higher education (OECD, 2019) and the International Commission on the Futures of Education tells us that ‘Pedagogy should be organized around the principles of cooperation, collaboration, and solidarity.’ (UNESCO, 2021) The dangers of competition rather than collaboration in education include unnecessary duplication of courses, and failure to embrace best practice as each institution develops its own variant rather than building on success. Most important is the failure to consider the whole ecosystem, as providers compete rather than come together to meet local, national or global educational needs (Mintz, 2019). The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted some wonderful examples of scientific collaboration across institutions, starting with the open publication of the genetic sequence of the SARS coronavirus to facilitate the development of tests and vaccines (Foley, 2021). Digital opportunities for collaboration The digital economy has offered many opportunities for collaboration, as is emphasised in the OECD report (OECD, 2019). The creation and sharing of Open Educational Resources (UNESCO, 2017) is an example of the way in which information can be shared online to allow collaboration rather than competition. As online education becomes increasingly Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 3 utilised in the educational process, either in full or in hybrid models, the potential for collaboration increases. A proposed new model for the higher education sector (Heller, 2022) is enabled by a pivot to online education, as is the field of Networked Learning (Networked Learning Editorial Collective, 2021) – both of these approaches include collaboration as a key feature. Teaching collaboration If we accept that there are benefits from collaboration within and between universities, as well as with other players, it would make sense to both teach collaboration to university students and provide opportunities that would facilitate collaboration. There are a number of structural and organisational ways in which collaboration can be facilitated. However, unless collaboration is taught and assessed, it is unlikely to assume importance in the university setting. In order to emphasise the importance of including collaboration in our teaching, the suggestion was made (Heller, 2022a) to add collaboration to Bloom’s taxonomy, and this commentary expands on that idea. Laurillard (Laurillard’s Conversational Framework) includes collaboration as one of her learning types, and she has also indicated how online technology can support collaboration (Laurillard et al., 2018). Bloom’s taxonomy Bloom’s taxonomy has been in use for many years to help us define the outcomes we might expect at various levels of learning. Bloom devised his taxonomy of learning in 1956 (Bloom et al., 1956) and it was revised in 2001 (Anderson et al., 2001; Krathwohl, 2002). Among the modifications in the revision was a change in the terms from nouns to verbs, to indicate that the taxonomy reflects actions. In the pyramidal hierarchy, the 2001 version starts with ‘remember’ and rises to ‘create’ as the highest order skill. This classification has been very important in defining expected educational outcomes. For example, master’s degrees might extend to the ‘analyse’ and ‘evaluate’ levels, and PhDs to ‘create’ - the highest level. Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 4 Collaboration does not appear in either version, although a further revision to a digital taxonomy did add collaboration as a separate element, and gave an example of collaboration in the use of digital tools for sharing within the ‘applying’ rubric (Churches, 2008). Since that paper was written, there have been major advances in the availability of digital software to facilitate collaboration. Adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy The suggestion to add collaboration as a key component in a further revision to Bloom’s taxonomy has been made and this new version termed the New Bloom (Heller, 2022a). The New Bloom adds the term ‘collaborate’ and places it between ‘apply’ and ‘analyse’ (Figure1). Figure 1. Bloom’s taxonomy, the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and the New Bloom. Heller, 2022a, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 5 Further detail on the taxonomy The Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching is among others who have expanded the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to include more detail in order to help the educational process by defining specific objectives and keywords (Armstrong, 2010). It might be worth a short digression on terminology. Bloom titled his taxonomy as relating to educational objectives, although they are not formulated in the way we usually term educational objectives today. They can be thought of as cognitive levels of complexity, or levels of thinking (as in Figure 1). Figure 2 shows the additions of specific objectives with keywords to help with the design and assessment of educational activities. Figure 2. Bloom’s revised taxonomy with specific objectives and keywords – from Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching (Armstrong, 2010) Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) A similar approach for the New Bloom, is to suggest that a specific educational objective for ‘collaborate’ would be ‘work or share with others’ with keywords ‘share, cooperate, reciprocate, achieve consensus’ as shown in Figure 3. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 6 Figure 3. The new Bloom with specific objectives and keywords for collaborate. The hierarchy Bloom’s concept was for a hierarchy of categories from lower to higher. To show that it is a high-level skill, ‘collaborate’ is placed above ‘apply’ and before ‘analyse’. Each part of the pyramid should inform the next part, so you have to remember to be able to understand, understand to be able to apply, and so on. Placing ‘collaborate’ before ‘analyse’, ‘evaluate’ and ‘create’ indicates the importance of collaboration in achieving each of these outcomes. However, it is open to debate as to whether a distinct hierarchical approach is appropriate, and certainly collaboration might also benefit each of the other stages. Even remembering, placed at the lowest end of the hierarchy, might benefit from collaborative learning, which is a recognised educational strategy (Baloche and Brody, 2017). For this reason, Figure 4 represents the taxonomy in a non-hierarchical structure, and places ‘collaborate’ in the centre to show that it is an important feature in each of the other components of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. Figure 4 also includes the specific objectives and keywords, expanded from those suggested by Vanderbilt to include those for ‘collaborate’. Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 7 Figure 4. Non-hierarchical depiction of the New Bloom including specific objectives and keywords. Adapted from Heller, 2022a and Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching (Armstrong, 2010). Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licenses (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) New Bloom in practice There are a number of factors which have been shown to relate to the effectiveness of collaboration in the educational setting, such as group size and composition, as well as how students might work together to tackle the types of tasks given to them (Scager et al., 2016). Group-based problem-based learning and peer-to-peer learning are good examples. Concern has been expressed (Eizadirad, 2019) that traditional assessment methods http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 8 emphasise competition at the expense of collaboration, so formative and summative assessment should include grading for collaboration through pair or group projects, while respecting and rewarding individual contributions, and/or the demonstration of the use of collaborative tools. The terms used – share, cooperate, reciprocate, achieve consensus – might help inform such activities. Individual educators will want to add to or subtract from these terms. An editorial introduced a special journal issue to showcase many examples of collaboration in higher education (Abegglen et al., 2021). Online learning provides many opportunities for collaboration (Hammond, 2017; Koris et al., 2021). The term Online Collaborative Learning Theory and the Community of Inquiry models have each been coined to provide both theoretical underpinnings and practical methods for student and student/teacher collaboration (Bates, 2019). In the online setting, discussion groups provide a basis and can be structured to maximise learning outcomes. Peer-to-peer reflection and commentary might also be assessed and graded. Conclusion Adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s Taxonomy is recommended to emphasise its importance and its contribution to each of the other components of the taxonomy. The New Bloom is designed to stimulate opportunities for learning how to collaborate in the higher education setting and beyond. References Abegglen, S., Burns, T., and Sinfield, S. (2021) ‘Editorial: collaboration in higher education: partnering with students, colleagues and external stakeholders’, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(7), pp.1-6. Available at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss7/01/ (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruickshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J. and Wittrock, M.C. (eds). (2001) A taxonomy for learning, teaching, https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss7/01/ Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 9 and assessing: a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of educational objectives (Complete ed.). New York: Longman. Armstrong, P. (2010) Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Available at: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/ (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Baloche, L. and Brody, C.M. (2017) ‘Cooperative learning: exploring challenges, crafting innovations’, Journal of Education for Teaching, 43(3), pp.274-283. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2017.1319513 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Bates, A.W. (2019) Teaching in a digital age: Chapter 4.4: Online collaborative learning. Available at: https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/6-5-online- collaborative-learning/ (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Bloom, B.S., Englehart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H. and Krathwohl, D.R. (1956) The taxonomy of educational objectives, the classification of educational goals, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company Inc. Churches, A. (2008). Bloom's Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. Available at: https://www.techlearning.com/news/bloom39s-taxonomy-blooms-digitally (Accessed: 10 July 2022). European Consortium of Innovative Universities. Available at: https://www.eciu.org/ (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Eizadirad, A. (2019) ‘Decolonizing educational assessment models’, in Eizadirad, A., Decolonizing Educational Assessment. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 203-228. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27462-7 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Foley, C. (2021) ‘Professor who tweeted the coronavirus genome, paving the way for new vaccines, scoops major Australian science award’, The Conversation, 4 November. Available at: https://theconversation.com/professor-who-tweeted-the-coronavirus- https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/ https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2017.1319513 https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/6-5-online-collaborative-learning/ https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/chapter/6-5-online-collaborative-learning/ https://www.techlearning.com/news/bloom39s-taxonomy-blooms-digitally https://www.eciu.org/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27462-7 https://theconversation.com/professor-who-tweeted-the-coronavirus-genome-paving-the-way-for-new-vaccines-scoops-major-australian-science-award-171208 Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 10 genome-paving-the-way-for-new-vaccines-scoops-major-australian-science-award- 171208 (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Hammond, M. (2017) ‘Online collaboration and cooperation: the recurring importance of evidence, rationale and viability’ Education and Information Technologies, 22, pp.1005–1024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-016-9469-x (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Heller, R.F. (2022). The distributed university for sustainable higher education. Singapore: Springer. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6506-6 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Heller, R.F. (2022a) ‘Solutions’, in Heller, R.F., The distributed university for sustainable higher education. Singapore: Springer. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978- 981-16-6506-6_3 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Joo, J., Selingo, J.J., and Alamuddin, R. (2019) Unlocking the power of collaboration: how to develop a successful collaborative network in and around higher education. Available at: https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.312001 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Kezar, A. (2005) ‘Redesigning for collaboration within higher education institutions: an exploration into the developmental process’, Research in Higher Education, 46, pp.831–860. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-004-6227-5 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Koris, R., Palmer, Z. and Oswal, S. (2021) ‘Empowering cross-disciplinary learning through online collaboration among students and faculty from Business English, Website Building, and Accessible Design Fields, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(7), pp.112-134. Available at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss7/08/ (Accessed: 5 September 2022). https://theconversation.com/professor-who-tweeted-the-coronavirus-genome-paving-the-way-for-new-vaccines-scoops-major-australian-science-award-171208 https://theconversation.com/professor-who-tweeted-the-coronavirus-genome-paving-the-way-for-new-vaccines-scoops-major-australian-science-award-171208 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-016-9469-x https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6506-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6506-6_3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6506-6_3 https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.312001 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-004-6227-5 https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss7/08/ Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 11 Krathwohl, D.R. (2002) ‘A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: an overview’, Theory into practice, 41 (4), pp.212-218. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Laal, M. and Ghodsi, S.M. (2012) ‘Benefits of collaborative learning’, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, pp.486–490. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Laurillard’s Conversational Framework. The 6 Learning types – ABC Learning Design. Available at: (https://abc-ld.org/6-learning-types/) (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Laurillard, D., Kennedy, E., Charlton, P., Wild, J. and Dimakopoulos, D. (2018) ‘Using technology to develop teachers as designers of TEL: evaluating the learning designer’, British Journal of Educational Technology, 49, pp.1044-1058. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12697 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). Mintz, S. (2019) ‘Creating a more collaborative higher education ecosystem’, Inside Higher Ed, 17 January. Available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed- gamma/creating-more-collaborative-higher-education-ecosystem (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Networked Learning Editorial Collective (NLEC) (2021) ‘Networked Learning: inviting redefinition’, Postdigital Science and Education, 3, pp.312–325. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00167-8 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). OECD (2019) How international collaboration can help build the future of education. Available at: https://issuu.com/oecd.publishing/docs/international_collaboration_- __future_of_education (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Scager, K., Boonstra, J., Peeters, T., Vulperhorst, J., and Wiegant. F. (2016) ‘Collaborative learning in higher education: evoking positive interdependence’, CBE—Life Sciences Education, 15(4). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-07-0219 (Accessed: 5 September 2022). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091 https://abc-ld.org/6-learning-types/ https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12697 https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/creating-more-collaborative-higher-education-ecosystem https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/creating-more-collaborative-higher-education-ecosystem https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-020-00167-8 https://issuu.com/oecd.publishing/docs/international_collaboration_-__future_of_education https://issuu.com/oecd.publishing/docs/international_collaboration_-__future_of_education https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-07-0219 Heller A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 24: September 2022 12 SUNY COIL Center. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Available at: https://coil.suny.edu/ (Accessed: 10 July 2022). UNESCO (2017) Open educational resources. Available at: https://en.unesco.org/themes/ict-education/oer (Accessed: 10 July 2022). UNESCO (2021) International Commission on the Futures of Education. Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education. Available at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 (Accessed: 10 July 2022). Author Details Richard Heller is Emeritus Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia and the University of Manchester, UK. He has 50 years of higher education experience in medicine and public health. As Professor of Public Health in Manchester he established the University’s first online master’s degree. He founded and coordinated Peoples-uni to build public health capacity in developing countries at low cost, through online learning. His recent open access book is The Distributed University for Sustainable Higher Education. https://coil.suny.edu/ https://en.unesco.org/themes/ict-education/oer https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379707 http://peoples-uni.org/ https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-6506-6 A new bloom – adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Abstract Introduction Why collaborate? Digital opportunities for collaboration Teaching collaboration Bloom’s taxonomy Adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy Further detail on the taxonomy The hierarchy New Bloom in practice Conclusion References Author Details