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Developing Skills in the Cognitive Domain
The Visual Ranking Tool encourages students to engage in skills at all levels of Bloom's taxonomy.
Knowledge. Using the tool, a student can re-create the order of items in a series, such as events on a timeline (for example, how a bill becomes a law; the steps in cell meiosis), or objects along a scale (for example, distance of planets from the sun; the density of noble gases).
Comprehension and Application. A lesson might include the task of ordering items based on objective calculated or interpreted data. The comment box associated with each of the items can be used to document the student's comprehension. For example, students could rank the population density of the continents using data on population and area, place automobiles in environmental order by combining gas mileage and pollution data, or rate politicians based on their voting records on key issues.
Analysis. Skills at this level—organizing, differentiating, comparing, and contrasting—are the focus of the tool. In order to rank items on a scale, the student must not only understand the items being compared, but also the nature of the scale and the criteria by which an item is placed on the scale. Analysis tasks might include ranking the influences on a student's course grade, comparing the effectiveness of various fertilizers, or sorting the frequency of eye and hair color combinations in the class. Visual Ranking functions as a "cognitive tool" that supports students' own constructive thinking and their engagement in cognitive operations (Jonassen, 1991; Salomon, 1993).
Synthesis. When students use the comparison feature they begin to construct new knowledge. Students can use the tool to rank items, events, traits, and so forth, according to criteria that the students develop. The comparison with other students' work creates information that did not exist before. Combining comparisons into a class average can be used to direct action (as in a project that ranks projects students might engage in), create research opportunities (as in a project where the tool is used to survey preferences), or organize plans (as in a project where students sort important plot elements as a pre-writing activity).
Evaluation. To rank an item, a student must establish and apply criteria, apply a value to each item based on the criteria, and justify that placement with a comment. Projects in which students use the tool's comparisons with other students as an opportunity to persuade, educate, or convince the others are strong examples of this evaluative aspect of the tool. Role-playing a particular perspective in evaluating items has been shown (Hunt, 1999) to be an effective tool in fostering student understanding.
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