Creating Challenging Endpoints with Synthesis and Evaluation

As a reminder, here’s Bloom’s Taxonomy

• Knowledge
• Comprehension
• Application
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Evaluation

And here’s a set of keywords for synthesis and evaluation:

Synthesis:

• Combine, Compose, Construct, Create, Devise, Design, Formulate, Hypothesise, Integrate, Merge, Organise, Plan, Propose, Synthesise, Unite.

Evaluation:

• Appraise, Argue, Assess, Critique, Defend, Evaluate, Examine, Grade, Inspect, Judge, Justify, Rank, Rate, Review, Value.

Now, what I want to do is look at how we can use these two levels of the taxonomy as end points for our lessons.

I’ll look at synthesis first, then evaluation.

Synthesis as the End Point

First up is the idea of using synthesis as the end point of your lessons.

This means we are asking learners to work towards a point at which they can create something new – or can use their knowledge and understanding to suggest new ideas, connections or ways forward.

Successfully reaching this position indicates a good degree of mastery has been achieved over the lesson content.

Here are three examples of the approach in action.

Synthesis as the End Point: Example 1 – Create a New Interpretation

In a history lesson, the teacher might build to a final activity in which learners have to develop their own interpretation of an event they have been learning about.

The quality of this interpretation will rest in large part on the depth of understanding learners have been able to develop during the previous activities.

Coming up with an interpretation involves taking our knowledge and understanding and using these to produce some kind of coherent overview underpinned by our take on things.

To do this effectively, we must have an in-depth knowledge of what we’re studying.

That is what facilitates the process of synthesis.

In this example, the teacher can focus the preceding activities on achieving this goal.

By building up to synthesis, they give themselves a golden thread to weave through their planning.

Everything that learners do in the lesson must ultimately contribute to the overarching objective of being able to give an original interpretation of the event.

This generates both coherence and forward momentum.

Synthesis as the End Point: Example 2 – Plan Your Own Investigation

In a science lesson looking at the functions of the digestive system, we might move towards a final activity in which learners have to plan their own investigation into the digestive system.

To help them do this we would provide a list of possible areas around which their investigations might focus.

This acts as a scaffold, giving them purchase (by providing a set of starting points within which they situate their creative work.)

Other than that, it would be for learners to decide how to use the knowledge and understanding they have developed to create a useful and relevant investigation.

Synthesis as the End Point: Example 3 – Create a Role-Play

In an English lesson looking at the role of dialogue in stories we could build towards a final activity in which learners have to create a dramatic role-play illustrating how different techniques can be used to make dialogue effective.

For this to be achievable, the lesson would need to help learners understand and analyse examples of relevant techniques.

This prior work is necessary if learners are going to be able to meet the aims of the synthesis activity.

After all, you can’t create a role-play about something you don’t first understand.

In each of these cases you can see how the lesson is planned with the end in mind.

That end is a synthesis-based activity that asks learners to make creative use of their prior learning.

Through doing this they gain a greater insight into what they have learned, push their understanding beyond its current extents, and make connections that might otherwise have remained hidden.

We therefore see how and why synthesis as the end point represents an ascent to mastery or, depending on how effective the prior learning has been, a movement towards greater mastery than would otherwise have been the case.

While I’ve used secondary examples above, everything said is equally applicable in a primary context (though not, perhaps, with the youngest learners).

Evaluation as the End Point

We can also use evaluation as the end point of our lessons.

The principle is exactly the same – we ensure an increasing level of challenge by working our way up through the levels of the taxonomy so that, come the last activity, learners are still having their thinking pushed and are coming ever closer to mastering the content.

Here are three examples to consider.

Evaluation as the End Point: Example 1 – Assess the Statement

At the start of a sociology lesson, the teacher presents learners with a statement connected to the topic.

For example (when studying crime and deviance): ‘All crime is the result of poverty.’

Through the course of the lesson, the teacher refers to the statement, using it to frame the learning.

Then, for the last activity, they invite learners to use everything they have learned about crime and its links to poverty to assess the extent to which they agree or disagree with the statement.

Here, all the learning from the lesson must be called on to make an effective judgement.

Not only does such an approach have the benefit of promoting mastery, but so too does it help learners to see the progress they have made – because they can quickly and easily compare the thoughts they had about the statement at the start of the lesson to the informed judgement they have been able to make at the end.

Evaluation as the End Point: Example 2 – Rate the Methods

During a maths lesson we introduce learners to three different procedures for solving the same type of problem.

The lesson is divided into five.

We have a short starter activity, followed by three episodic activities.

In each of these we introduce learners to a different procedure and give them an opportunity to apply it and analyse the results.

Finally, in the fifth part of the lesson, we ask learners to assess which of the methods they think is most effective and why.

To help them, we draw their attention to some of the strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches, before leaving them to develop a nuanced judgement themselves.

This is a good example of how we can focus evaluation on processes of learning as well as lesson content.

We are asking learners to assess both what they’ve learned (the three methods) and the relative effectiveness of those methods (i.e. the process of using the methods as part of your learning).

This brings a metacognitive element into the evaluation.

Evaluation as the End Point: Example 3 – Lesson Self-Assessment

At the end of a PE lesson, we ask learners to conduct a self-assessment in which they judge the extent to which they have been able to effectively implement the skill we set out to teach them.

To support learners, we provide a set of success criteria and invite them to discuss the process of self-assessment with a partner, helping them to verbalise their thoughts about what constitutes an accurate and precise implementation of the skill in question.

Learners produce verbal self-assessments, sharing these with their partner.

The teacher circulates, listening in.

Where appropriate, they step in and ask follow up questions, seek clarification or ask learners to demonstrate the skill in question, to see if the evidence accords with their assessment.

Notice how, in each of these cases, learners turn around (metaphorically) and look back at their learning, using it for a productive end (the passing of judgement).

This indicates a similarity with synthesis.

Both rest on what has come before.

Both can only be achieved successfully if the necessary learning has preceded them.

And both involve the demonstration of mastery (of varying extents, depending on where the learner is at).