How you can use knowledge and comprehension as the starting point of your lessons, and call on the power of Bloom’s Taxonomy to create success for your learners

The Foundations of Learning

Knowledge and comprehension are the first two levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The foundations on which all else is built.

Sometimes we need to spend time on these areas.

Sometimes we can breeze through them quickly.

Here, we’ll look first at five ways you can use knowledge as the starting point in your planning and teaching.

Then we’ll do the same for comprehension.

As a reminder, here’s the taxonomy in full:

Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

And here are a set of keywords for our first two levels:

Knowledge Keywords

Arrange, Define, Describe, List, Match, Memorise, Name, Order, Quote, Recognise, Recall, Repeat, Reproduce, Restate, Retain.

Comprehension Keywords

Characterise, Classify, Complete, Describe, Discuss, Establish, Explain, Express, Identify, Illustrate, Recognise, Report, Relate, Sort, Translate.

Knowledge as the Starting Point Example One: Working Backwards from a Knowledge List

When first planning a topic, identify all the knowledge you think a learner will need to possess by the end of the unit to be successful.

Make a list of this and then work backwards, identifying where and when they will be able to gain access to this information.

Here, we are defining the extent of the knowledge we expect learners to acquire before placing the opportunities for them to acquire this within the various lessons we plan.

This means we create clarity in our own minds over what successful knowledge acquisition looks like for the unit of work.

And we ensure the lessons we plan allow learners to achieve this.

Knowledge as the Starting Point Example Two: Start with the End in Mind

When planning a single lesson, identify what knowledge you would like learners to possess by the lesson’s end.

Think from the perspective of a successful learner who has made excellent progress.

Having identified the necessary knowledge, work backwards to plan your lesson, ensuring that the different sections provide opportunities for learners to acquire the knowledge you have pinpointed.

This is a development of the first example, based on a single lesson rather than a series.

Knowledge as the Starting Point Example Three: Knowledge Guidance Sheet

At the start of a unit of work, give learners a guidance sheet indicating all the knowledge you expect them to acquire by the end of the unit.

Talk them through this at the start of the first lesson and then refer to it in subsequent lessons, giving them the opportunity to tick off what they have learned (or to RAG rate it based on how securely they know it).

The aim here is to give learners ownership of their learning and to provide a clear sense of the framework of knowledge you expect them to acquire.

Knowledge as the Starting Point Example Four: Assessment Beacon

When planning a unit of work, start with the assessment.

Ask yourself what knowledge learners will need to possess to be able to achieve full marks (as well as how they will need to be able to manipulate that knowledge).

You can then keep this assessment in mind while you plan.

It will become the beacon to which you are aiming, helping you to ensure that the lessons you create cover the knowledge necessary for learners to be successful.

Knowledge as the Starting Point Example Five: Reviewing Knowledge

At the start of a lesson, ask learners to review their learning from the previous lesson.

As part of this, they should identify the knowledge they acquired as well as any prior knowledge they used as part of their learning.

Encourage learners to discuss this with a partner.

(If appropriate, scaffold with discussion questions.)

The verbal articulation will help refine and reinforce learners’ understanding of what they know and how it connects.

Having done this, introduce any new knowledge relevant to the present lesson.

This will be immediately framed by learners’ prior learning (about which they will have just been talking), helping them to quickly situate the new information.

Each of these examples illustrates how attending to knowledge allows you to clearly define and then build upon the foundations of learning in relation to a given topic.

It also indicates how getting a clear sense of the knowledge learners need to acquire can provide you with a guiding framework – one that helps you to plan well and to ensure that nothing is overlooked.

In one sense, this process is about you synthesising the information set out in the curriculum so that you can present it to learners in the most effective way possible.

The very essence of teaching.

An alternative starting point for your lessons is comprehension.

This is inherently bound up with knowledge.

When we look to it as a starting point, then, we do so with the understanding that it rests on knowledge and is, put simply, the development of understanding in relation to this.

Here are five ways you can use comprehension as the starting point of your planning and teaching.

Comprehension as the Starting Point Example One: The Stages of Understanding

When planning an individual lesson, consider what you want learners to understand at each stage of it.

From here, you can look to plan activities that allow for the development of this understanding.

You might choose to think about the ideal understanding you would like all learners to develop, or you might opt for a graduated understanding reflecting the various starting points of the learners in your class.

Either way, by defining what you want (in terms of understanding) in advance, you give yourself clarity over what your lesson needs to entail.

Comprehension as the Starting Point Example Two: Can they answer the questions that matter?

Ask yourself what question, or questions, you would like learners to be able to answer come the end of your lesson (or the end of a series of lessons).

To be able to answer, learners will need to have developed a certain level of understanding about the topic.

You can work backwards from here, planning activities and tasks that will facilitate this.

Here, you give yourself clarity through the creation of the question(s).

You can use these as a lens through which to look at your planning, making it easier to feel confident that what you are planning is directly relevant to the ultimate outcome you are seeking for your learners.

Comprehension as the Starting Point Example Three: How far do you want to take your learners?

Assess your learners’ existing level of understanding about the topic.

Then, ask yourself how you would like this understanding to develop.

For example, would you like it to be deeper, broader, more nuanced or, perhaps, all three.

Having defined your aim you can then set about planning lessons that will help you to achieve this.

Clearly, this is a simple approach.

Yet, how often do we do it?

How often do we start by thinking critically about the nature of understanding we want to develop through a unit of work?

Doing so, while a simple exercise, can really change how you think about planning.

Comprehension as the Starting Point Example Four: Begin with Comprehension

Plan a starter activity that asks learners to display their understanding to their peers (and to you).

Doing this can have two distinct purposes.

First, it can help us gain an immediate sense of where learners are at and what they can do in terms of their comprehension.

This means we use the starter activity to assess the general level of understanding in the room.

Second, you can use it to prime learners for what comes next.

For example, you might give learners three quick-fire comprehension questions to answer in pairs, with a time limit, then segue from this into an analytical task (more complex, higher up the taxonomy), in the knowledge that you have just got everyone to access the prior knowledge they will need to successfully get started with this.

Comprehension as the Starting Point Example Five: Probing for Understanding

Identify in advance of your lesson what understanding you want learners to develop.

Use this to formulate two or three questions that will allow you to probe and examine whether they have achieved this.

One example is to use hinge questions.

These are questions that allow you to test learners’ understanding in relation to misconceptions commonly associated with the topic of study.

(Hinge questions are focussed on the key pieces of knowledge and understanding on which successful learning ‘hinges’.)

The purpose here is to work out in advance how you will effectively judge the quality of understanding your learners develop.

If you have this nailed down, everything becomes easier when teaching the lesson itself.

In these examples we can see how thinking about comprehension allows us to build on the identification of relevant knowledge.

We can start to think of understanding as something defined and assessable.

Through our assessment we gain access to the information that tells us how much progress learners have made, allowing us to adapt our teaching accordingly.

As with the points made regarding knowledge, we are doing a degree of synthesis here.

That is, we are working out in advance what we would like to see, given the material we know we are teaching.

This puts us in a strong position from which to teach, plan and assess effectively.