Speeding Up Mastery

Let’s consider some of the ways we can use application and analysis, levels 3 and 4 of Bloom’s Taxonomy, to develop our lessons.

The idea here is that we’ve begun with knowledge and comprehension, and now we want to increase the challenge.

First, we’ll look at application, giving five examples of strategies you can use.

Then, we’ll do the same for analysis.

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

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

And here’s a list of keywords for application and analysis:

Application:

• Apply, Calculate, Choose, Demonstrate, Dramatize, Employ, Implement, Interpret, Operate, Perform, Practise, Role-Play, Sketch, Solve, Suggest.

Analysis:

• Analyse, Appraise, Categorize, Compare, Contrast, Differentiate, Discriminate, Distinguish, Examine, Experiment, Explore, Investigate, Question, Research, Test.

Application as the Development Point: Example One – A Series of Problems

Set learners a series of problems they must solve, using their knowledge and understanding.

This is perhaps the most familiar use of application as a development point.

Problem solving involves looking for answers or solutions.

To do this, learners must apply what they know and understand, then examine the results.

Trial and error often play a role here, as does analysis.

For example, learners apply what they know to try and solve a problem.

They then analyse what they’ve done to see if it’s right.

If it is, they continue. If it isn’t, they go back and try again.

Application as the Development Point: Example Two – Product Creation

Ask learners to create a product based on their knowledge and understanding.

For example, we might request a guide to the topic aimed at people who have never encountered it before.

This involves learners applying what they know but doing so through the lens of writing for a particular audience.

There is overlap with synthesis here (hence the word ‘create’).

However, what we’re talking about is a more basic level of synthesis, with application dominating.

To illustrate the difference, consider this:

• Application-focussed task: Create a guide to Goldilocks and the Three Bears for someone who hasn’t read the story.
• Synthesis-focussed task: Can you create a new version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, with different characters and a different setting?

The first task prioritises application.

Learners need to apply what they have learned to create their guide.

There’s a bit of synthesis because learners need to order and arrange their material into a guide format, but that is subordinate to the main goal.

The second task prioritises synthesis.

Learners must create something new. A novel response that goes beyond the knowledge and understanding they have developed.

Application as the Development Point: Example Three – Show Me You Understand It

Ask learners to convey their understanding through a particular medium.

For example, we might:

• Ask a chemistry class to make a comic strip showing what they understand about osmosis.
• Ask an English class to write a leaflet outlining the different profiles of characters in MacBeth.
• Ask a Year Four class to create a picture showing what they understand about adding fractions.

In each of these examples, learners already know and understand something (osmosis, the characters in MacBeth, how to add fractions).

The task asks them to apply this – to use it – in an act of demonstration.

• The comic strip demonstrates learners’ knowledge of osmosis.
• The leaflet demonstrates learners’ knowledge of the characters in MacBeth.
• The poster demonstrates learners’ understanding of how to add fractions.

(And if it doesn’t, that’s information you can use to adapt your teaching.)

Application as the Development Point: Example Four – Can you group it?

Give learners a selection of new material and ask them to group this according to what they already know and understand.

For example:

• A geography teacher gives learners a card sort containing factors that influence immigration. They ask learners to group these into push and pull factors, something they’ve already studied.
• A Year Six teacher displays ten quotes on the board, from the class reader. They ask learners to put these into groups based on work they did in the previous lesson.
• An A Level psychology teacher gives learners a set of twelve studies. They ask them to group these based on their knowledge of different approaches to psychology.

In each case, the act of grouping is the application.

Learners are grouping information based on their existing knowledge and understanding.

They are applying that knowledge and understanding to successfully sort the items in question.

Application as the Development Point: Example Five – Choose the Right Option

Imagine learners have learned a rule.

For example:

• How to use commas.
• When to play a short pass in football.
• Newton’s First Law.

We present learners with a set of options.

Some show the rule being used correctly. Some show it being used incorrectly.

We ask learners to choose the right options from those available.

Here, learners are applying their knowledge of the rule to choose (see the keyword list above) the correct examples of the rule in action.

If using this activity, you can create a sequence of examples for learners to have a go at.

If you make these increasingly difficult, you will likely see analysis coming into the activity as well (and possibly evaluation), with learners using this to help them try to apply the rule correctly.

Turning to Analysis

Now we can move onto our analysis strategies.

Bear in mind that analysis is often woven together with another element of the taxonomy.

Application and evaluation are most common.

But synthesis can marry up nicely as well.

Analysis as the Development Point: Example One – Compare and Contrast

Ask learners to compare and contrast two or more things.

This is an analysis activity with which we are all familiar.

It is perhaps the most widely used example.

The process of comparison involves analysing the nature and structure of the items in question.

This helps learners gain a deeper understanding of what the items are like, as well as how they relate to one another.

Helpful scaffolds include:

• A list of questions learners can use as the basis of their comparison.
• A table for learners to complete, with a column for similarities and a column for differences.
• A list of categories learners can use to make comparisons. If we asked a learner to contrast two paintings, for example, we might give them categories like: brushstrokes, use of colour, perspective, use of light, and realism.

Analysis as the Development Point: Example Two – Test a Hypothesis

Challenge learners to test a hypothesis.

Such activities are common in science but can be used in many areas of the curriculum.

For example:

• In a history lesson we might ask learners to test the hypothesis that World War Two was cause by the Treaty of Versailles.
• In a maths lesson we might ask learners to test the hypothesis that a square’s area is greater than its perimeter.
• In a Year 3 geography lesson we might ask learners to test the hypothesis that our playground is a good habitat for insects.

In testing a hypothesis, learners must break down the elements of that hypothesis, examine them, collect the results of their testing, and then use this to see whether the hypothesis can be proven or not (which, arguably, involves a degree of evaluation).

A greater degree of analysis is introduced when you ask learners to develop their own hypotheses to test.

Analysis as the Development Point: Example Three – Research Question

Give learners a topic they must research, framed by an investigative question.

To complete such a task, learners must engage in analysis.

The collection of information on its own may or may not include analysis.

But when that collection is framed by an investigative question, analysis is brought to bear.

For example:

• In Year 5 English we might give learners the research question: What does persuasive writing look like?
• In GSCE art we might give learners the research question: Is all impressionism the same?
• In A Level politics we might give learners the research question: Does socialism have an agreed set of core principles?

In all these, learners are directed to analysis by the questions.

They frame the research for learners, indicating how it needs to be done and creating a clear analytical endpoint – being able to successfully answer the question.

Analysis as the Development Point: Example Four – Counterfactual Discussion

Set learners a counterfactual question they must answer by re-examining content with which they are already familiar.

‘What if’ questions are good for this:

• What if viruses couldn’t mutate, how might human immune systems have developed differently?
• What if passing forwards wasn’t disallowed in rugby? Would the game look the same? 
• What if Goldilocks had brought her own snack with her? Would the story have changed?

In each of these examples, the teacher references what learners have already learned.

That with which they are familiar.

(The relationship between viruses and the immune system; the basic rules of rugby; the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears).

The counterfactual question invites learners to look again.

To analyse what they know in light of new information or from a new perspective.

This is challenging and, usually, enlightening.

Analysis as the Development Point: Example Five – Distinguish the Anomaly

Distinguish means to recognise or treat something as different.

To do this, we need to analyse.

‘Can you distinguish the anomaly?’ is a great question to ask learners when they have gained familiarity with a topic.

To answer it correctly, learners need to closely examine the options and pick out the one that is different.

(A bit of application and evaluation can easily creep in here. So much the better.)

Here’s a few examples:

• A history teacher gives their learners five sources. One is an AI fake. They challenge their learners to distinguish the anomaly.
• A Year 5 teacher gives their learners five articles from a newspaper. Four are pieces of news, one is an opinion piece. The teacher asks learners to distinguish the anomaly and to then explain their thinking.
• An A Level computer science teacher gives their learners five pieces of code. They don’t explain what connects them. All they say is: ‘One of these is an anomaly. I want you to distinguish which one.’

In each of these examples, we see how the structure of the task gets learners looking closely at the materials they’ve been given.

Analytical engagement is essential if learners want to find the correct answer.