By Lee S. Shulman
I loved this paper! It delivered a few key "a-has" for me regarding learning taxonomies that had thus far in life eluded me.
In my work, I often encounter corporate learning specialists who are firm believers in the doctrine of Bloom's Taxonomies. Given my company's product/service is a simulation of reality, our learners don't always progress smoothly through the Bloom steps and this has been difficult to explain to the Bloom initiated. Fortunately Shulman has provided a logical argument for why this is OK!
I appreciated his view of taxonomies as merely telling a story versus implying a proven theory or hierarchy. I was also unaware that Bloom had originated his taxonomies as an assessment mechanism AND NOT as a guide for course design.
I also appreciated his view of taxonomies as a framework to be manipulated and optimized for different content and contexts.
My only suggestion for improvement is his original assertions on the reasons why humans are classification-crazed. It's more than trying to make order of the world. It's an attempt to understand the world in terms of cause and effect...if you can understand the full texture of something then you are conferred the freedom to control it.