Bloom's Tax-annoying

[Dedicated111]

Okay, so maybe my thread title wasn't too creative, but here is the problem/question:

As I'm going through the past exam problems, I'm trying to think "well how could they ask this same question differently, by applying Bloom's taxonomy?" And this is what I get ... <<<nothing. I'm not creative enough to think about what the possibilities are. This could be not a lack of creativity but maybe a lack of understanding the material or lack of understanding Bloom's taxonomy or okay, maybe a lack in creativity.

Anyone have any suggestions?! I feel like the CAS is kinda throwing us out to the wolves. I know, I know, if you know the material inside and out, you'll be fine. But I also don't have hours upon hours a day to know every little detail about every little thing. A lot of this stuff gets drilled into your head via experience in the field, and it would be nice to have more guidance to be able to think about the possible questions that could be throw at us on exam day.

[John Doe]

After writing exam 6C this fall, I noticed that the main difference from prior year exam problems was that many of the accounting topics which used to have straight-forward calcuation problems now require you to explain some variables/quantities and results.

A lot of the legislation/regulation problems were still straight-forward "List/explain" type problems, but one particular problem which stood out to me was #8 which, instead of asking "List 3 potential areas of tort reform," actually gave you a case and asked you to list 3 potential areas of tort reform that could be applied to the case, with accompanying explanations.

I believe that this is the direction they are heading toward. So I would advise you to not only make sure you know how to solve problems, but that you also understand the intuition and the variables underlying each formula.

I'd discourage against memorizing every little detail. This is now a concept-based exam; all of the pure theory stuff that used to be on Exam 5 was moved to OC1. As long as you have a good overall understanding of the material I'm sure you'll be fine.

[Vorian Atreides]

Agree with JD . . . you'll be asked to recognize the various concepts in some sort of case study.

Being familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy from previous work (former educator with graduate work in math education), I'm working on putting a few problems problems together that can further help others get a handle on the various levels of Bloom's. I think I'll put some of them out sometime next week--it'll be on the Reserving stuff since that's what I'm studying on right now. I think I can put a few things together for the ratemaking in the next two weeks or so.

[Dedicated111]

VA that's super awesome, I'm sure so many people are going to really appreciate that.

Thanks to you both, that was really helpful

[Wolf Follower]

Thanks for posing this question. I was wondering about this myself. I'm better with concepts than I am at spewing out lists, so hopefully things are moving in that direction.

WF

[Vorian Atreides]

This seems the best place to put this. I'll try to summarize the focus of Bloom's (with links to additional info for those interested), and then provide some problems relevant to Exam 5 that may help put some of the "terminology" into a more relevant form (how many of you can proper track the sample problems for Exam 8?).

My apologies in advance if this is overkill, but you're free to ignore the rest. :-)

The Taxonomy was originally developed as a way for educators to have a consistent means of analyzing various learning objectives and better develop curricula and assessments (that is, exams) to achieve (and measure the achievement) of those learning objectives. So, its use by the CAS is appropriate.

The Taxonomy actually has three parts that classify cognitive functioning (mental skills, "head activities"), affective processing (emotional/feelings, "matters of the heart"), and psycho-motor abilities (physical skills, "using your hands"). Put another way, these three areas are Knowledge, Attitude, and (physical) skills.

CAS focuses only on the first part of the Taxonomy. (Can you imagine them asking "How do you feel about the indicated increase in the previous problem?"?). It is compose of six components:

Knowledge (Remembering)
Comprehension (Understanding)
Application
Analysis
Synthesis (Creating)
Evaluation
The last two represent the highest level of cognitive functioning, and aren't exactly in order; however, the rest is in order of increasing cognitive functioning. That is, some functioning at a given level is capable of functioning at any lower level.

Furthermore, the Taxonomy is actually a cycle, where those in the last two stages are applying their abilities to attain more knowledge (level 1) and understanding (level 2) of new material.

While we'll see some, I doubt that we're going to see a lot of question on Synthesis. I would imagine that we'll see an increasing number of Evaluation type problems in future sittings.

I'm working on some examples to help illustrate what sort of Exam 5 questions could be asked for each of the levels of the Taxonomy--one Ratemaking (I think I'm going to focus on Expenses from Chapter 7 of Werner & Modlin) and one for Reserving (most likely on Berq-Sherm, Ch 13). These will be posted at a later time (hopefully over the next day or so).

And now, some links:

CAS Future Fellows articles:
Article in Dec 2011: http://www.casact.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fa=viewart&id=6276 (http://www.casact.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fa=viewart&id=6276)

Articles in Dec 2010:
Announcement: http://www.casact.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fa=viewart&id=6091 (http://www.casact.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fa=viewart&id=6091)
Description of Bloom's: http://www.casact.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fa=viewart&id=6093 (http://www.casact.org/newsletter/index.cfm?fa=viewart&id=6093)

Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy)

Alternate source:
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html)

[Vorian Atreides]

Attached is some problems that could be asked that related the Chapter 7.

In looking at the problems and processing Bloom's Taxonomy, don't focus as much on what is asked as what sort of thinking is needed to answer the problem in light of what is presented in Chapter 7.

Do note that in answer some of the problems, you'll be expected to utilize material from other chapters (I believe that this is part of CAS's focus on using the "higher" levels of Bloom's Taxonomy in creating Exam problems).

Also notice that the problems at the higher levels actually require your mastery of the lower levels in order to answer the problem.

And while I have the problems numbered sequentially (this is to facilitate discussion on the board), I see these problems being part of a single numbered problem on the actual Exam, presenting two or three problems from the first page and one or two of the problems from the second page. And as I understand MQC, the MQC standard would be established based on the entire set.

I'll post a solution set soon (but not likely today), but thought I'd share this now.

Feel free to post feedback, either in the thread or via PM.

[Wolf Follower]

Thanks for taking the time to put together the explanation and the example. Much appreciated!

WF

[Vorian Atreides]

Thanks, WF. :-)

[herr blau]

Most excellent. Thanks!

[Dedicated111]

Hopefully I'm not asking too much. But, VA, do you have a reserving example like the ratemaking one you posted. I found it to be extremely helpful! Thanks in advance :D

[Vorian Atreides]

I do have a few problems that might work. I'll see what I can get typeset tomorrow.

May not be as "comprehensive" as the ratemaking one above, though.

[Vorian Atreides]

Attached pdf has some problems to help point out how the different levels of Bloom's Taxonomy might look for the Reserving portion of the Exam.

Standard caveats:

The classification is based on my interpretation of Bloom's; the CAS might have a different perspective.
I included some point values based on a rubric* I developed that I would use to grade these problems. I do not know how the CAS would develop their rubric.
Note that in an Exam setting, there may not be a single problem with this scope (the entire set of questions comprise 6.25 points), but it works to help understand the levels of Bloom's (plus a good review of the method in its entirety).

I'll work on getting solutions posted soon.

Again, feedback is always appreciated, either posted here or via PM.


* I don't hold too much to adjusting point values for a problem based on the time to do a certain part (or parts) of the problem. There is a certain correlation wrt time to complete the problem and the problem's point value--for longer problems, I look for those key intermediate steps that ought to be shown and determine point values for the work needed to show those intermediate steps.