Sharon fAIR

Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy to PTA student learning

What is your opinion as to which (generally speaking) is the highest level faculty should expect a PTA student to achieve and why? (Please identify your discipline / profession if you reply)

My preliminary input:

I am PT, PhD and taught PT & OT students in entry-level curriculums and PT students in post-entry level curriculums. I am now instructing PTA students in entry-level curriculum. Given my experience, I would answer the first part of my question "the evaluation level" in certain areas, such as choosing a specific treatment when provided a list. My rationale, the PTA must evaluate what they have done or a variety of ways to solve a problem (select the most appropriate exercise) and determine, typically through some criteria, the best method to solve the problem (select the most appropriate exercise). In other areas, however - such as developing a PT plan of care, I think it is appropriate for PTAs to be limited to the comprehension level. That is, recognize their limitations secondary to the simple fact that they did not complete PT school nor pass the PT Boards. In other words, why would PTA or even the supervising PT regard that s/he is qualified to assess the competency of a non-licensed PT to establish an appropriate (eg safe, effective, reasonable, etc) PT POC?

Reference : Blooms Taxonomy definitions of level:

• The knowledge level students can define terms.

• The comprehension level takes it up one level where students can work assigned problems and provide examples of what they have done. Therefore, they can demonstrate understanding of the facts learned at the knowledge level. At the application level, the students recognize what methods are appropriate to use to solve problems and they can use the method appropriately – hence applying knowledge to actual situations.

• Analysis is a higher level than application as the students can analyze what they have done while implementing a method to solve a problem, and more importantly, be able to explain to others why the solution process works. Therefore, students can break down objects/ideas into simpler parts.

• At the synthesis level, students can begin to combine different parts of a process in new and useful ways.

• At the top level, evaluation, students can evaluate what they have done or a variety of ways to solve a problem and determine, typically through some criteria, the best method to solve the problem.