Rigor and Relevance

During this month I've started meeting teachers to check-in on how they are doing with adding student artifacts into the Tech Audit based on the NETS-Ss.  We started this last year - collecting and analyzing artifacts in order to examine the rigor of technology use, and then using this information to create a PD plan personalized to the needs of each of our teachers.  Last year we categorized each artifact according to Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, however this year we are starting to consider a new model and whether this might be more appropriate.  This model, called the Rigor/Relevance Framework, which was developed by the International Center for Leadership in Education, has two dimensions.

Knowledge:  This continues to use Bloom's Taxonomy of low and high order thinking skills.  The lower end of the continuum involves acquiring knowledge and being able to recall or locate that knowledge, while the higher end is concerned with the more complex ways that knowledge is used.  At this end of the continuum students can combine knowledge in new and creative ways - this is called the assimilation of knowledge.

Application:  Looking at artifacts through this lens involves considering action or putting knowledge to use.  This continuum was created by Dr Willard Daggett and has 5 levels:

• knowledge in one discipline
• apply in discipline
• apply across disciplines
• apply to predictable real-world situations
• apply to unpredictable real-world situations

In the diagram below knowledge is the vertical continuum, and application is the horizontal.

Here is how this model could potentially be used to assess the student artifacts collected during the Tech Audit:

• Acquisition - these artifacts would be those that demonstrate inquiry and the gathering and organizing of knowledge and information in one discipline.  This would correspond with remember and understand on Bloom's Taxonomy.
• Application - these artifacts would exemplify problem solving across disciplines and would show knowledge being applied to new situations.  The skills involved would be mainly comprehension and application.
• Assimilation - artifacts would be demonstrating analysis and problem solving in order to create a new solution.  The skills we would be looking for would be analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
• Adaptation - these artifacts would show that students are able to use their knowledge and skills in creative ways in order to take action.  The artifacts would demonstrate the skills of evaluation and creativity.

Would you like to know more about the Rigor/Relevance Framework?  Click here to read the full article.

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