Educational Theory of the Week: Application

We are moving along with Bloom's Taxonomy. I skipped last week (and maybe the week before that)--sorry! The mommy job does not understand schedules and between teething and "read this" requests, blogging went to the back of my mind. I know you all understand. (smile, cyber hug)

To review (yep, that's the teacher in me), let's look at Knowledge and Comprehension before we move onto Application. Knowledge is the basic concepts, or the facts your child knows. Comprehension is understanding what you know.

Application is when we apply what we know and understand to our situation, our life.

Questions

You can ask your child several questions to use the application section of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Which shirt are you going to wear: the long sleeve or short sleeve?
Write the letter ___ or the number ___.
Explain what happened in the story.
Will you show me how to add these numbers?
Can you show me what happened?

Application

Ty, age 3

A few weeks ago, my hubby and I filled Ty's sandbox with sand for the season. Naturally thrilled, he began playing and throwing sand everywhere. We had just finished planting a garden, and Ty was now handling the sand as he had the dirt. He threw it up in the air and rubbed it on his face. I asked him if he remembered getting garden dirt in his eyes and having to go in the house.

He remembered and I applied that example to his new situation. He applied it too and began making neater piles--he stopped throwing the sand around so much. He applied a previous lesson to a new situation.

Audience

One of the biggest ways parents work with their children is to make crossovers with situations. Parents teach that it is wrong to lie (knowledge) and we want our children to apply that idea to lots of different situations. In what way do you use application with your children?