Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTI)

Levels of Teaching Innovation

A Reflection by Fran Glickman

In the past, educators used a categorization of six thinking levels, ranked from the lowest thinking level to the highest when planning their lessons. Educators made sure to incorporate each of the levels into their lessons and assessments, with the ultimate goal of all the students being able to perform at the highest cognitive level. These original six levels were referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy, named after the psychologist, Benjamin Bloom. The six cognitive (thinking) levels ranked from lowest to highest are:

1. Knowledge: Recall of facts
2. Comprehension: Understand the meaning of information
3. Application: Using information in new situations
4. Analysis: Breaking down material into parts for examination
5. Synthesis: Putting parts of information together to form something
6. Evaluation: Judging the value of material based on criteria for a purpose

Like many things in the world of education, Bloom’s Taxonomy was re-evaluated and modified to make it better. Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl felt that some of the terms needed to be modified and reorganized and then republished as “Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy,” which is as follows (also ranked from lowest to highest):

1. Remember
2. Understand
3. Apply
4. Analyze
5. Evaluate
6. Create

With today’s in surge of technology, we need to again modify and further define the levels of thinking to accommodate the “Net generation.” In response to this technical world, the 21st Century Teacher must incorporate technology into lessons and perhaps into assessments as well. Therefore, the “Levels of Teaching Innovation” or LoTI as it is also referred to be created. What does this have to do with Bloom’s Taxonomy? Well, just as Bloom’s Taxonomy was created to enable students to reach higher levels of thinking and learning, so too does LoTI. The LoTI also claims to have “six” levels (but there are really more – 4a and 4b). They refer to these levels as “LoTI Framework:”

1. Level 0 = Nonuse
2. Level 1 = Awareness – Teacher uses technology only for productivity tools
3. Level 2 = Exploration
4. Level 3 = Infusion
5. Level 4a = Integration – Mechanical
6. Level 4b = Integration – Routine
7. Level 5 = Expansion
8. Level 6 = Refinement - Multiple technologies being used toward product completion

In President Obama efforts to have U.S. students compete globally, he stated that the 21st Century skills involved problem solving, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, and creativity among other things. If we think back to Bloom’s Taxonomy, the skills mentioned by President Obama (when speaking about the “Race to the Top”) have been in place for many decades. However, the avenues of where the students can be creative are changing rapidly. Why has the U.S. students’ grades been slipping? The forum on that question can go on and on. There are a number of good reasons. We now have to look at what we can do to make a change for the better. We have to meet the learning styles of the “Net generation.” Educators have to incorporate technology into their lessons and infuse the “LoTI Framework” into their lessons and assessments.

Recourses may be an inhibitor. Many schools do not have the funding to make the change quickly. They have to purchase the technological devices in chunks at a time. President Obama’s goal is for the U.S. to have the highest proportion of college graduates by the year 2020. It looks like we are on course for success.