Adult Teaching Methods in China and Bloom’s Taxonomy

Authors

Victor Wang, California State University, Long BeachFollow
Lesley Farmer, California State University, Long BeachFollow

Abstract

Drawing from Bloom’s 1956 Taxonomy and Western theories on adult learning, the authors argue that adult teaching methods in China feature a teacher-centered, information-based and test-driven instructional format. An author-designed survey instrument called Lower-Order Thinking Skills and Higher-Order Thinking Skills (LOTSHOTS) was used to determine whether knowledge, comprehension and application drove adult teaching methods or analysis, synthesis and evaluation drove adult teaching methods in China. The results of the study showed that Chinese instructors of adults were used to teaching lower thinking skills associated with the first three levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, namely, knowledge, comprehension and application. The study proposes some possible reasons and implications of such practices, and suggests that teaching higher order thinking skills to Chinese adult students might widen their horizon in engaging more openly in learning

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Wang, Victor and Farmer, Lesley (2008) "Adult Teaching Methods in China and Bloom’s Taxonomy," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 13.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2008.020213