internasyonal na mga workshop / International Workshops
[See Courses on Educational Taxonomies]
I have received some interesting feedback and critique of my circular representation of Ravindra H. Dave’s psychomotor domain of educational objectives. I have been asked why I have chosen to use the circular design, to use alternative verbs and to expand the definition of psychomotor activity.
Firstly, the representation of the domain as a circle, which I have used across four domains elsewhere, I believe, makes the subcategories more fluid. It contains the proto-verbs at the centre, the next circle contains active verbs, which also represent teaching and learning activity, and the outer circle contains the nature of evidence (or assessment forms) that might demonstrate the active verbs. Using the circle also gives an inherently clock-face-like visual, which makes the dialling up from basic to more sophisticated concepts as you travel clockwise. Maybe its most powerful function is to encourage lateral thinking among learning designers, prompting them to explore learning and teaching activities as assessment or evidence examples simultaneously.
NOTE: High-quality versions of these taxonomies are available here
Secondly, I have chosen to use active verbs to describe the subcategories of the domain, and so there is a clear change from:
| Dave’s Original | Atkinson’s Adaptation | Descriptor |
| Imitation | Imitate | ability to copy, replicate the actions of others following observations. |
| Manipulation | Manipulate | ability to repeat or reproduce actions to prescribed standard from memory or instructions. |
| Precision | Perfect | ability to perform actions with expertise and without interventions and the ability to demonstrate and explain actions to others. |
| Articulation | Articulate | ability to adapt existing psychomotor skills in a non-standard way, in different contexts, using alternative tools and instruments to satisfy need. |
| Naturalisation | Embody | ability to perform actions in an automatic, intuitive or unconscious way appropriate to the context. |
This is to articulate more clearly the need to describe learning outcomes as things that the students will actually ‘do’ in line with the principles of constructively aligned learning and teaching design.
The third, more or less obvious change, is that I have chosen to expand the definition of psychomotor activity to incorporate a wider range of physical activities that perhaps Dave had not envisaged, particularly those involving the manipulation of computer software, laboratory and fieldwork equipment, and a range of technical equipment. I felt this was necessary because I have seen so many University courses make light of the skills developed in acquiring such expertise, as though they are incidental, when clearly they are the primary outcome valued by most students and employers.
For example, the specifics of the volume of water flowing through the Mississippi delta in November (Knowledge) will prove less useful than the ability to master the GIS and computational software used to document those specifics (Psychomotor).
I believe that the majority of what is in the UK further and higher context are described as ‘transferable skills’ and falls into the psychomotor domain and is worthy of careful attention.