Polanyi and the Revised Taxonomy: Teaching Technology for High-Level Creative Thinking and Risk Taking

Abstract

This paper presents a model for mastery learning. The framework for this model overlays the cognitive and knowledge dimensions from Krathwohl’s revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy, the Revised Taxonomy, with Polanyi's theory of personal knowledge. A simplified framework integrates Polanyi's concepts of subsidiary and focal awareness with the Revised Taxonomy levels of knowledge acquisition to form a new model consisting of two dynamic parts: base thought and elevated thought. The base/elevated thought framework serves as a model for mastery learning with regards to the usefulness, application, and integration of technology into the creative problem-solving process. Allocating base knowledge to other means of instruction (for example, online tutorials or flipped classroom techniques) frees up the instructor's time and allows the expert (teacher) to engage novices (students) in more direct student-instructor contextual learning requiring higher levels of cognitive thinking. While this paper proposes the use of the framework within the context of a technology-focused model, its application has potential for other learning scenarios.