Please read notes 12.1 and 12.2 first. The notes are vertically integrated and cumulative! Trust us, you will get things messed up if you do not do what we suggest.

Applying is a more complex thought process than memorizing and comprehending. You need to include the in-situ context and this adds more to the cognitive challenge. Thus far, the original Bloom’s complexity model is aligned with the new process model. From comprehending, you can be asked to apply the knowledge in the situation comprehended.

When you ask a student to apply an idea for the first time, it should be the WOW moment for the student. They should see the value and relationship of the learning outcome to their program or perceived course value (if elective). If they fail to see this on the first application, it will be hard to win them back. The first contact, the first hit will always be remembered.

You need to have meta knowledge about 'applying'. This is where all of the levels come into play. The endgame associated with 'applying' will always involve some kind of thinking needed for analysis, deriving the endgame, and deciding that the endgame will be the result of 'applying'. Each of these activities can be done with Kahneman's System One or System Two thinking (Kahneman 2011). They can be thought through and performed with appropriate knowledge and methods, or just done. Just done is not good enough. In a simple way of thinking, applying means that you can pick the relevant knowledge and concepts and apply them in the 'best' or 'desired' way.

Learning thoughts…

• The opportunity to successfully apply knowledge depends on a few factors:
• relevant knowledge
• appropriate understanding of the knowledge
• a reasonable chance at understanding the context of potential application
• This suggests that the students do not attempt to apply the knowledge until it is reasonable and feasible (unless one is consciously flipping, using constructive failure). It also means that the example or situation for application is appropriate.
• We suggest using a think-pair-share activity followed by an experiential exercise with appropriate debriefing and discussion. This will get the students thinking and discussion how to apply something, you can discuss their thinking, perhaps have another short exercise to revise, and then have them do something of substance where they actually have to apply the ideas.
• You cannot tell them how it is applied or how to apply it and stop there. They need to attempt the application and experience the process of applying, feel it, understand the process.
• They need to see how mistakes are made, be able to see a mistake, know when things are going south and know when, where, to pull up and re-assess. You need to let them make mistakes (in a controlled way). They need to learn how to make mistakes in order to avoid them upon graduation.
• There is likely to be more than one solution or way to apply the concept. It will be a rare situation that there is only one way that will actually work. However, you can talk about characteristics that make one application better than another. Both might work, but one is a bit better.

• Do not pick a topic you and/or the students do not know for the exercises, and be sure to do a dry run first with the TAs or other helpers. You need to give the students a quality experience and you need to do what is needed to do this. Students cannot be expected to learn two things at the same time. The exception is if you are teaching them how to approach a new situation and the learning outcome is what knowledge is needed to tackle a new situation. For example, you might be asked to apply a theory to a situation. If you do not understand anything about the situation, the process is to first understand enough about the situation (and you need to know how to get this understanding) before thinking about how to apply the theory.
• If one is going from the knowledge level, the first application should be applying the concepts to understand the ‘situation’ and explain how the ideas can be applied to understand the problem, situation. Do not jump to the applying, analysing, synthesis, evaluation phases all at once. There can be little bits of these skills involved, but you can control the focus by the activity design. Get them to understand the problem first, before jumping to conclusions and solutions.
• That is, the understanding of concepts and knowledge can be applied to understanding the relationship of the problem/exercise to what has been taught. It does not have to be about ‘what is the problem’, ‘why is it a problem’, etc.; that comes in the analysis bit. It can be ‘how is xxx relevant’, ‘is xxx relevant’, ‘what bits of this relate to what we have been talking about’. It is important to develop the art of seeing and understanding, not just looking.

Assessing thoughts…

• We suggest that you use the ideas laid out in the peer comparisons and subjective rubric note. This will help you figure out what to do with the assessment submissions.
• Do not give the students a rubric at the start. Please, please do not do that.
• Do a dry run (or two), so the students get the hang of it first, with review and feedback, and then do a real assessment. This is a general principle of course, you should never just teach something and then assess it in a test or major deliverable. The students should always have the opportunity to practice and get feedback before an assessment.
• Make sure that you are analysing and assessing the process, as well as the final result. This is very important. The process should also be ‘marked’ as well.
• Allow a full lab or lecture after a major assessment for discussion, debrief, think-pair-share activity. They need to comprehend and understand what just happened!
• We also suggest that you have incremental assessments that build off the earlier ones, perhaps taking the example, presenting what would be considered a good solution, and then changing it up a bit and ask for the students for another application given the new information or changes.
• When assessing the application of a concept, it is important to ask the student why they think it is a good application and provide a justification. This will help them improve their evaluation skills.

Further reading

• Kahneman, D. (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Anderson, L., & Krathwohl, D. A. (2001). Taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Addison Wesley Longman.
• Bozdemir, H., Cevik, E.E., Kurnaz, M.A., and O.V. Yaz (2019). A comparative examination of science achievements in life studies course curricula of 2009, 2015, and 2018 according to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy: The Case Of Turkey. Acta Didactica Napocensia, 12, 1, pp. 17-32.