Pedagogical Transformation of Bloom Taxonomy's LOTs into HOTs: An Investigation in Context with IT Education

Benjamin Bloom had proposed three hierarchical models used to classify educational learning objectives (of the learner) into levels of complexity and specificity. These three models are cognitive (knowledge-based), affective (emotion-based), and psychomotor (action-based). The objective of this paper is to discover the outcome-based education mechanism to observe the transformation from LOTs to HOTs through unconventional teaching and learning practices in context with IT education that can be beneficial for teachers, students, and higher education institutions. Authors have explored the Cognitive model (knowledge-based), which is used to decide learners' competency with six different levels. These levels are: Remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. The former three levels are categorized in Lower order thinking skills (LOT), and the latter three are in higher-order thinking skills (HOT). A learner can upgrade competency by navigating various levels from LOT to HOT in particular. Bloom's Taxonomy (BT) competencies also indicate the probability of securing a leaner's employment. In this paper, the authors propose an outcome-based education mechanism to observe the transformation from LOTs to HOTs through unconventional teaching and learning practices in context with IT education. The results suggest a significant improvement in the educational practices and insights for educational stakeholders and policymakers. This transformation aims to create subject interest among learners and ensure a minimum gap between teaching and learning (short-term goal). The long-term goal of this practice is to provide the readiness of learners towards employment or entrepreneurship.