The Meaning of Cognitive Rigor

by Ben S. Jones, MS

Since this blog focuses on Cognitive Rigor, we really should take some time to discuss what that represents exactly. 

Cognitive Rigor describes a relationship where both Depth of Knowledge (DOK) and Bloom'sTaxonomy play integral roles in framing the learning experience. Even though each of these two systems have very different constructs and design intentions, they share some common ground in terms of cognitive demand. It's this common ground that naturally leads to the cross-tabbing of the two for the Cognitive Rigor Matrix (Hess Matrix). (Templates for creating your own Cognitive Rigor Matrices can be found here.)

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy defines within its Cognitive Process Dimension six categories of intellectual behavior, which describe various thought processes activated during learning experiences. In the revised form by Anderson and Krathwohl, the six major categories were reorganized and embedded with 19 specific cognitive processes to better describe the breadth and depth of the categories. 

Additionally, the original taxonomy had compressed the verb and noun forms together at the expense of the Knowledge Dimension. Under the revised taxonomy, these were pulled back out into their distinct items. The verb forms remained; the noun forms were placed into a new fourth category within the Knowledge Dimension called Metacognitive Knowledge. These changes made the Cognitive Process Dimension more descriptive, revealing differing complexities and exposing substantial overlap between the categories.

It's unfortunate that Krathwohl* later referred to the taxonomy as a “hierarchy” simply because the categories were perceived to differ in their complexity. This view problematic in the sense that those differing complexities are not dependent on each other in the traditional view of hierarchies and certainly not as a linear progression. 

This distinction creates an important aspect of cognitive rigor -- Bloom's categories (levels) represent rather fluid states in cognition, which align narrowly to the task at hand for a learner. Therefore, Bloom's Taxonomy under this distinction describes a mode of thinking that handles information in a particular focus.

This aspect of Bloom's Taxonomy lies in stark contrast to Depth of Knowledge. 

Depth of Knowledge

Webb defined four hierarchical levels of organizational complexity to encompass how deeply a student needs to understand content in order to express increasing degrees of understanding. Depth of Knowledge represents a system where the levels clearly define distinct structures and cognitive loads. In its original context, DOK was intended to answer the question of how well a student understood the skills and concepts behind a specific standard on an assessment item. 

Depth of Knowledge looks back into the learning experiencing from the output side by decomposing the response to identify the organizational complexity. These complexities demonstrate the ability of a learner to fluidly manipulate the skills and concepts embodied by the task.

Cognitive Rigor

Cognitive Rigor is more than simply placing Bloom's Taxonomy alongside Depth of Knowledge on a grid. By merging these two approaches to understanding the learning process, Cognitive Rigor creates a means to connect types of cognition during learning experiences to a variety of complexity levels used later by students to express their understanding. 

However, these connections are not basic one-to-one links between Bloom's Taxonomy categories and DOK levels. Due to the fluid nature of Bloom's Taxonomy and its own internal overlaps, DOK and Bloom's Taxonomy connect at a slightly more abstract layer -- one where function and form interact in terms of information processing and expression.

This connection layer is a powerful feature of Cognitive Rigor because it opens a pathway to developing instruction where the degree of understanding and the types of thinking used to build that understanding are available at the curricular planning stage. 

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Seeking training at your school or district centered on Cognitive Rigor or Depth of Knowledge?  Call me at (559) 903-4014 or email me at jwalkup@standardsco.com. 

We will discuss ways in which I can help boost student engagement and deep thinking in your classrooms. I offer workshops, follow-up classroom observation/coaching, and curriculum analysis to anywhere in the country (and even internationally).