The next professional development I chose to work with in my capstone project focused on Webb’s depth of knowledge process. The professional development program took place in my school’s media center. The duration of the professional development was about an hour in length and required a lesson plan showing evidence of applied higher order thinking methods to be turned in as a follow up exercise.

Notes on Depth of Knowledge

The professional development explained that curricular elements may be categorized based on the cognitive demands required to achieve the correct response. Webb’s model is composed of four levels of increasing cognitive ability. Recalling and reproducing information is the first level in the model. Level two is working with skills and concepts such as comparison and classifying. Level three is short term strategic thinking such as charting or analyzing data and predicting outcomes. The last level is extended thinking which employs such processes as reflection and synthesis.

During the presentation of the material, my notes were focused on capturing the main concepts of the model and providing a good explanation of each level of the Webb model. My imagery was influenced on the idea of creating depth and showing that each level reaches to a further level from the first requiring more effort to be reached. The metaphor of the ocean seemed to be an appropriate comparison to include in my notes.

In thinking of the final image I wanted to create, I went through several ideas before I was able to settle one that I felt was the most accurate representation of my understanding of Webb’s model. I started by considering the different levels as similar to the evolution process in that a more complex mind is needed to utilize the deeper levels. I made some sketches of monkeys that I thought might work for the imagery, but I did not feel that this was the best metaphor to use in the image. I changed my mind to use the ages of man to represent the different levels of cognitive ability. As I was reading about the different levels, the different abilities reminded me of education. As you grow and learn, more difficult tasks are provided to continue to challenge your intellect. I made a few sketches of this idea and settled on a composition that I felt would lend itself most accurately to the concept.