Taxonomies: The Vulcan’s Story

The Storyboarder recently noted that we will need a taxonomy of styles, skills, and other set designations. Vulcans, however, prefer to start with an organization in terms of objectives. Here the long-term objective is to provide suggestions that parents may use to facilitate the development of life-learning skills in their children.

Life-learning skills are general skills relevant to learning at any time (not just in school). Note that many of these skills apply beyond learning to ordinary living activities. Indeed, one could argue that the development of these skills is the main function of education. The Networker suggests that the particular content requirements merely play the role of hills and curves in a cross country race. Following is a partial taxonomy of life-learning skills as derived from the Thinkerer.

Goal-setting.
Resource assessment.
Planning and subgoal development.
Scheduling.
Question-answering.
Getting started.
Self-confidence and Canter control.
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The Empath and the Engineer point out that parents can use suggestions only if they can find them. The first rule of problem-solving is to start from where you are. That means where the parents are. We need a taxonomy that organizes the problem so that parents can easily find their way to useful solutions. Here are two taxonomies relevant to that objective.

Stage:
Starting: Assess objectives, set concrete goals (not necessarily communicated to child), develop or prepare plans at the parental level.
Starting the child:
Continuing: Details vary with content and performance goals.
Evaluatimg: Details vary with content and performance goals.
Troubleshooting, repair: Details develop from evaluation and goals/
Review: Depends on long-term objectives.
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Content and performance goals
Reproduce oral material verbatim and on cue (Poems, definitions.)
Reconstruct narrative material from memory. (Answer free form questions about the content.)
Integrate the material with previously learned material. (Answer free form questions to show the integration.)
Integrate the material with other experiences. (Answer free form questions to show the integration.)
Distinguish appropriate and inappropriate statements about content. (Multiple choice or T/F tests.)
More (TBD)
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These two taxonomies seem likely (when crossed) to support reasonably specific selection of problem conditions.

The Storyyboarder suggested “parental-powerpacks” in the form of cooperative learning scripts. Vulcan creativity call for keeping possibilities open until a choice is necessary. The above taxonomies apply to problems, not solutions. Thus they can be used with any solution. In another discussion, we will deal with taxonomies relevant to solutions.