Tag Archives: medicine wheel

Module 2 – Post 2 – Switching from Bloom to the Medicine Wheel

Journal Article: LaFever, M. (2016). Switching from Bloom to the medicine wheel: creating learning outcomes that support Indigenous ways of knowing in post-secondary education. Intercultural Education, 27(5), 409-424.

Though this article does not align with my aim to focus on Indigenous scholars, I still thought it was a fascinating way to reframe and expand upon Bloom’s Taxonomy, a framework referenced frequently in education and instructional design, using the medicine wheel.

The author uses the spiritual quadrant as an example and mirrors the pyramid we typically see representing Bloom’s taxonomy.

Overall I thought this article showed a great exercise in rethinking an instructional design theory with an Indigenous lens, even if it is not the personal lens of the author.

Module 2 – Post 1 – Indigenous Education Holistic Lifelong Learning Framework

The Calgary Education board published a guide in 2022 called the Indigenous Education Holistic Lifelong Learning Framework with the extensive support of Elders and Knowledge Keepers of the Piikani, Kainai, Metis, Tsuut’ina, Stoney Nakoda, Kahkewistahaw, Muskoday and Siksika Nations.

The guide clearly states it is “not a how-to guide for Indigenous Education or a recipe for closing gaps” and instead is a foundation where we can “meaningfully position and deepen our individual and collective knowledge, decision, and actions to meet the holistic needs of all students.”

This guide is interesting to my research because the approach, though from a very high-level school board, is meant to adapt to include Indigenous students, but does not single them out. Instead, they use holism, and Indigenous worldview, to attend to all students’ spiritual, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs. They use the medicine wheel to visualize the framework.