Webb’s depth of knowledge is an educational framework that categorizes knowledge into four levels. It is a way to increase rigour in teaching and learning.
It was developed in 1997 by Norman L. Webb of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Level 1
The concept of depth of knowledge was invented by Norman Webb. It is an important tool for educators since it makes their classes more effective.
Depth of knowledge focuses on the level of thinking students are expected to demonstrate in a learning experience. Unlike other taxonomies such as Bloom’s, SOLO, or Marzano’s, it does not simply identify a type of thinking, but establishes the context in which students will express and share their learning.
Traditionally, standardized assessments have measured students’ ability to think deeply about the academic content, concepts, ideas, and procedures they were learning. However, they were limited in measuring how extensively they were expected to transfer and use that learning in various academic and real-world contexts.
Educators are now using the concept of depth of knowledge to increase rigor and complexity in their classrooms. This method of teaching is becoming more popular, but it does have some underlying misconceptions and misunderstandings that may hinder its efficacy.
Level 2
Depth of knowledge (DOK) is a framework used to understand the level of complexity that students need to be engaged in during lessons and assessments. It helps teachers interpret tasks, questions, standards, and learning objectives to ensure they are intentional in their teaching and students engage at the appropriate depth expectations.
The DOK framework consists of four levels, with the first being the simplest and the last being the most complex. These levels represent different difficulties, working mechanisms, and methods of learning.
Level 1 tasks involve recalling facts or rote application of simple procedures such as copying, computing, and defining.
Level 2 tasks require mental processing that goes beyond remembering facts or rote application. They include comparison, categorization, and description of people, places, events, objects, and text types; applying multiple concepts when responding; and predicting and explaining results or “why” something might happen.
Level 3
Webb’s depth of knowledge is a cognitive rigor model that categorizes tasks by the level of thinking students need to use to complete them. This framework was originally developed to assess how well standardized tests aligned with the standards they sought to measure, but it has since become used across the education system.
The four levels of DOK are a representation of different difficulties, working mechanisms, and methods students need to use to successfully complete tasks. The first level represents the simplest tasks and the fourth is the most complex.
This level consists of tasks that require extended thinking and requires students to apply skills and concepts they have learned in new combinations outside the original context. Examples of this level are designing an experiment and analyzing the results or reading a text and emulating the style of another author.
Level 4
Webb’s depth of knowledge is an educational framework that categorizes tasks by the complexity of thinking they require. It’s used in interpreting questions, prompts, tasks, standards and learning objectives.
This framework identifies four levels: Level 1 is the simplest, and Level 4 is the most complex. Each level represents different difficulties, working mechanisms and methods.
Teachers use this framework to make learning more rigorous and engaging for students. It allows them to focus on developing critical thinking skills in a student, allowing them to grow and achieve success.