After my excitement died down a little, a sobering thought popped into my head: "For all the fantastic ideas I collect, the elusive prize remains the secret to willing student participation." A re-reading of Churches' introduction to Bloom and his domains of learning, hoping to find there some kernel to add to my stash, caused me to reflect that the only thing missing in his article was some attention to the conative domain - the will, desire, drive, level of effort, mental energy, intention, striving, and self-determination to perform at the best level. That sent me scurrying off, bushy tail twitching with mild irritation, to Google "conative domain" to be sure I knew what I was talking (thinking) about, and found Tom Reeves' paper on Technology and the Conative Learning Domain in Undergraduate Education.
After a quick scan of Reeves' paper I felt somewhat vindicated in my criticism of Churches since Reeves laments that teaching in higher education institutions is primarily focussed on solely the cognitive domain, and even then mostly on the lower half.
While I am yet to do a deeper reading of Reeves' paper, two golden acorns did peep out at me: his reference to five essential strategies for increasing student engagement; and his attention to the development of valid and reliable assessments for authentic learning tasks that encompass all four of the learning domains. Good fodder indeed, for future blogs.
So although I ultimately feel that this makes Churches' article more of a silver than a gold mine, it is still a resource I am extremely pleased to have become acquainted with - my cheeks are bulging so far I'm in danger of choking on a rubric or two.