2010

Most counselor educators may be familiar with Bloom‟s Taxonomy of cognitive complexity, Kohlberg‟s ego development model, Kolb‟s identified learning styles, Perry‟s cognitive moral development stages, and multicultural identity issues that can influence the learning of counseling students. However, in the context of the classroom, how does an instructor integrate each of these influences in determining the most effective curriculum for his/her students? Is the quieter African American female student not speaking up in class because in Bloom‟s Taxonomy she is still trying to gain knowledge rather than analyze the new information or is she feeling more withdrawn as a result of being a minority in a class of predominantly white students? Or perhaps this student is more of a dualist thinker (Perry‟s cognitive model) and tends to be more of a conformist under Kohlberg‟s definition of this stage of moral development. Many educators will make assumptions about learning based on their familiarity with these various models and perhaps inappropriately respond out of their own bias. The ITLM is designed to assist the counselor educator in integrating all of these influences with their students‟ learning and avoid the pitfalls of following one singular theory or model.