Identifying and discussing theme engages students in literary analysis and evaluation. These skills are on the upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, the famous classification of learning skills compiled by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and revised in the 1990s by Bloom's former student, cognitive psychologist Lorin Anderson. Teachers strive to create lessons that engage students in all the levels Bloom and Anderson identified, and studying theme helps teachers reach this goal.
Students often disagree about themes presented in literature. They may interpret the same story in two entirely different ways, each of which makes sense. These kind of conflicts demonstrate that many things in life are subject to interpretation and that, instead of being right or wrong, sometimes people just have different points of view. This revelation encourages students to embrace diverse thinking patterns and, potentially, develop a sense of diplomacy, which is a goal of many educational organizations such as Learning to Give and its parent organization, Points of Light Institute.
Discussing the theme of one book or story also leads to the discussion of additional authors who explore similar and conflicting themes in other works of literature. Professors can arrange units by choosing work with related themes. Studying theme is therefore important to the structure of course design.
The highest level on Anderson's re-working of Bloom's Taxonomy is creation. Likewise, the United States Common Core State Standards Initiative explains that learning standards are meant to complement each other, so students should be able to write about what they read. Identifying and discussing themes lead to the creation of written papers about theme and also to the creation of unique works of fiction and creative nonfiction that have related themes.