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\n\n\n\nBenjamin Bloom (1913-1999) was an educational psychologist who was interested in improving student learning. In the late 1940s, Bloom and other educators worked on a way to classify educational goals and objectives, which resulted in three learning categories or \"domains\" and the taxonomy of categories of thinking:\n
- \n \t
- Cognitive domain (knowledge): verbal or visual intellectual capabilities<\/li>\n \t
- Affective domain (attitudes): feelings, values, beliefs<\/li>\n \t
- Psychomotor domain (skills): physical skill capabilities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nEach of the three domains requires learners to use different sets of mental processing to achieve stated outcomes within a learning situation. Thus, instructional goals and objectives should be designed to support the different ways learners process information in these domains.\n\n\n
Original and Revised Taxonomies<\/h2>\nThe \"original\" Bloom's taxonomy is still widely used as an educational planning tool by all levels of educators. In 2001, a former student of Bloom published a new version the taxonomy to better fit educational practices of the 21st century. At that time, the six categories were changed to use verbs instead of nouns because verbs describe actions and thinking is an active process. Both models are portrayed as hierarchical frameworks where each level is subsumed by the higher, more complex level\u2014students who function at one level have also mastered the level(s) below it. Using the revised taxonomy, for example, a student who has reached the highest level, \"Creating,\" has also learned the material at each of the five lower levels. Thus, a student has achieved a high level of thinking skill.\n\nBloom\u2019s Taxonomy 1956<\/span>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\n\nEvaluation\nSynthesis\nAnalysis\nApplication\nComprehension\nKnowledge\n\n<\/div>\n\nBloom\u2019s Revised Taxonomy 2001<\/h3>\nCreating\nEvaluating\nAnalyzing\nApplying\nUnderstanding\nRemembering\n\n
\n\nWhy Use Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy?<\/h2>\nBloom\u2019s Taxonomy can be useful for course design because the levels can help you move students through the process of learning, from the most fundamental\u00a0remembering<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0understanding<\/em>\u00a0to the more complex\u00a0evaluating<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0creating<\/em>\u00a0(Forehand, 2010).\n\nThe taxonomy can assist you as you develop assessments by helping you match course learning objectives to any given level of mastery. When teaching lower-division, introductory courses, you might measure mastery of objectives at the lower levels, and when teaching more advanced, upper division courses, you would likely be assessing students\u2019 abilities at the higher levels of the taxonomy.\n\n
\n\nUsing Bloom's Taxonomy to plan instruction<\/h2>\nInstructional objectives are more effective if they include specific verbs that can tell students what they are expected to do. The verbs listed in the table below are linked with each level of thinking.\n\nTo develop effective and meaningful instruction further, design activities and assessments that challenge students to move from the most basic skills (remembering) to more complex learning which leads to higher order thinking (creating).\n\nThe table below demonstrates the connections between the levels of thinking, verbs you might use in a learning objective, sample questions or prompts to generate thinking at that level.\n\nVerbs and Products\/Outcomes Based on the Six Levels of Bloom\u2019s Revised Taxonomy\nAdapted from \"Bloom's Bakery, an Illustration of Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy\" by Argiro, Forehand, Osteen, & Taylor (2007) and\u00a0Extending Children\u2019s Special Abilities: Strategies for Primary Classrooms\u00a0by Dalton & Smith (1987, pp. 36-37)\n