Best Practices

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification system developed in 1956 by education psychologist Benjamin Bloom to categorize intellectual skills and behavior important to learning. Working with a group of college and university examiners in Boston, Bloom attempted to formulate a common language for curriculum and assessment to reduce the amount of time and effort needed to develop meaningful and effective tests by facilitating communication between instructors.  The original intent in creating the taxonomy was to focus on three major domains of learning:  cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. 

• Cognitive domain:  Recall or recognition of knowledge and the development of intellectual abilities and skills
• Affective domain:  Changes in interest, attitudes, and values, and the development of appreciation and adequate adjustment
• Psychomotor domain:  Manipulative or motor-skills areas

Despite the creators' intent to address all three domains, Bloom's Taxonomy applies to only the cognitive domain, which involves intellectual skill development.  While it should be noted that other educational taxonomies and hierarchic systems have been developed, Bloom's is the de facto standard for most educational based curricula. 

The original taxonomy contained six developmental categories.  The diagram illustrates cognitive processes in hierarchic form with lower order thinking skills at the base of the triangle and higher level thinking skills at the top.  The diagram represents a continuum of increasing cognitive complexity.  They are described below:

• Knowledge - Recall or recognize information, ideas, and principles in the approximate form in which they were learned
• Comprehension - Translates, comprehends, or interprets information based on prior learning
• Application - Select, transfer, and use data and principles to complete a problem or task
• Analysis - Distinguish, classify, and relates assumptions, hypotheses, evidence, or structure of a statement or question
• Synthesis  - Originate, integrate, and combines ideas into a product, plan, or proposal
• Evaluation - Appraise, assess, or critique on a basis of specific criteria or standards

In 1990, one of Bloom's students, Lorin Anderson, revised the original taxonomy.  The original framework was changed to indicate action because thinking implies active engagements.  Two major changes were made.  First, instead of listing knowledge as a part of the taxonomy, the category is divided into different types of knowledge:  factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive.  Second, the revised taxonomy moved the evaluation stage down a level and the highest element became 'creating.'  These changes presented a more dynamic conception of classification and the focus transformed to a more accurate representation of active nature of learning.  Mary Forehand from the University of Georgia provides a guide to the revised version giving a brief summary of the revised taxonomy and a helpful table of the six cognitive processes and four types of knowledge. 

Bloom's Taxonomy is a useful tool for creating objectives.  Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.  Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers "plan and deliver appropriate instruction, design valid assessment tasks and strategies, and ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives" (Anderson, Krathwohl, & Bloom, 2001). 

The following are some graphical representations of Bloom's taxonomy in different contexts.

Bloom's Taxonomy Verb List

Question and Task Wheel

A Model of Learning Objectives (CELT - Iowa State University)

The Padagogy Wheel (Bloom's Taxonomy applied to Apps!)

Here are some helpful links for creating effective learning objectives:

Objectives Builder, ASU

Writing Clear Learning Objectives, BU

Guidelines for Writing Learning Objectives, University of Florida , IFAS

References

Adapted from Armstrong, P.  Center for Teaching Vanderbilt University.  Bloom's Taxonomy. Retrieved from:  https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Anderson, L., Krathwohl, D. & Bloom, B. (2001).  A Taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing:  a revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.  New York:  Longman

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc.