Introduction
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching.
The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as “skills and abilities,” with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice.
Bloom’s taxonomy is a classification of learning objectives within education. It is named for Benjamin Bloom, who chaired the committee of educators that devised the taxonomy, and who also edited the first volume of the standard text, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals.
Bloom’s taxonomy refers to a classification of the different objectives that educators set for students (learning objectives). It divides educational objectives into three “domains”: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (sometimes loosely described as “knowing/head”, “feeling/heart” and “doing/hands” respectively). Within the domains, learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels. A goal of Bloom’s taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains.
There are
three taxonomies. Which of the three to use for a given measurable student
outcome depends upon the original goal to which the measurable student outcome
is connected. There are knowledge-based goals, skills-based goals, and affective
goals (affective: values, attitudes, and interests); accordingly, there is a
taxonomy for each. Within each taxonomy, levels of expertise are listed in
order of increasing complexity. Measurable student outcomes that require the
higher levels of expertise will require more sophisticated classroom assessment
techniques.
When developing instructional objectives,
providing instruction, and evaluating student performance, it is important to
keep in mind that there are different levels or outcomes of learning.
Distinguishing among different levels and outcomes of learning is important. If
teachers are unaware of different levels of learning, they are likely to focus
on one level to the detriment of others. For example, a teacher may teach a
vast amount of factual information but never get around to teaching students to
apply and synthesize this information. Or a teacher may teach higher level
thinking skills without realizing that these skills require the prior learning
of basic skills that must be integrated into these higher order skills.
Cognitive Domain
1. Knowledge (Remembering previously learned material)
Educational Psychology: Give the definition of punishment.
Mathematics: State the formula for the area of a circle.
English / Language Arts: Recite a poem.
2. Comprehension (Grasping the meaning of material)
Educational Psychology: Paraphrase in your own words the definition of punishment; answer questions about the meaning of punishment.
Mathematics: Given the mathematical formula for the area of a circle,
paraphrase it using your own words.
English / Language Arts: Explain what a poem means.
3. Application (Using information in concrete situations)
Educational Psychology: Given an anecdote describing a teaching situation, identify examples of punishment.
Mathematics: Compute the area of actual circles.
English / Language Arts: Identify examples of metaphors in a poem.
4. Analysis (Breaking down material into parts)
Educational Psychology: Given an anecdote describing a teaching situation, identify the psychological strategies intentionally or accidentally employed.
Mathematics: Given a math word problem, determine the strategies that would be necessary to solve it.
English / Language Arts: Given a poem, identify the specific poetic strategies employed in it.
5. Synthesis (Putting parts together into a whole)
Educational Psychology: Apply the strategies learned in educational psychology in an organized manner to solve an educational problem.
Mathematics: Apply and integrate several different strategies to solve a mathematical problem.
English/ Language Arts: Write an essay or a poem.
6. Evaluation (Judging the value of a product for a given purpose, using definite criteria)
Educational Psychology: Observe another teacher (or yourself) and determine the quality of the teaching performance in terms of the teacher’s appropriate application of principles of educational psychology.
Mathematics: When you have finished solving a problem (or when a peer has done so) determine the degree to which that problem was solved as efficiently as possible.
English / Language Arts: Analyze your own or a peer’s essay in terms of the principles of composition discussed during the semester.
Knowledge (recalling information) represents the lowest level in Bloom’s taxonomy. It is “low” only
in the sense that it comes first – it provides the basis for all “higher”
cognitive activity. Only after a learner is able to recall information is it
possible to move on to comprehension (giving meaning to
information). The third level is application, which refers to
using knowledge or principles in new or real-life situations. The learner at
this level solves practical problems by applying information comprehended at
the previous level. The fourth level is analysis – breaking
down complex information into simpler parts. The simpler parts, of course, were
learned at earlier levels of the taxonomy. The fifth level, synthesis,consists
of creating something that did not exist before by integrating information that
had been learned at lower levels of the hierarchy. Evaluation is
the highest level of Bloom’s hierarchy. It consists of making judgments based on
previous levels of learning to compare a product of some kind against a designated
standard.
Table 1: Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives for Knowledge-Based Goals | ||
1. Knowledge | Recall, or recognition of
terms, ideas, procedure, | When is the first day of
Spring? |
2. Comprehension | Translate, interpret,
extrapolate, but not see full | What does the summer
solstice represent? |
3. Application | Apply abstractions,
general principles, or methods to | What would Earth’s seasons
be like if its orbit was |
4. Analysis | Separation of a complex
idea into its constituent parts | Why are seasons reversed
in the southern hemisphere? |
5. Synthesis | Creative, mental
construction of ideas and concepts from | If the longest day of the
year is in June, why is the |
6. Evaluation | To make a judgment of
ideas or methods using external | What would be the
important variables for predicting |
Table 2: Bloom’s Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives for Skills-Based Goals | ||
Level of Expertise | Description of Level | Example of
Measurable Student Outcome |
Perception | Uses sensory cues to guide
actions | Some of the colored
samples you see will need dilution |
Set | Demonstrates a readiness
to take action to perform the | Describe how you would go
about taking the absorbance |
Guided Response | Knows steps required to
complete the task or objective | Determine the density of a
group of sample metals with |
Mechanism | Performs task or objective
in a somewhat confident, | Using the procedure
described below, determine the |
Complex Overt
Response | Performs task or objective
in a confident, proficient, and | Use titration to determine
the Ka for an unknown weak |
Adaptation | Performs task or objective
as above, but can also modify | You are performing
titrations on a series of unknown acids |
Organization | Creates new tasks or
objectives incorporating learned ones | Recall your plating and
etching experiences with an aluminum |
Table 3: Bloom’s Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives for Affective Goals | ||
Level of Expertise | Description of Level | Example of
Measurable Student Outcome |
Receiving | Demonstrates a willingness
to participate in the activity | When I’m in class I am
attentive to the instructor, take |
Responding | Shows interest in the
objects, phenomena, or activity by | I complete my homework and
participate in class |
Valuing | Internalizes an
appreciation for (values) the objectives, | I seek out information in
popular media related to my |
Organization | Begins to compare
different values, and resolves conflicts | Some of the ideas I’ve
learned in my class differ from my |
Characterization by a
Value or Value Complex | Adopts a long-term value
system that is “pervasive, | I’ve decided to take my
family on a vacation to visit some |
To determine
the level of expertise required for each measurable student outcome, first
decide which of these three broad categories (knowledge-based, skills-based,
and affective) the corresponding course goal belongs to. Then, using the
appropriate Bloom’s Taxonomy, look over the descriptions of the various levels
of expertise. Determine which description most closely matches that measurable
student outcome.
