what is the final stage in bloom's taxonomy and the critical thinking process

Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning

Charlotte Ruhl

Research Assistant & Psychology Graduate

BA (Hons) Psychology, Harvard University

Charlotte Ruhl, a psychology graduate from Harvard College, boasts over six years of research experience in clinical and social psychology. During her tenure at Harvard, she contributed to the Decision Science Lab, administering numerous studies in behavioral economics and social psychology.

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Saul McLeod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

On This Page:

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical models used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. The three lists cover the learning objectives in cognitive, affective, and sensory domains, namely: thinking skills, emotional responses, and physical skills.

Key Takeaways

• Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model that categorizes learning objectives into varying levels of complexity, from basic knowledge and comprehension to advanced evaluation and creation.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy was originally published in 1956, and the Taxonomy was modified each year for 16 years after it was first published.
• After the initial cognitive domain was created, which is primarily used in the classroom setting, psychologists devised additional taxonomies to explain affective (emotional) and psychomotor (physical) learning.
• In 2001, Bloom’s initial taxonomy was revised to reflect how learning is an active process and not a passive one.
• Although Bloom’s Taxonomy is met with several valid criticisms, it is still widely used in the educational setting today.

Take a moment and think back to your 7th-grade humanities classroom. Or any classroom from preschool to college. As you enter the room, you glance at the whiteboard to see the class objectives.

“Students will be able to…” is written in a red expo marker. Or maybe something like “by the end of the class, you will be able to…” These learning objectives we are exposed to daily are a product of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a system of hierarchical models (arranged in a rank, with some elements at the bottom and some at the top) used to categorize learning objectives into varying levels of complexity (Bloom, 1956).

You might have heard the word “taxonomy” in biology class before, because it is most commonly used to denote the classification of living things from kingdom to species.

In the same way, this taxonomy classifies organisms, Bloom’s Taxonomy classifies learning objectives for students, from recalling facts to producing new and original work.

Bloom’s Taxonomy comprises three learning domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Within each domain, learning can take place at a number of levels ranging from simple to complex.

Development of the Taxonomy

Benjamin Bloom was an educational psychologist and the chair of the committee of educators at the University of Chicago.

In the mid 1950s, Benjamin Bloom worked in collaboration with Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl to devise a system that classified levels of cognitive functioning and provided a sense of structure for the various mental processes we experience (Armstrong, 2010).

Through conducting a series of studies that focused on student achievement, the team was able to isolate certain factors both inside and outside the school environment that affect how children learn.

One such factor was the lack of variation in teaching. In other words, teachers were not meeting each individual student’s needs and instead relied upon one universal curriculum.

To address this, Bloom and his colleagues postulated that if teachers were to provide individualized educational plans, students would learn significantly better.

This hypothesis inspired the development of Bloom’s Mastery Learning procedure in which teachers would organize specific skills and concepts into week-long units.

The completion of each unit would be followed by an assessment through which the student would reflect upon what they learned. 

The assessment would identify areas in which the student needs additional support, and they would then be given corrective activities to further sharpen their mastery of the concept (Bloom, 1971).

This theory that students would be able to master subjects when teachers relied upon suitable learning conditions and clear learning objectives was guided by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Bloom’s Taxonomy was originally published in 1956 in a paper titled Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Bloom, 1956).

The taxonomy provides different levels of learning objectives, divided by complexity. Only after a student masters one level of learning goals, through formative assessments, corrective activities, and other enrichment exercises, can they move onto the next level (Guskey, 2005).

Cognitive Domain (1956)

Concerned with thinking and intellect.

The original version of the taxonomy, the cognitive domain, is the first and most common hierarchy of learning objectives (Bloom, 1956). It focuses on acquiring and applying knowledge and is widely used in the educational setting.

This initial cognitive model relies on nouns, or more passive words, to illustrate the different educational benchmarks.

Because it is hierarchical, the higher levels of the pyramid are dependent on having achieved the skills of the lower levels.

The individual tiers of the cognitive model from bottom to top, with examples included, are as follows:

Knowledge : recalling information or knowledge is the foundation of the pyramid and a precondition for all future levels → Example : Name three common types of meat. Comprehension : making sense out of information → Example : Summarize the defining characteristics of steak, pork, and chicken. Application : using knowledge in a new but similar form → Example : Does eating meat help improve longevity? Analysis : taking knowledge apart and exploring relationships → Example : Compare and contrast the different ways of serving meat and compare health benefits. Synthesis : using information to create something new → Example : Convert an “unhealthy” recipe for meat into a “healthy” recipe by replacing certain ingredients. Argue for the health benefits of using the ingredients you chose as opposed to the original ones. Evaluation : critically examining relevant and available information to make judgments → Example : Which kinds of meat are best for making a healthy meal and why?

Types of Knowledge

Although knowledge might be the most intuitive block of the cognitive model pyramid, this dimension is actually broken down into four different types of knowledge:

• Factual knowledge refers to knowledge of terminology and specific details.
• Conceptual knowledge describes knowledge of categories, principles, theories, and structures.
• Procedural knowledge encompasses all forms of knowledge related to specific skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.
• Metacognitive knowledge defines knowledge related to thinking — knowledge about cognitive tasks and self-knowledge (“Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy,” n.d.).

However, this is not to say that this order reflects how concrete or abstract these forms of knowledge are (e.g., procedural knowledge is not always more abstract than conceptual knowledge).

Nevertheless, it is important to outline these different forms of knowledge to show how it is more dynamic than one may think and that there are multiple different types of knowledge that can be recalled before moving onto the comprehension phase.

And while the original 1956 taxonomy focused solely on a cognitive model of learning that can be applied in the classroom, an affective model of learning was published in 1964 and a psychomotor model in the 1970s.

The Affective Domain (1964)

Concerned with feelings and emotion.

The affective model came as a second handbook (with the first being the cognitive model) and an extension of Bloom’s original work (Krathwol et al., 1964).

This domain focuses on the ways in which we handle all things related to emotions, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivations, and attitudes (Clark, 2015).

From lowest to highest, with examples included, the five levels are:

Receiving : basic awareness → Example : Listening and remembering the names of your classmates when you meet them on the first day of school. Responding : active participation and reacting to stimuli, with a focus on responding → Example : Participating in a class discussion. Valuing : the value that is associated with a particular object or piece of information, ranging from basic acceptance to complex commitment; values are somehow related to prior knowledge and experience → Example : Valuing diversity and being sensitive to other people’s backgrounds and beliefs. Organizing : sorting values into priorities and creating a unique value system with an emphasis on comparing and relating previously identified values → Example : Accepting professional ethical standards. Characterizing : building abstract knowledge based on knowledge acquired from the four previous tiers; value system is now in full effect and controls the way you behave → Example : Displaying a professional commitment to ethical standards in the workplace.

The Psychomotor Domain (1972)

Concerned with skilled behavior.

The psychomotor domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy refers to the ability to physically manipulate a tool or instrument. It includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. It focuses on the development of skills and the mastery of physical and manual tasks.

Mastery of these specific skills is marked by speed, precision, and distance. These psychomotor skills range from simple tasks, such as washing a car, to more complex tasks, such as operating intricate technological equipment.

As with the cognitive domain, the psychomotor model does not come without modifications. This model was first published by Robert Armstrong and colleagues in 1970 and included five levels:

1) imitation; 2) manipulation; 3) precision; 4) articulation; 5) naturalization. These tiers represent different degrees of performing a skill from exposure to mastery.

Two years later, Anita Harrow (1972) proposed a revised version with six levels:

1) reflex movements; 2) fundamental movements; 3) perceptual abilities; 4) physical abilities; 5) skilled movements; 6) non-discursive communication.

This model is concerned with developing physical fitness, dexterity, agility, and body control and focuses on varying degrees of coordination, from reflexes to highly expressive movements.

That same year, Elizabeth Simpson (1972) created a taxonomy that progressed from observation to invention.

The seven tiers, along with examples, are listed below:

Perception : basic awareness → Example : Estimating where a ball will land after it’s thrown and guiding your movements to be in a position to catch it. Set : readiness to act; the mental, physical, and emotional mindsets that make you act the way you do → Example : Desire to learn how to throw a perfect strike, recognizing one’s current inability to do so. Guided Response : the beginning stage of mastering a physical skill. It requires trial and error → Example : Throwing a ball after observing a coach do so, while paying specific attention to the movements required. Mechanism : the intermediate stage of mastering a skill. It involves converting learned responses into habitual reactions so that they can be performed with confidence and proficiency → Example : Successfully throwing a ball to the catcher. Complex Overt Response : skillfully performing complex movements automatically and without hesitation → Example : Throwing a perfect strike to the catcher’s glove. Adaptation : skills are so developed that they can be modified depending on certain requirements → Example : Throwing a perfect strike to the catcher even if a batter is standing at the plate. Origination : the ability to create new movements depending on the situation or problem. These movements are derived from an already developed skill set of physical movements → Example : Taking the skill set needed to throw the perfect fastball and learning how to throw a curveball.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

In 2001, the original cognitive model was modified by educational psychologists David Krathwol (with whom Bloom worked on the initial taxonomy) and Lorin Anderson (a previous student of Bloom) and published with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment .

This revised taxonomy emphasizes a more dynamic approach to education instead of shoehorning educational objectives into fixed, unchanging spaces.

To reflect this active model of learning, the revised version utilizes verbs to describe the active process of learning and does away with the nouns used in the original version (Armstrong, 2001).

The figure below illustrates what words were changed and a slight adjustment to the hierarchy itself (evaluation and synthesis were swapped). The cognitive, affective, and psychomotor models make up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

How Bloom’s Can Aid In Course Design

Thanks to Bloom’s Taxonomy, teachers nationwide have a tool to guide the development of assignments, assessments, and overall curricula.

This model helps teachers identify the key learning objectives they want a student to achieve for each unit because it succinctly details the learning process.

The taxonomy explains that (Shabatura, 2013):

• Before you can understand a concept, you need to remember it;
• To apply a concept, you need first to understand it;
• To evaluate a process, you need first to analyze it;
• To create something new, you need to have completed a thorough evaluation

This hierarchy takes students through a process of synthesizing information that allows them to think critically. Students start with a piece of information and are motivated to ask questions and seek out answers.

Not only does Bloom’s Taxonomy help teachers understand the process of learning, but it also provides more concrete guidance on how to create effective learning objectives.

The revised version reminds teachers that learning is an active process, stressing the importance of including measurable verbs in the objectives.

And the clear structure of the taxonomy itself emphasizes the importance of keeping learning objectives clear and concise as opposed to vague and abstract (Shabatura, 2013).

Bloom’s Taxonomy even applies at the broader course level. That is, in addition to being applied to specific classroom units, Bloom’s Taxonomy can be applied to an entire course to determine the learning goals of that course.

Specifically, lower-level introductory courses, typically geared towards freshmen, will target Bloom’s lower-order skills as students build foundational knowledge.

However, that is not to say that this is the only level incorporated, but you might only move a couple of rungs up the ladder into the applying and analyzing stages.

On the other hand, upper-level classes don’t emphasize remembering and understanding, as students in these courses have already mastered these skills.

As a result, these courses focus instead on higher-order learning objectives such as evaluating and creating (Shabatura, 2013). In this way, professors can reflect upon what type of course they are teaching and refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy to determine what they want the overall learning objectives of the course to be.

Having these clear and organized objectives allows teachers to plan and deliver appropriate instruction, design valid tasks and assessments, and ensure that such instruction and assessment actually aligns with the outlined objectives (Armstrong, 2010).

Overall, Bloom’s Taxonomy helps teachers teach and helps students learn!

Critical Evaluation

Bloom’s Taxonomy accomplishes the seemingly daunting task of taking the important and complex topic of thinking and giving it a concrete structure.

The taxonomy continues to provide teachers and educators with a framework for guiding the way they set learning goals for students and how they design their curriculum.

And by having specific questions or general assignments that align with Bloom’s principles, students are encouraged to engage in higher-order thinking.

However, even though it is still used today, this taxonomy does not come without its flaws. As mentioned before, the initial 1956 taxonomy presented learning as a static concept.

Although this was ultimately addressed by the 2001 revised version that included active verbs to emphasize the dynamic nature of learning, Bloom’s updated structure is still met with multiple criticisms.

Many psychologists take issue with the pyramid nature of the taxonomy. The shape creates the false impression that these cognitive steps are discrete and must be performed independently of one another (Anderson & Krathwol, 2001).

However, most tasks require several cognitive skills to work in tandem with each other. In other words, a task will not be only an analysis or a comprehension task. Rather, they occur simultaneously as opposed to sequentially.

The structure also makes it seem like some of these skills are more difficult and important than others. However, adopting this mindset causes less emphasis on knowledge and comprehension, which are as, if not more important, than the processes towards the top of the pyramid.

Additionally, author Doug Lemov (2017) argues that this contributes to a national trend devaluing knowledge’s importance. He goes even further to say that lower-income students who have less exposure to sources of information suffer from a knowledge gap in schools.

A third problem with the taxonomy is that the sheer order of elements is inaccurate. When we learn, we don’t always start with remembering and then move on to comprehension and creating something new. Instead, we mostly learn by applying and creating.

For example, you don’t know how to write an essay until you do it. And you might not know how to speak Spanish until you actually do it (Berger, 2020).

The act of doing is where the learning lies, as opposed to moving through a regimented, linear process. Despite these several valid criticisms of Bloom’s Taxonomy, this model is still widely used today.

What is Bloom’s taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model of cognitive skills in education, developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956.

It categorizes learning objectives into six levels, from simpler to more complex: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. This framework aids educators in creating comprehensive learning goals and assessments.

Bloom’s taxonomy explained for students?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework that helps you understand and approach learning in a structured way. Imagine it as a ladder with six steps.

1. Remembering : This is the first step, where you learn to recall or recognize facts and basic concepts.

2. Understanding : You explain ideas or concepts and make sense of the information.

3. Applying : You apply what you’ve understood to solve problems in new situations.

4. Analyzing : At this step, you break information into parts to explore understandings and relationships.

5. Evaluating : This involves judging the value of ideas or materials.

6. Creating : This is the top step where you combine information to form a new whole or propose alternative solutions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy helps you learn more effectively by building your knowledge from simple remembering to higher levels of thinking.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . New York: Longman.

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching . Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Armstrong, R. J. (1970). Developing and Writing Behavioral Objectives .

Berger, R. (2020). Here’s what’s wrong with bloom’s taxonomy: A deeper learning perspective (opinion) . Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/education/opinion-heres-whats-wrong-with-blooms-taxonomy-a-deeper-learning-perspective/2018/03

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay , 20, 24.

Bloom, B. S. (1971). Mastery learning. In J. H. Block (Ed.), Mastery learning: Theory and practice (pp. 47–63). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Clark, D. (2015). Bloom’s taxonomy : The affective domain. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/affective_domain.html

Guskey, T. R. (2005). Formative Classroom Assessment and Benjamin S. Bloom: Theory, Research, and Implications . Online Submission.

Harrow, A.J. (1972). A taxonomy of the psychomotor domain . New York: David McKay Co.

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41 (4), 212-218.

Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S., & Masia, B.B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook II: Affective domain . New York: David McKay Co.

Lemov, D. (2017). Bloom’s taxonomy-that pyramid is a problem . Retrieved from https://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/blooms-taxonomy-pyramid-problem/

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy . (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/

Shabatura, J. (2013). Using bloom’s taxonomy to write effective learning objectives . Retrieved from https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/

Simpson, E. J. (1972). The classification of educational objectives in the Psychomotor domain , Illinois University. Urbana.

Further Reading

• Kolb’s Learning Styles
• Bloom’s Taxonomy Verb Chart
• Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay, 20, 24.
• Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218.
• Montessori Method of Education

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Learn How to Learn with Bloom's Taxonomy and Critical Thinking

Bloom’s Taxonomy represents the various categories of thinking you may engage in when you are a college student. There are many questions that you can ask yourself to check your learning and make sure you are understanding content in a deep way. When you have a complete understanding of a concept, you will feel more confident and be more prepared when you are tested on the material, which will help you learn future content in your coursework.

Below, we provide a list of each of the categories of thinking along with questions you can ask yourself in each of the areas to check for your understanding. The first steps will be simple and help you consider your learning at the most foundational levels. As the article progresses, the steps will require more critical thinking and deepen your learning. 

The first category is Remembering. Remembering is described as retrieving information from your memory.  Some words that are frequently used to describe this type of learning are: recognize, recall or repeat. Questions that are common for this type of learning are: who, what, where and when questions. Often, flash cards are used to facilitate the memorization of the definitions of concepts. 

The next category is Understanding. Understanding is described as being able to recall information but in your own words. When you fully understand a concept, you are able to describe it in your own words. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning are: summarize, paraphrase, interpret or explain. Questions that are common for this type of learning include: What is the main idea of the concept? Describe the concept. Explain in your own words. 

The next category is called Apply. Application is described as being able to apply what you know to the new concept(s) you are learning. You can think about how you can apply new concepts to the real world. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning are asking for examples, clarification or illustration of a concept(s). Questions that are common for application include: Why is this concept significant? How is this an example of something in the real world? How does this relate to another concept you are learning? 

The next category is Analyze. Analyzing is described as breaking down the concept into smaller parts. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning include: contrast, diagram, classify, examine or debate. Questions that are common for analyzing include: What are the parts of this concept? How would you break this concept into smaller parts? Where does the concept come from? Create a way to make connections between ideas and concepts in all of your classes. 

The next category is Evaluate. Evaluation is where judgments and/or decisions are based on criteria. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning include: critique, revise, predict, rank, assess and conclude. Questions that are common for evaluation include: What is most important? Do you agree with this? Why? Provide evidence to support this concept. What assumptions are in this argument?

The final category is Create. Creating new ideas, arguments, content, platforms, systems, or models are when ideas are recombined into a coherent whole. some words that are used to describe this type of learning include: diagram, ideate, plan, design, compose and actualize. Questions that are common for creating include: What ideas can you add to this? What if this were true? What patterns can you find? How would you design this?

During your time in college, while remembering and memorization are important, they are simply the foundation to learning. To incorporate deeper levels of learning and knowing, choose a concept you are learning about in class and see if you can remember the definition (remember), demonstrate your understanding (understanding), give some examples of the concept and apply it to the real world (application), and break it down into smaller components (analyze). This will help you determine how much you know, and how much you may still need to learn.

Adapted from: 1) David R. Krathwohl (2002) A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: An Overview, Theory Into Practice, 41:4, 212-218; and 2) Staff, TeachThought. “25 Question Stems Framed Around Bloom’s Taxonomy.” TeachThought. N.p., 15 Nov. 2015. Web.

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6 Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Explained (+Examples)

• Published: October 24, 2023
• Updated: August 6, 2024

Corporate learning is about unlocking the potential of employees to help them grow and thrive in their careers. According to an industry report from TrainingMag , in 2023 the average training budget for large companies was $16.1 million, while midsize companies allocated around $1.5 million, and small companies dedicated approximately $459,177. As more and more organizations commit to building learning cultures, the benefits for employees translate into benefits for their employers as well. 

To create corporate learning experiences that go beyond simple dissemination of information to true understanding and growth, many organizations rely on instructional design models like Bloom’s Taxonomy to help deliver better learning experiences.

What Are Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels?

Bloom’s Taxonomy levels are a classification system that arranges learning objectives into six hierarchical levels, each representing a different cognitive skill. These levels include knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

This taxonomy serves as a valuable framework for educators to design effective learning experiences and assess the depth of understanding and thinking skills required for various educational goals.

The History of Bloom's Taxonomy Levels

Bloom’s taxonomy levels are named after Benjamin Bloom, who in 1956, with David Krathwohl, Max Englehart, Walter Hill, and Edward Furst developed a framework for categorizing educational goals. Since its inception in 1956, Bloom’s Taxonomy levels have been revised and changed. Here are the original and revised versions of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Original Taxonomy

The original taxonomy was developed in 1956 and consisted of the following categories:

• Knowledge – recall of information
• Comprehension – understanding concepts
• Application – applying knowledge in different contexts
• Analysis – breaking down information
• Synthesis – creating new ideas or solutions
• Evaluation – judging and critiquing based on established criteria

Revised Taxonomy

In 2001, a group of researchers and curriculum theorists published a revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The main difference in the revised version is that it uses verbs and action words rather than nouns. The revised taxonomy includes the following categories:

Along with the revised taxonomy, these specialists also published a separate taxonomy on the types of knowledge their revised version is built from. These four types of knowledge are factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels Explained

Bloom’s Taxonomy includes six distinct levels of learning that can be used to structure L&D programs. Each of these levels builds on the one that came before it.

1. Remember

This is the most foundational level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, originally called Knowledge. This level involves recalling and retrieving knowledge from long-term memory and can include activities like memorization or simple fact recall. 

Some questions instructors can ask learners at this level are: 

• Can you name our company’s five top product offerings?
• What application do we use to monitor progress?
• What are our organization’s core values? 

2. Understand

At this level, learners take things a step further, beginning to comprehend and synthesize information through interpretation, classification, inference, or explanation. Learning activities associated with this stage might be summarizing information, reframing it in a new context, or explaining it in their own words. This step was initially referred to as Comprehension. 

Learners at the Understand level might be asked: 

• Explain why it is important to file an incident report. 
• How might you interpret the results in this report?
• How would you explain this policy to a customer?

Formerly called Application, this level involves taking learned information a step further and applying it to a real-life, on-the-job situation. Learners should demonstrate their understanding by solving problems and completing tasks on their own. According to the 70-20-10 model , employees gain 70% of their knowledge from work experiences, making this level an essential part of the learning process.

Questions instructors can ask at this level are: 

• How would you update the status of this project in our system?
• Can you walk us through the process of creating a ticket for this issue?
• Can you determine how much a client owes on their contract given these account details?

At this fourth level, learners break down material piece by piece, examining how each piece relates to the others and conceptualizing the material as a whole. Activities associated with Analyze include differentiating between components, making connections between them, and otherwise identifying patterns in the information. This stage was originally called Analysis.

Learners reaching the Analyze level should be able to answer questions like these:

• What is the motivation behind this policy?
• What conclusions can you draw from comparing these annual reports?
• What assumptions do we have to make when creating a care plan for this client?

5. Evaluate

At this level, learners can assess and evaluate the value of information through critiques or investigation.  They should be able to make judgments about information and ideas and be able to defend them.  This level was initially called synthesis. 

Some questions instructors can ask learners at the Evaluate level are: 

• What criteria can you use to evaluate the success of this type of project?
• Can you find the error in this example response to a frustrated customer?
• What are the pros and cons of these different approaches? 

The final level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is Create. Originally called Evaluation, this is the level at which learners can synthesize existing knowledge to produce concepts and ideas of their own. Learning activities that bring employees to this level can be more creative

Questions instructors might ask learners at this level are: 

• Can you design an ad campaign for this hypothetical client?
• How would you create a plan for this type of emergency?
• What changes would you make to this example contract?

8 Tips to Implement Bloom's Taxonomy In Workplace L&D

Whether you are revamping your organization’s learning and development strategies or starting from scratch, incorporating Bloom’s Taxonomy into L&D efforts will bring about more robust results and keep employees engaged as they grow. Follow these tips to make the process of integrating this framework as smooth as possible:

1. Assess specific jobs

Incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy from the ground up by reviewing employee job descriptions and training requirements. Make a list for each position and look at the metrics from past training efforts to see where improvements can be made and in which cases training requirements map onto Bloom’s taxonomy. 

2. Determine the level of skill necessary for each employee

Employees rarely need to reach the Create level in every single aspect of their job. For instance, while employees must be able to meet requirements and solve problems, they might not need to know all of the science behind the products they are selling. Design learning experiences to help employees reach the appropriate level of knowledge for their role. 

3. Establish the learning objectives

Once you know the level of skill employees need to be proficient in the different areas of their work, begin writing the learning objectives using action verbs that align with the appropriate level of learning in Bloom’s taxonomy. 

4. Incorporate different levels in various training modules

Next, use these learning objectives to design or redesign training modules that will guide employees down their optimized learning path. This may involve rewriting exercises, rewording instructions, or omitting sections that get more in-depth than necessary. What’s important is that the training modules match up with the appropriate learning level. 

5. Design learning activities to encourage higher-order thinking

As you move through these steps, you might realize that your organization’s training program only brings employees up to Apply or Analyze. To enable employees to synthesize new ideas and make the most of what they’ve learned, design learning activities on par with the Create level. Activities associated with this level could involve inventing a new approach to a common problem or designing the next iteration of a product offering based on what they’ve learned. 

6. Balance theory with practical application

Depending on the nature of the training, course designers may find it difficult to avoid getting bogged down by the amount of information to be disseminated. To keep learners engaged and ensure they are reaching those higher levels of learning, it’s important to incorporate plenty of opportunities to apply what they’ve learned. 

7. Evaluate employee competence and performance

As with any L&D initiative, continuously analyzing and improving programming is essential to maximizing learning outcomes. Ensure that metrics key performance indicators are being tracked from the start in order to accurately monitor learner performance and intervene where necessary. 

8. Leverage eLearning platforms

eLearning platforms have become an essential tool for standardizing and optimizing corporate training programs. These employee training software and systems facilitate course creation and make content updating simple. While they may require planning to implement, they are incredibly effective at streamlining and improving L&D efforts in the long term.

Types of eLearning software include: 

• Corporate LMS
• eLearning Course Authoring Software
• Instructional Design Software
• Microlearning Platforms
• Virtual IT Training Labs Software

11 Instructional Design Best Practices & Guidelines

ADDIE Model: 5 Stages of Instructional Design (2024)

What Is Instructional Design? Benefits, Challenges, and Trends (2023)

Benefits of Bloom's Taxonomy in Corporate Learning Design

The longevity of this tool demonstrates its usefulness across industry and academia. There are several clear benefits to using Bloom’s Taxonomy for instruction design in corporate learning:

1. Enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills

Bloom’s Taxonomy helps instructors guide learners toward tapping into higher-order thinking skills. This allows employees to take their knowledge beyond simple observation and memorization, ensuring they understand the content they’re using and how to put it into action in the workplace. 

2. Promoting employee engagement

Bloom’s Taxonomy incorporates the progressive nature of learning into the training experience. Doing this can help employees feel more confident in their knowledge and abilities to apply what they’ve learned. This boosts employee engagement by showing team members that the organization is invested in their growth and success and making it clear why the training they receive is both necessary and worthwhile. 

3. Aligning learning objectives with business goals

Bloom’s taxonomy helps instructors to lay out training objectives clearly. This means they can communicate instructions clearly and better convey exactly how they line up with larger organizational goals. This promotes employee engagement even further by helping to build a cohesive, consistent organizational vision that comes through in L&D programming. 

Blooms Taxonomy Verbs

Depending on the nature of the lesson, there are a variety of actions training facilitators might ask trainees to take to demonstrate that they have reached a specific level of learning.

We have provided a list of verbs relevant to the six levels of learning in Bloom’s Taxonomy below:

An important part of effective training lies in creating and delivering engaging content.

A  digital adoption platform (DAP ) like  Whatfix  provides a range of no-code features that enable instructional designers to create, analyze, and deliver in-app guided learning and performance support experiences.

By leveraging the capabilities of a DAP, instructional designers can create in-app instruction that is engaging, relevant, and effective in achieving specific learning objectives. Furthermore, Whatfix is the world’s only SCORM-compliant in-app guidance tool, enabling you to easily create interactive courses and upload the content to your LMS in just a few clicks.

With a digital adoption platform like Whatfix , enable your employees with in-app guidance and contextual self-help IT support to accelerate the adoption of new software implementations, employee onboarding, change initiates, and more. Whatfix’s no-code editor enables IT teams with a no-code editor to create product tours, interactive walkthroughs,  task lists, smart tips, pop-ups, self-help wikis, and more. Analyze and measure user engagement and software usage to identify friction points, measure digital adoption, and improve employee digital experiences.

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• Higher Ed Trends

Bloom’s Taxonomy: The Ultimate Guide [Free Download]

Gain a deep understanding of Bloom's taxonomy and how it can be effectively applied in the learning process to benefit both educators and learners

Christine Persaud

In this guide, you’ll learn about:

• The six Bloom’s Taxonomy levels of thinking and how to apply them throughout a lesson plan;
• The three key domains, cognitive, affective and psychomotor, and their importance;
• How Bloom’s taxonomy can aid in active learning, as well as in formative and summative assessments.

Finally, we’ll address some of the criticisms of Bloom’s taxonomy, and how to address these in your classroom planning.

→ Download Now For Free: Ultimate Guide to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Table of contents

1.0. What is Bloom’s taxonomy?

2.0. The history of Bloom’s taxonomy

2.1. Original Bloom’s taxonomy from 1956

2.2. Revised Bloom’s taxonomy from 2001

3.0. Why is Bloom’s taxonomy important?

4.0. The levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy

4.1. What the levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy mean

4.2. How to use the Bloom’s taxonomy levels of thinking

4.3. bloom’s taxonomy level 1: remembering, 4.4. bloom’s taxonomy level 2: understanding, 4.5. bloom’s taxonomy level 3: applying, 4.6. bloom’s taxonomy level 4: analyzing, 4.7. bloom’s taxonomy level 5: evaluating, 4.8. bloom’s taxonomy level 6: creating.

5.0. What are the Bloom’s taxonomy objectives?

5.1. The cognitive domain in Bloom’s taxonomy

5.2. the affective domain in bloom’s taxonomy, 5.3. the psychomotor domain in bloom’s taxonomy.

6.0. How to use Bloom’s taxonomy in the classroom + Bloom’s taxonomy examples

6.1. Using Bloom’s taxonomy in lesson planning and course design

6.2. bloom’s taxonomy and active learning, 6.3. bloom’s taxonomy and formative assessment, 6.4. bloom’s taxonomy and summative assessment.

6.5 Bloom’s Taxonomy for adjunct professors

7.0. Bloom’s Taxonomy question stems

8.0. Problems with Bloom’s taxonomy

8.1. Creativity as a goal, not as a tool

8.2. over-reliance, 1. what is bloom’s taxonomy.

Bloom’s taxonomy is a framework for learning, teaching and educational achievement in which each level depends on the one below. It’s often depicted in the form of a pyramid—similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Basic knowledge, the first stage of learning, leads to the development of the skills and abilities that are crucial to completing the pedagogical process: Comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. While there are subcategories within each, each stage lies on a continuum. The belief is that students move up through each level of the pyramid in Bloom’s taxonomy, starting from very basic learning, to acquire deeper knowledge on a subject, with each level crucial to the development of the next. In this free guide, you can learn how professors effectively put Bloom’s taxonomy to work in their college classrooms.

Teachers can apply Bloom’s taxonomy by asking questions and delivering assignments that directly correlate with specific learning objectives in each stage of the process, making the objectives clear to the student. For example, posing multiple-choice questions can help gauge a student’s level of basic understanding and remembering of a subject, while asking a student to come up with a comparison or analogy points towards entering the application or analysis stage.

2. The history of Bloom’s taxonomy

2.1. original bloom’s taxonomy from 1956.

In the 1940s, Benjamin Bloom, along with his collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill and David Krathwohl, devised Bloom’s taxonomy to place educational goals into specific categories, with the belief that this classification would be useful to better assess college student performance.

Each year for the following 16 years, Bloom and his colleagues revised and refined the framework at the American Psychological Association convention. In 1956, the final version was published as the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives , showing the path of educational attainment through six orders of learning.

“After forty years of intensive research on school learning in the United States as well as abroad, my major conclusion is: What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn if provided with appropriate prior and current conditions of learning.” Benjamin Bloom

The original taxonomy has served as the backbone of many teaching philosophies ever since. While it initially aided in the assessment of students, it quickly became a tool for teachers to devise their curriculum, outline clear learning objectives, and design classroom activities. It has been adapted for use in classrooms from K–12 to college and at the university level.

• Benjamin Bloom and several of his peers developed Bloom’s Taxonomy in 1956 to better assess college student performance.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy consists of six different levels of learning that build on one another to guide students and educators through the stage of educational attainment.

2.2. Revised Bloom’s taxonomy from 2001

In 2001, a group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists, instructional researchers and testing assessment specialists led by Lorin Anderson, a colleague of Krathwohl’s and former student of Bloom’s,   aimed to reorganize and create a revised Bloom’s taxonomy . This involved putting together a series of more dynamic concepts for the classification system as compared to the original static, one-dimensional levels of educational objectives.

At the core of the revision of Bloom’s taxonomy is the use of verbs to replace nouns—providing learners with clearer objectives for what is expected of them.

The new revision swaps the two final Bloom’s taxonomy levels of learning, Synthesis/Evaluation, making them clearer and emphasizing the application of knowledge, which is the end goal of effective learning.

Additionally, Bloom’s revised taxonomy separates the cognitive domain , which consists of all of the levels involved in learning noted above, into four distinct types within a matrix: factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive.

Factual knowledge is characterized by terminology and discrete facts. Conceptual by categories, principles, theories, and models, looking at the relationships among all elements within a larger structure that helps it work together. Procedural is the knowledge of a specific technique, process, or methodology: essentially, how to do something. Finally, metacognitive defines a student’s self-assessment of their ability and knowledge of different skills and techniques. The question this attempts to answer is this: Is the student aware of their cognition or learning?

The matrix organization of the revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy is designed to be a more precise form of thinking about learning, making it easier for educators to create clear objectives for lesson planning and student evaluation. It also makes it simpler for students to understand what is expected of them.

• Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy focuses on the use of verbs and action words to provide learners with a clearer understanding of what is expected of them.
• Bloom’s revised taxonomy separates the cognitive domain into four distinct types within a matrix: factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive.

3. Why is Bloom’s taxonomy important?

Bloom’s taxonomy has been actively used by teachers from K-12 to college instructors for over five decades. Yet it is still just as important today as it was  in the 1950s.

At the heart of Bloom’s taxonomy framework is the ability to create achievable learning goals that teachers and students understand, and build a definitive plan to meet them. Instructors are encouraged to view learning objectives in behavioral terms, such that they can see what students are capable of as a direct result of the instruction they have received at each level, without the need for class-wide generalizations.

Using the categorization, educators can more effectively organize objectives and create lesson plans with appropriate content and instruction to lead students up the pyramid of learning. Educators can also design valid assessment tools and strategies to ensure each category is met in turn, and that each part of the course material is in line with the level’s objectives, whether it’s basic knowledge at the beginning of a course (e.g. remembering and recalling basic concepts), or applying that knowledge towards the middle of a school year (e.g. using the learned information in specific settings by solving problems.) For students, Bloom’s levels bridge the gap between what they know now, and what they need to learn to attain a higher level of knowledge.

At the end of the learning process, the goal with Bloom’s taxonomy is that a student has honed a new skill, level of knowledge, and/or developed a different attitude towards the subject. And that teachers can effectively assess this learning on an ongoing basis, as the course moves through each stage of the framework.

• Bloom’s Taxonomy is essential because it helps educators identify achievable learning goals and develop plans to meet them.
• The Bloom’s Taxonomy framework allows educators to assess learning on an ongoing basis, encouraging students to reflect on their progress.

4. The levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy

This pyramid, courtesy of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, represents the revised Bloom’s taxonomy framework and educational objectives and outlines the key levels of thinking.

It starts with the most basic level of knowledge at the bottom, Remembering, whereby students recall facts and basic concepts, and moves up towards the pinnacle: Create, where new or original work is produced in some fashion.

4.1. What the levels of thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy are, explained

In any learning environment, according to Bloom’s taxonomy, it’s critical to start from the bottom level and work your way up. The lower-order skills require less cognitive process but provide an important base for learning. Meanwhile, the higher Bloom’s levels require deeper learning and a greater degree of cognitive processing, which, presumably, can only be achieved once the lower-order skills have been mastered.

• Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical framework that encourages learners to work their way up towards higher-order thinking and cognitive tasks.

Each level of Bloom’s taxonomy should be addressed before moving on to the next. When course planning, bear in mind the implications—how quickly to introduce new concepts, when to reinforce them and how to test them.

The first stage, Remember, is about recalling facts and concepts. A student can define and duplicate, make a list, memorize points, repeat information, and make valid statements. But this does not prove comprehension.

This is where Understand, the next level comes in. The student explains ideas and concepts, discusses and describes a topic in detail, explains what it means, recognizes it and translates the facts in some way. They can paraphrase a point, or compare and contrast information.

Once this level is conquered, students move up the pyramid to the next stage of learning: Apply. They use the information they’ve learned in new situations, whether to solve a problem, demonstrate an idea, interpret, schedule, sketch—whichever method works for the specific type of learning, course of study, and/or class environment.

Then, they must draw connections between ideas in the Analyze level of Bloom’s taxonomy, and differentiate, organize, relate, compare, contrast, examine, question or test their knowledge. Critical thinking finally comes into play, as the student distinguishes between fact and opinion, and breaks information down into component parts.

In the Evaluate stage, the student can justify a stand or decision by appraising a situation, arguing, defending, judging, critiquing, supporting, or weighing in with thoughts based on the knowledge and application they’ve acquired thus far. In the original version of Bloom’s taxonomy, this was considered the pinnacle of learning. But in the revised version, Create (which Bloom originally called Synthesis) is at the top of the pyramid. There, students produce new or original work.

Something can’t be understood without first remembering it; can’t be applied without understanding it; must be analyzed before evaluating it; and an evaluation needs to have been conducted before making an accurate conclusion.

Using verbs and actions allows educators to encourage success through each Bloom’s taxonomy level of thinking, also helping them accurately measure learning. Do so by defining learning outcomes, and breaking them down as parts of a lecture. Use three key pillars to achieve this: condition (the resource being used), performance (what students should accomplish by the end), and criteria (the method of measuring success).

Importantly, some education-related words like include, understand and learn can’t be measured in a meaningful way. Following the framework of Bloom’s taxonomy makes performance actionable and effective, using verbs that set clear expectations that can be specifically measured.

In the first stage of Bloom’s taxonomy, you might ask students to recite something you’ve taught them, quoting information from memory based on previous lectures, reading material, and notes. Educators can use verbs like define, describe, identify, label, list, outline, recall, and reproduce to effectively measure success in this stage. It’s the most basic level in Bloom’s taxonomy, but represents an important foundation; a stepping stone toward deeper learning. A basic way to test learning on this level is simple questions and answer periods, or multiple-choice questions. This shows that the student can memorize facts and recall them. But it does not yet suggest that students understand the material.

• The first level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is remembering. This level helps build a solid foundation and acts as a stepping stone towards more complex learning. At this level, students are asked to memorize and recall facts.

→ Free Download to Learn More:   The Ultimate Guide to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Ask students to discuss a problem or idea in their own words, to evaluate their comprehension from the “remembering” stage of Bloom’s taxonomy. For example, they might have to paraphrase a story or definition, explain a concept in their own words, tell a story that relates to it, or provide analogies. To measure this, we can use verbs like defend, explain, generalize, paraphrase, summarize and translate. A student who reaches this level can interpret the materials, and demonstrate comprehension of the material.

• The second level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is understanding. This level asks students to explain course concepts in their own words.

The student will now have to take what they’ve learned and apply it to a scenario outside of the classroom. For example, they can use a math formula they’ve learned to calculate a family budget in the real world or apply a legal ruling to a specific case in the news headlines. Verbs to use in this stage of Bloom’s taxonomy include apply, demonstrate, predict, show, solve or use. That could come in the form of collaborative group projects or the composition of a blog.

• The third level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is applying. This level encourages students to extend their learning outside the classroom by finding similarities and differences in the real world.

Now it’s time to reach the higher half of the learning levels in Bloom’s taxonomy. Here, students can draw connections between ideas, utilize critical thinking, and break down knowledge into the sum of its parts. This can include using logical deduction to figure out how a piece of equipment works, or finding fallacies in the reasoning of an argument. Key verbs for measurement include analyze, break down, compare, contrast, differentiate, deconstruct and infer. Upon achieving this level of Bloom’s taxonomy, a student can demonstrate that they fully understand the material on the whole, and its component parts. They might be able to draw diagrams or deconstruct thought processes.

• The fourth level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is Analyzing. This level allows students to use their critical thinking skills to understand how or why different concepts work together.

Here is where the student makes an educated judgment about the value of the material they’ve just learned, applied and analyzed, to be able to tell the difference between fact and opinions or inferences. That could include finding an effective solution to a problem, or justifying a specific decision and being able to back up that justification with knowledge. Appraise, conclude, critique, evaluate, support and summarize are all good verbs to use in this level of Bloom’s taxonomy. Tools like surveys and blogs can help in this particular level.

• The fifth level of Bloom’s taxonomy is Evaluating. This level asks students to make value judgments about the material they’ve learned.

In the final level of Bloom’s taxonomy, the student demonstrates full knowledge by applying what they’ve learned, analyzed and evaluated, and building something, either tangible or conceptual. That could include writing a manual or report on a particular topic, designing a piece of machinery, or revising a process to improve the results. Verbs to use include categorize, combine, compile, devise, design, generate, modify and write. Projects can range from detailed essays that put parts of the learning together to form a whole concept or idea, or networking with others to discuss the merits of a study.

• The sixth level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is Creating. This level encourages students to demonstrate their knowledge by building something tangible or conceptual.

5. What are the Bloom’s taxonomy objectives?

Bloom’s taxonomy is further divided into three distinct Bloom’s taxonomy objectives, or domains of educational activities: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. These are also referred to by the acronym KSA, for Knowledge (cognitive), Skills (psychomotor), and Attitudes (affective). The goal is that by the end of a learning session, the student will have acquired new knowledge, skills and attitudes towards a subject.

Knowledge and development of intellectual skills is at the heart of the cognitive domain or objective of Bloom’s taxonomy, whereby a student can recall or recognize facts, patterns, and concepts that will serve as a foundation for deeper learning. This is where the six key facets of Bloom’s taxonomy—Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation–come in.

In this domain, students have new feelings or emotions about the subject, and/or themselves. They should be able to place more value on something, and have a greater appreciation for it, along with different motivations and attitudes. In a medical or caregiving setting, students might be able to demonstrate empathy towards patients or children. Students can be assessed in several ways when it comes to the affective domain, such as their ability to listen with respect and provide their unwavering attention, actively participate in class discussions, resolve conflicts and exhibit consistent and pervasive behaviors that reflect their internalized values.

The psychomotor domain is one of the later additions to Bloom’s taxonomy, as the original team did not believe they had sufficient knowledge in teaching such skills at the post-secondary level. In this domain of Bloom’s taxonomy, students develop manual or physical skills. There are three versions: physical movement, coordination and the use of motor skills. A student in a medical setting might demonstrate psychomotor development by properly stitching a wound; a student of construction through an understanding of how to operate a backhoe. Psychomotor skills can represent basic manual tasks, like washing a car or planting a garden, as well as more complex activities, like operating heavy machinery or following choreographed dance steps. Psychomotor skills are measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures and technique.

• Bloom’s taxonomy consists of three domains of educational activities.  These domains are cognitive, psychomotor and affective.
• Instructors are encouraged to design learning plans so that students will have acquired new knowledge, skills and attitudes towards a subject.

6. How to use Bloom’s taxonomy in the classroom + Bloom’s taxonomy examples

Educators can use the tools of Bloom’s taxonomy to precisely focus curricula throughout the year on specific parts of the framework, ensuring that students demonstrate the proper cognitive abilities in each assignment and exam before moving on to the next.

This way, students can have clear, concise, and measurable goals to achieve. They answer questions and complete tasks based on which objective is the focus at the time, using measurable verbs like the ones previously noted for each level to elicit the proper types of responses. For example, questions asking students to compare, discuss, and predict will help their basic understanding of a project, while the use of verbs like “investigate” and “relate” suggest that they’ve moved on to the analyzing stage.

Students can move from the lower levels to the higher Bloom’s levels of learning through course materials, topics, lectures, assignments and in-classroom activities that are fine-tuned to help them succeed. Following the framework of Bloom’s taxonomy, assignments and classroom learning can be restructured to ensure that they fall in line with each level in succession, so students have the critical tools to move towards achieving that all-important deeper level of learning: the top of the Bloom’s taxonomy pyramid.

• Educators should consider designing lesson and curriculum plans following Bloom’s Taxonomy. This way, students can build on their learning and progress through the levels throughout the term.

In modern classrooms, students aren’t always sitting passively in front of a lecturer. Mobile devices and online course materials are the norms. It’s a testament to the versatility of Bloom’s taxonomy that fits extremely well into lesson planning for active learning.

In the Remember stage of Bloom’s taxonomy, instead of sitting back and absorbing information, you could ask students to challenge each other to recollect facts, or make a list at the end of the class of the most important facts they learned that day. And in the Analyze stage of Bloom’s taxonomy, you can spark class discussions by exploring problems, comparisons, and examining how a subject might relate to students’ everyday lives.

Being explicit about expectations in class can also help guide students in the right direction—a great application of metacognition within Bloom’s taxonomy. In this way, you can help students take responsibility for their learning. For instance, in a marketing class, teachers can instruct students that, by the middle of the term, they should not only know the components of an effective TV commercial, but why each is important, and how they holistically work together to achieve the goals of the company placing the advertisement.

• Each of Bloom’s Taxonomy levels is designed with active learning in mind. This way, students feel a sense of responsibility for their learning.

A student’s grade isn’t directly impacted by ongoing, or formative, assessment, but it’s a way for educators to gauge how well students are learning, and moving up the Bloom’s taxonomy hierarchy. Formative assessment is not a scale that determines the success or failure of a student; instead it’s used as a tool for teaching.

Focus on what you want students to achieve, using Bloom’s taxonomy as a guide, as opposed to whether a specific activity will contribute toward their overall grade. Develop concrete learning objectives for each stage, and give the students clear expectations. Identify what action a student should be taking with your assignment, and to which level it applies. Then, match suggested assessment techniques and questions to the lecture, and choose activities that will encourage results.

In the Remember and Understand stage of Bloom’s taxonomy in an entry-level class, for example, multiple-choice or true or false questions make sense. 

Once you reach the top Analyze, Evaluate, and Create levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, whether it’s in an advanced class or toward the end of the course, consider oral examinations or written essays. Even if they aren’t tied to a grade, the assignments can paint a picture of how much the students have truly learned to date so educators can tweak course materials or their approach. This will help better prepare students to succeed when it comes time for summative assessment.

• Bloom’s taxonomy can be used to test and reinforce learning as the term progresses. Educators can course-correct and refocus on areas of learning where students are struggling.

For assignments and exams that impact grading, Bloom’s taxonomy can also apply. Typically, mid-term exams might cover material and learning that fits closer to the bottom of the pyramid, in Remembering, Understanding, and Applying.

When you get to final exams, however, this is when it can be useful to assess learning towards the top of the pyramid, including Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. Students should be able to apply their knowledge to everyday situations beyond course material, provide informed opinions and defend them, and consider additional questions that need to be addressed, including providing examples. Perhaps ask them to make a booklet outlining five to ten important rules, a mock marketing campaign, a flowchart, or a series of tips based on their learning. By the time you get to the summative assessment, the results should indicate a deeper level of learning that fits within the top of Bloom’s taxonomy pyramid.

• Bloom’s Taxonomy allows students to apply their knowledge in creative ways. Educators can use the later levels to design flexible assessments that let students demonstrate their learnings in ways that make sense for them/

6.5. Bloom’s taxonomy for STEM Classes

With so much emphasis on ensuring students meet math and science standards, particularly in introductory courses, higher-order thinking skills are sometimes deprioritized. With most STEM assessments consisting of multiple-choice questions, which tend to focus on the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to cover higher levels. Unfortunately, much of what students will need in order to be successful outside the classroom requires them to proficiently apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information. 

The good news is that STEM subjects lend themselves well to Bloom’s Taxonomy’s higher levels. Educators can help students internalize course concepts by designing engaging activities in which they practice learning through higher-order question stems. They’ll not only perform better on assessments, but they’ll also be better prepared to apply their learnings outside the classroom as well.

7. Bloom’s taxonomy question stems

Bloom’s revised taxonomy gives educators the ability to construct a curriculum to assess objective learning outcomes. Pre-created Bloom’s taxonomy question stems make engaging students in each of these levels easier. This way, educators can plan opportunities for students to learn, reflect and assess their learning in motivating and creative ways throughout the term.

8. Problems with Bloom’s taxonomy

Bloom’s taxonomy is by no means a hard and fast rule book that needs to be followed to a tee; it’s a theoretical construct that can be interpreted in many ways to fit individual teaching styles, courses, and lesson plans. Some believe that it is only appropriate for the lower Bloom’s taxonomy levels of learning and that it fails to address more recent developments in cognitive psychology, including the ability for students to create knowledge in their minds throughout the learning process. Some also frown on the idea that students must start at the lowest level and work their way up before engaging in a meaningful dialog about facts, which isn’t always necessarily the case.

Sometimes, creativity isn’t just a goal, it’s a tool that can be effectively used to further learning. You could ask students to create something in the first lesson, like a mock advertisement in a marketing class, or a proposed solution to global warming. Educators can deconstruct and compare the results with them, and use that creative project to introduce facts, concepts, and basic knowledge of the topic. In that respect, while the components of the framework are always the same, it isn’t always necessarily organized neatly into a pyramid, as with the original Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom’s taxonomy structure can morph into everything from a circle, to a web, a flower, or even a mandala (below) in design, showing each level of learning feeding into one another and occurring at different points in the process. No matter which way you slice (or organize) Bloom’s taxonomy, though, it always uses the six key principles to result in deeper learning.

Bloom’s taxonomy mandala. Based on an image from K. Aainsqatsi

As with any construct, there’s always room for improvement. With Bloom’s taxonomy, the 21st-century revision proved there was further refinement and adjustments necessary to make the framework relevant for future decades. Sticking to the template without thinking about the reasons behind it can lead to an over-reliance on the literal interpretation of Bloom’s taxonomy. Just because a student can defend a position, for example, doesn’t mean they’re doing so in anything more than a superficial way. And the ability to come up with a detailed plan isn’t evidence that the plan itself is the result of good judgment and analysis. There’s more than meets the eye to learning and education, but using Bloom’s taxonomy as a guide to ensure all six of Bloom’s taxonomy levels of learning are covered, in whichever way works best, can put you on the right path to success.

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How Bloom's Taxonomy Can Help You Learn More Effectively

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• The Six Levels
• How It Works
• Applications
• How to Use It

Bloom’s Taxonomy in Online Learning

• Limitations

Bloom's taxonomy is an educational framework that classifies learning in different levels of cognition. This model aims to help educators better understand and evaluate the different types of complex mental skills needed for effective learning .

The taxonomy is often characterized as a ladder or pyramid. Each step on the taxonomy represents a progressively more complex level of learning. The lower levels of learning serve as a base for the subsequent levels that follow.

Bloom’s taxonomy was developed by a committee of educators through a series of conferences held between 1949 to 1953. It was published in “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals” and is named after Benjamin Bloom, the educational psychologist who chaired the committee and edited the book.

The Six Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

There are six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. The original six levels were: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

In 2001, the original Bloom's taxonomy was revised by a group of instructional theorists, curriculum researchers, and cognitive psychologists. The goal was to move away from the more static objectives that Bloom described to utilize action works that better capture the dynamic, active learning process. The six levels of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy:

At the lowest level of the taxonomy, learners recognize and recall the information they have learned. This level focuses on memorizing information and recalling the concepts and facts learned.

This level of the taxonomy involves demonstrating a comprehension of what has been learned. People are able to explain the ideas in their own words and explain what the concepts mean.

At this level of Bloom's taxonomy, learners are able to use the information and knowledge they have acquired in new situations. For example, they can apply a skill they have learned in order to solve a different problem or complete a new task.

At this level, learners are able to break down information in order to analyze the components and examine their relationships. Here, learners are able to compare and contrast to spot similarities and differences. They can also make connections and spot patterns.

This level involves being able to make an assessment of the quality of information that has been presented. Learners are able to evaluate arguments that have been presented in order to make judgments and form their own opinions.

This represents the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy. Learners who reach this point are able to form ideas by utilizing the skills and knowledge they have obtained. This level involves the generation of creative, original ideas.

How Bloom's Taxonomy Works

Understanding and utilizing Bloom's taxonomy allows educators and instructional designers to create activities and assessments that encourage students to progress through the levels of learning. These activities allow students to go from the acquisition of basic knowledge and work their way through the levels of learning to the point where they can think critically and creatively.

The progression of knowledge matters because each level builds on the previous ones. In other words, it is important to remember that students must have a solid foundation before continuing to build higher-order thinking skills.

The basic knowledge they learn at the beginning of the process allows them to think about this knowledge in progressively more complex ways.

"To successfully use Bloom’s taxonomy, it’s essential to follow the steps in the correct order because the taxonomy's steps naturally progress and reinforce learning at every level," explains Marnix Broer, co-founder and CEO of Studocu .

While the foundational stages of learning provide a solid base, it is essential to keep building on those skills. Challenge yourself to learn in new ways and hone those high-level skills that are so critical to cognitive flexibility and critical thinking

Marnix Broer, Co-Founder and CEO, Studocu

While you can review a set of study notes repeatedly, you’re really only hitting the 'remember' and 'understand' stages and limiting your skills and retention. Seeking out opportunities to analyze, evaluate, and create based on the subject matter will help you solidify your knowledge beyond being able to regurgitate it on a test.

The purpose of Bloom's taxonomy is to guide educators as they create instruction that fosters cognitive skills. Instead of focusing on memorization and repetition, the goal is to help students develop higher-order thinking skills that allow them to engage in critical, creative thinking that they can apply in different areas of their lives.

3 Domains of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy targets three key learning domains. These domains are focused on a number of desired educational outcomes.  

Cognitive Domain

This domain is focused on the development of intellectual skills. It involves the acquisition of knowledge and the development of problem-solving , decision-making , and critical-thinking abilities. 

Affective Domain

This domain is centered on developing emotional abilities, values, and attitudes. It's focus is on helping learners develop perspectives on different subjects as well as cultivating motivation, empathy , and social abilities.

Psychomotor Domain

This domain focuses on the physical skills that are needed to carry out different activities. This includes physical coordination and the ability to control and manipulate the body. Using the proper technique to hold a pencil while writing is an example of a psychomotor skills that is important in the learning process.

Applications for Bloom’s Taxonomy

Teachers utilize Bloom's taxonomy to design instruction that maximizes learning and helps students learn more effectively. For example:

• An educator would create a lesson that teaches students basic knowledge about a subject.
• Next, students would summarize and explain these ideas in their own words.
• Then, learners would take this knowledge and use it to solve problems.
• The educator would then provide activities where students must break down, compare, and connect different ideas.
• Next, educational activities would focus on giving students critical assessments of the quality, value, or effectiveness of what they have learned.
• Finally, at the end of this process, students would use what they have learned to create something independently.

One of the benefits of using this approach is that it can lead to deeper learning that allows skills to be transferred to various domains and situations. One study found that teaching Bloom's taxonomy helped improve learners' ability to learn independently. This approach also helped better stimulate critical thinking skills and boosted student motivation and interest in learning.

Uses for Bloom’s Taxonomy

The taxonomy is widely used today for a variety of purposes, including to:

• Develop classroom instruction and lesson plans
• Create instructional strategies
• Design and develop curricula
• Assess courses
• Identify assessment objectives
• Create effective written assessments
• Measure learning outcomes

How Can You Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

Bloom’s taxonomy is also something you can use to make learning new information and acquiring new skills easier. Understanding and applying the taxonomy can enhance learning efficacy to develop a richer understanding of the subject matter.

Utilizing different learning strategies at each level of the taxonomy can help you get the most out of your learning experiences:

Improving Remembering

Strategies that can be helpful during the first level of learning include:

• Making flashcards and repeating the information regularly to help reinforce your memory
• Quizzing yourself on what you have learned
• Using mnemonic devices to help improve your recall
• Reviewing your notes and readings often to help improve your retention of the information

Improving Understanding

At the second level of the taxonomy, you can enhance your understanding of the material by:

• Having discussions with others to help reinforce the ideas and clarify points you are confused about
• Writing down questions you might have about the material
• Teaching what you have learned to someone else
• Summarizing key points in your own words to ensure understanding

Improving Application

To apply knowledge more effectively, it can be helpful to:

• Work on projects that require you to solve real-world problems
• Solve practice problems that rely on the information you have learned
• Role-play different scenarios in groups
• Do lab experiments that require applying what you've learned

Improving Analysis

Activities that can help improve your analytical skills at this level of Bloom's taxonomy include:

• Creating mind maps to make connections between different ideas
• Comparing and contrasting different ideas or theories using tables, Venn diagrams, and charts
• Debating the topic with peers
• Writing your critical analysis of the topic

Improving Evaluation

You can help enhance your evaluation skills by:

• Utilizing peer review to give feedback on what other learners have written
• Listing the pros and cons of a concept
• Writing in a journal to track your thoughts
• Writing a review paper or giving a presentation on the subject
• Writing a persuasive or argumentative essay

Improving Creation

At the final level of Bloom's taxonomy, the goal is to take what you have learned as use that knowledge to produce original work. This might involve:

• Brainstorming new ideas
• Making decisions based on your knowledge
• Developing recommendations and presenting them to your peers
• Asking open-ended questions to encourage creative thought
• Integrating multiple ideas and perspectives into a new product or idea
• Designing a creative work based on your ideas

Use of the taxonomy may of course differ amongst individuals at different age levels.

How can online, self-directed learners utilize Bloom’s taxonomy to enhance their educational experience? Broer recommends looking for ways to mentally, physically, and emotionally connect to educational material.

“If online learning resources don’t offer opportunities to apply the knowledge, you may need to find those opportunities yourself,” he suggests. “Completing mock assignments or creating flow charts can help you shift from the learning to the application stage quickly, especially with quick access to online forums, apps, and social media.” 

What Are the Limitations of Bloom's Taxonomy?

While Bloom's taxonomy is still an influential theory and continues to influence classroom education and instructional design, it has limitations. Some of the primary criticisms of the framework:

Simplistic Hierarchy

One of the main complaints about the taxonomy is that the hierarchical structure oversimplifies the learning process. By breaking down thinking skills into discrete levels, it fails to capture the complexity of the learning process and how these different skills overlap and interact.

The taxonomy is typically framed as a hierarchy in which higher-level learning depends on foundational knowledge. However, learning often doesn't occur in distinct, separate steps. Learning experiences are often dynamic, involving many levels at the same time.

Rigid Structure

The taxonomy's lack of flexibility is another common critique. By suggesting that learning follows a fixed progression that starts with lower-order skills before progressing to higher-level thinking skills, it ignores the fact that learning is complex, dynamic, and frequently involves engaging multiple cognitive skills simultaneously.

Some critics suggest that the taxonomy may stifle creativity when designing instruction, limiting an educator's ability to develop effective learning strategies.

Cultural Bias

Because Bloom's taxonomy was developed from a Western perspective and educational context, it may not reflect learning methods from other cultural backgrounds. Educators should consider this factor when developing culturally-inclusive instruction.

Bloom's taxonomy was originally introduced during the 1950s as a framework for categorizing cognitive skills and understanding the learning process. While Bloom’s taxonomy has limitations, it is still a helpful framework for developing educational materials. Teachers, instructional designers, and curriculum developers can utilize the framework and incorporate other educational perspectives to create well-rounded instruction that benefits all students.

Bloom BS. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals . New York, NY: Longmans, Green; 1956.

Anderson LW, Krathwohl DR, eds.  A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . Complete ed. Longman; 2001.

Adams NE. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives . J Med Libr Assoc . 2015;103(3):152-153. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.103.3.010

Zheng J, Tayag J, Cui Y, Chen J. Bloom's classification of educational objectives based on deep learning theory teaching design of nursing specialty . Comput Intell Neurosci . 2022;2022:3324477. doi:10.1155/2022/3324477

Larsen TM, Endo BH, Yee AT, Do T, Lo SM. Probing internal assumptions of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy . CBE Life Sci Educ . 2022;21(4):ar66. doi:10.1187/cbe.20-08-0170

Newton PM, Da Silva A, Peters LG. A pragmatic master list of action verbs for Bloom’s taxonomy . Front Educ . 2020;5:107. doi:10.3389/feduc.2020.00107

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Critical thinking and Information Literacy: Bloom's Taxonomy

• A Note on Critical Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Bloom's Taxonomy
• Christopher Dwyer's Critical Thinking

What is Bloom's Taxonomy and why is it relevant to Critical Thinking

Bloom's Taxonomy and Critical Thinking go hand in hand.  Bloom's taxonomy takes students through a thought process of analyzing information or knowledge critically.  Bloom's taxonomy begins with knowledge/memory and slowly pushes students to seek more information based upon a series of levels of questions and keywords that brings out an action on the part of the student.  Both critical thinking and Bloom's taxonomy are necessary to education and meta-cognition. 

Practical Applications:

• Th e Idea of “dialogue” with a “text” and on of  filling gaps or silences in the what you are  reading in order  so that you can contribute to any conversation, in particular when writing a research paper is primordial.
• Teaching students extrapolation- The concept that they are in charge of answering their own questions. "effects" of something must be determined by my own findings!
• The more “content” background knowledge we have the more critical our engagement.

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

Source below Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching- Patricia Armstrong-  Bloom's Taxonomy

• Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.
• Teachers can benefit from using frameworks to organize objectives because
• Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.
• “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
• “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”; and
• “ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”

See also, Anderson, Lorin W., et al.  A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing : A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives / Editors, Lorin W. Anderson, David Krathwohl ; Contributors, Peter W. Airasian ... [et Al.].  Complete ed., Longman, 2001.

The Revised Taxonomy 2001

• Recognizing
• Interpreting
• Exemplifying
• Classifying
• Summarizing
• Implementing
• Differentiating
• Attributing

"In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:  Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching- Patricia Armstrong-  Bloom's Taxonomy

• Knowledge of terminology
• Knowledge of specific details and elements
• Knowledge of classifications and categories
• Knowledge of principles and generalizations
• Knowledge of theories, models, and structures
• Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
• Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
• Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures
• Strategic Knowledge
• Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge
• Self-knowledge

Critical thinking Bloom's Taxonomy

Image source: Google Images Search:  WellsAcademicSolutions-

In Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), Bloom outlined  six hierarchical and interconnected:

• Comprehension
• Application

Bloom Taxonomy Example

Here is an example of Bloom's Taxonomy in use:

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A Guide to Implementing Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Classroom

Education without learning outcomes is meaningless. This is why Benjamin’s Bloom Taxonomy Theory is widely applied in  education to create effective learning outcomes. Today, as educators integrate edtech tools in their classroom, using them with the principles of Bloom’s Taxonomy help them focus on sections of the curriculum for definitive knowledge outcomes with a dynamic learning environment that positively contributes to increased cognitive skills in students.

Here’s what we will be covering in this article:

What is Bloom's Taxonomy?

What is bloom’s original taxonomy, what is the revised bloom's taxonomy, 4 reasons why bloom’s taxonomy is important even today, 6 levels of thinking in bloom’s taxonomy, what are the advantages and disadvantages of bloom's revised taxonomy, 3 student learning outcomes from bloom's taxonomy, using bloom’s taxonomy effectively in the classroom.

Bloom's taxonomy is a learning, teaching, and educational framework in which each level is dependent on the previous one. Similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, each stage of learning is crucial to developing the necessary skill set required to proceed to the next level. 

Bloom's taxonomy may be used by teachers to ask questions and give assignments that are closely related to the learning objectives at each stage of the process. Multiple-choice questions, for example, can help determine a student's basic understanding and how well they remember the topic, whereas asking them to come up with an analogy indicates that they are ready to proceed to the application or analytical stage.

Original Bloom's taxonomy was developed in the 1940s by Benjamin Bloom and his associates Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl to classify educational goals into different categories that can better assess the students’ performance.

With multiple revisions to the original taxonomy, Bloom and his colleagues published the final version in 1956 as the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . While it was designed to help with student evaluation at first, it rapidly evolved into a tool for teachers to plan their curriculum, define explicit learning objectives, and create classroom activities. It has been developed for usage in K–12 schools, colleges, and universities.

David Krathwohl and co-editor Lorin Anderson offered a version of the 1956 hierarchy in 2001, with extras from cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists, educational researchers, and testing and assessment experts. The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy took shape with more dynamic concepts as opposed to the original version that only focused on a unilateral objective. By replacing nouns with verbs, students were given a clearer objective to work with and set expectations.

The revised Taxonomy changes the two last Bloom's taxonomy learning stages, Synthesis/Evaluation, to make them more apparent and emphasize on application of  knowledge, which is the primary objective of effective learning. Bloom's updated taxonomy further divides the cognitive domain, which includes comprehension, into four distinct categories that include factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive. 

Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives has been a beneficiary heuristic for educators to comprehend the varying degrees of cognitive, psychomotor, and emotional demands that are set up as learning outcomes for students. It also aids in matching the right assessment tools and strategies with the correct level’s objective.

1. Enhances Academic performance

Using Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy as a guide, Kritik offers a gamified online peer assessment tool that allows students to earn Kritik points and demonstrate their abilities as an peer evaluator. The score gets calculated by comparing how well you evaluated your peers' work to how the other students evaluated the exact project. It was found that after conducting 5-6 activities on Kritik, students witnessed an increase in their overall evaluation score . The different points of view shared by their peers also enabled them to gather deeper insights, knowledge, and performance.

2. Develop Higher-order thinking skills

Developing higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) during higher education is critical to excel in the workplace. Research suggests that critical thinking  is among the top five skills that employers look for when hiring freshers 1 (Campbell, 2022). With the application of Bloom's Taxonomy, the categorization of  educational objectives promotes HOTS in students that allows educators to assess learning outcomes on a regular basis, encouraging students to continuously reflect on their progress. 

3. Strengthen meta-cognitive skills

Bloom's taxonomy can help educators to become more student-centered in their approach by clearly defining what they want students to know and be able to accomplish. With every progressive level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, the student gets a chance to review their strengths and weaknesses and adjust their practices to achieve improved levels of learning outcomes. The use of metacognition in the classroom enables students to  engage with the course content in meaningful ways.

4. Essential application for students

The Bloom’s Taxonomy assists in determining the meanings of words, phrases, and idioms used in the paragraph through application and comprehension. It also aids in assessing the passage and its ideas and gathering facts, memorizing them via comprehending and remembering.

See how Dr. Lucian Lucia from NC State University was able to leverage peer assessment to develop higher-order thinking. 

The taxonomy is commonly shown as a pyramid to emphasize the importance of information to students. Bloom's framework must be followed in order as a taxonomy; learners must begin with knowledge and master that level. Furthermore, the students aim is to reach the top level called Create where they can create new or original work in similar ways.

1. Remember: Recall facts and Basic Concepts

Everything a student has learnt in the classroom, both in theory and in practice, is called knowledge. It is the basic parameter where students are asked to learn and memorize facts. As one of the most crucial aspects of learning, students must remember what they have learnt. Educators can use verbs like define, describe, identify, label, list, outline, recall, and reproduce to effectively measure success in this stage.

2. Understand: Explain Ideas or Concepts

The level of comprehension is indicated by understanding. Upon getting a grasp of the topic, students are required to explain the concepts in their own words. How they interpret the learnings is only worthwhile if the student is able to make sense of it. The verbs that can be used here are defend, explain, generalize, paraphrase, summarize and translate.

3. Apply: Use information in New Situations

By taking the concept and applying it successfully to real world scenarios is how students can master this level.For example, if a student learns to write in English and excels at it, they should be able to apply for a visa for their non-English speaking parents who wish to travel to Canada. In this stage, educators can use verbs like apply, demonstrate, predict, show, solve or use.

4. Analyze: Draw Connections among Ideas

At this stage, students must be able to draw parallels, use logical deductions to analyze arguments, and question the relevance of facts presented to them. The important verbs in this level are analyze, break down, compare, contrast, differentiate, deconstruct, and infer.

5. Evaluate: Justify a Stand or Decision

The evaluation stage is when the student is able to make an educated statement of what they have learnt, applied and analyzed in the first 4 stages. Their stand could include a solution to the problem or justify an argument with facts. As simple as it may appear, the learner must be appropriately prepared and have mastered extensive information to attain this level. Key verbs to utilize at this stage are appraise, conclude, critique, evaluate, support, and summarize.

6. Create: Produce New or Original Work

This is the highest level of Bloom’s taxonomy where the student should be able to fully demonstrate the application of what they have learnt and create something original. This could include building something based on the principles that they learnt, improving processes to make it more efficient or designing a product. Educators can use verbs like categorize, combine, compile, devise, design, generate, modify, and write.

Bloom's Taxonomy provides a framework for the assessment of student learning. The system comprises different domains and each domain has several sub-domains. Each of which has its own specific descriptors. The descriptors provide a way to measure student understanding and can be used to identify areas in which students are progressing or where they need improvement.

1. Cognitive domain in Bloom’s Taxonomy

The cognitive domain focuses on mental abilities such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and information acquisition. It was the first domain formed by Bloom's initial research group. The cognitive hierarchy ranges from basic memorizing to inventing something new based on previously learned information. Learners go through the ranking in this domain, starting with "remember" and ending with "make." 

2. Affective domain in Bloom’s Taxonomy

The affective domain is concerned with learners' attitudes, values, interests, and appreciation. Receiving and listening to information is the first step in the hierarchy, leading its way towards characterization or internalizing values and consistently acting on them. It was designed to help students understand their own beliefs and how they have evolved.

3. Psychomotor domain in Bloom’s taxonomy

Learners' capacity to physically complete activities and perform movement and skills get referred to as the psychomotor domain. There are multiple variants with various hierarchies - the examples given are from Harrow's (1972) psychomotor domain theory 2 (Thomas, 2004). Reflexes and fundamental movement are at the bottom of the scale, followed by non-discursive communication and meaningfully expressive action.

Educators continue to refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy in their classroom even today as they see the value of progressively setting objectives that cater to each level of the students’ learning journey. Let us look at the different ways educators can use Bloom’s Taxonomy effectively in their classroom:

• Focusing on developing the curriculum to ensure students demonstrate the appropriate cognitive skills in each task and exam before moving on to the next.
• Setting clear, simple, and quantifiable learning outcomes. Using Bloom’s taxonomy of measurable verbs, will allow students to respond to queries and perform activities based on the objective of the level. For example, questions that require students to compare, discuss, and forecast, will aid their fundamental comprehension of a project. verbs like explore and relate indicate that they have moved on to the analysis phase.
• Students must not be viewed as passive learners in the classroom. Instead, they must be urged to challenge themselves to memorize facts or even make a list of essential knowledge they learned that day after the lesson. Using Bloom's taxonomy in Math, educators could engage the class in discussions to break down the problem, making analogies, and looking at how a subject could connect to students' daily lives.
• Bloom's Taxonomy can also be used to classify assignments and exams. Mid-term reviews often contain details and lectures understood from the bottom of the pyramid in the Remember, Understand and Apply stage.
• When it comes to final examinations, Bloom's Taxonomy critical thinking may get used in measuring learning at the top of the pyramid, which includes Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. Students apply what they've learned in class to real-life situations, offer educated opinions and defend them , and explore additional issues that need to be answered, including presenting examples.

Provide an engaged classroom experience with Kritik!

Applying the principles of Bloom’s taxonomy in the classroom enables students to immerse themselves in the learning process at every level and reflect on what they have learnt. As a peer evaluation tool, Kritik does the same with the three stages of assessment (Creation, Evaluation and Feedback) giving students an opportunity to learn from their peers , adapt and improve their work and gain a deeper understanding of the topic.

Schedule a demo with our team today to implement peer assessment in your classroom.

1 Campbell, M. (2022). Top 5 Skills Employers Look For. The Nth Degree . Retrieved from https://newmanu.edu/top-5-skills-employers-look-for

2 Thomas, K. (2004). LEARNING TAXONOMIES IN THE COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE, AND PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAINS. Retrieved 19 August 2022, from http://www.rockymountainalchemy.com/whitePapers/rma-wp-learning-taxonomies.pdf

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Bloom’s taxonomy.

Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom’s Taxonomy? | Further Information

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Background Information

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.

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Here are the authors’ brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ( Handbook One , pp. 201-207):

• Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”
• Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.”
• Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”
• Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”
• Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”
• Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”

The 1984 edition of Handbook One is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

Barbara Gross Davis, in the “Asking Questions” chapter of Tools for Teaching , also provides examples of questions corresponding to the six categories. This chapter is not available in the online version of the book, but Tools for Teaching is available in the CFT Library. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment . This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of “educational objectives” (in Bloom’s original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:

• Recognizing
• Interpreting
• Exemplifying
• Classifying
• Summarizing
• Implementing
• Differentiating
• Attributing

In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:

• Knowledge of terminology
• Knowledge of specific details and elements
• Knowledge of classifications and categories
• Knowledge of principles and generalizations
• Knowledge of theories, models, and structures
• Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
• Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
• Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures
• Strategic Knowledge
• Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge
• Self-knowledge

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.

Why Use Bloom’s Taxonomy?

The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to which the author of this teaching guide has added some clarifying points:

• Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.
• Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.
• “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
• “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”;and
• “ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”

Citations are from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives .

Further Information

Section III of A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives , entitled “The Taxonomy in Use,” provides over 150 pages of examples of applications of the taxonomy. Although these examples are from the K-12 setting, they are easily adaptable to the university setting.

Section IV, “The Taxonomy in Perspective,” provides information about 19 alternative frameworks to Bloom’s Taxonomy, and discusses the relationship of these alternative frameworks to the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.

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The pursuit of performance excellence, bloom’s taxonomy revised.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – New Version

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom headed a group of educational psychologists who developed a classification system for levels of cognitive skills and learning behavior. The classification system they created is often referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy. The word taxonomy means classifications or structures. Bloom’s Taxonomy classifies thinking according to six cognitive levels of complexity:

• Comprehension
• Application

The categories are ordered from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. The classification is often referenced as a progressive climb to a higher level of thinking with the highest level being “evaluation.”

The basic or lowest level in the taxonomy deals with simple knowledge acquisition. At this level, people simply memorize, recall, list, and repeat information. The cognitive complexity grows at every level. At the highest levels, people are able to build a mental structure from diverse elements and are able to put parts together to form a whole, as well as make judgments about the value of ideas.

During the 1990’s, Lorin Anderson and a group of cognitive psychologists updated the taxonomy. The revisions they made appear fairly minor, however, they do have significant impact on how people use the taxonomy. The changes can be divided into three categories: terminology, structure, and emphasis.

Changes to Terminology

The first thing most people recognize is the different terminology. The revised version changes the names of each of the six levels. For example, the lowest level of the original, “knowledge” was renamed and classified as “remembering.” It is also important to note the change from nouns to verbs to describe the different levels of the taxonomy. The names of the major cognitive process categories were changed to indicate action because thinking implies active engagements. Knowledge is an outcome or product of thinking, it is not a form of thinking. Consequently, since the word “knowledge” inaccurately described a category of thinking, it was replaced with the verb “remembering.”

Changes to Structure

The top two levels are essentially swapped from the old to the new version. This revised taxonomy moves the “evaluation” stage down a level and the highest element becomes “creating.” At the second to the highest level of the revised version, people defend, support, justify and evaluate their opinion on this information. And at the highest level, people generate new ideas, create a new product, or construct a new point of view. This change was made because the taxonomy is viewed as a hierarchy reflecting increasing complexity of thinking, and creative thinking (creating level) is considered a more complex form of thinking than critical thinking (evaluating level). A person can evaluate information without being creative, but creative thinking requires some level of evaluation or critical thinking (i.e. you need to evaluate the effectiveness of your new idea).

Changes in Emphasis

The revision emphasizes the use of taxonomy as a tool for alignment of curriculum planning, instructional delivery, and assessment. Additionally, the revision is aimed at a broader audience. The original taxonomy was viewed as a tool best applied in the younger grades at school. The revised version is more universal and easily applicable at elementary, secondary, as well as adult training.

The new terms are defined as:

Applying the Revised Version of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Just like the original taxonomy, the revised version provides a valuable framework for teachers, trainers, and instructional designers to use to focus on higher order thinking. By providing a hierarchy of thinking, both version can help in developing performance tasks, creating questions, or constructing problems.

Assessment of Learning Using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

The following chart illustrates the level of thinking and the expectation of the learner at each level of the hierarchy. It helps gage if the learner can demonstrate his or her ability at that level.

Moving to the Higher Order of Thinking

Below is an example of moving from the lower levels of the taxonomy to the higher levels as you teach a topic. Each level is built on the preceding lower level. As you move higher, each level becomes more challenging.

• Remembering: List different types of fruit
• Understanding: Explain why they are classified as fruits
• Applying: Diagram the parts of your favorite fruit
• Analyzing: Compare each fruit finding the characteristics that make it different from the others
• Evaluating: Determine and justify which fruits are the healthiest
• Creating: Create a drink using three fruits that would be considered extremely healthiest

Examples to Assess Mastery at Each Level

Below is a list of examples you can use to ascertain the level of mastery at each level.

Remembering

• Write the definition of a vocabulary word.
• List the parts of a bicycle.
• Name the main characters in the book.
• Name the counties in Africa.

Understanding

• Summarize the main idea of the story.
• Draw a picture showing the word’s meaning.
• Classify the parts of speech in the sentence given.
• Predict what will happen to the object when placed in water.
• Describe how you would use this net to catch fish.
• Write a sentence using three new vocabulary words.
• Apply the principles of learning to the workshop.
• Solve the problem using the concepts given.
• Compare how the climate is similar between two counties.
• Explain why the main character decided to make the decision she did.
• Determine which parts of the bicycle is most important.
• Research the best methods of removing stains from clothing.
• Explain the best alternative among the three choices.
• Determine which character in the stories was the most impacted by the events.
• Decide which parts of speech are most valuable to creating a sentence.
• Assess the value of the items on the table.
• Invest a device that can pick up small objects.
• Create a game that will help students learn vocabulary words.
• Write a story that leaves the reader in suspense.
• Generate three ideas on how to improve the learning process.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised – Action Verbs

The following chart provides action verbs for each level of the revised taxonomy. By creating learning objectives using these action verbs, you indicate explicitly what the learner must do in order to demonstrate learning.

Blooms Taxonomy

Thinking Skills

References:

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook 1; Cognitive Domain.

Overbaugh, R. & Schultz, L. “Bloom’s Taxonomy.”

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). “A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview.” Theory into Practice

Clark, D. (2010). Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains: The three types of learning. Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition .

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives.

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Bloom et al.'s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain

Citation: Huitt, W. (2011). Bloom et al.'s taxonomy of the cognitive domain. Educational Psychology Interactive . Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [date], from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/bloom.html [ pdf ]

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Beginning in 1948, a group of educators undertook the task of classifying education goals and objectives.  The intent was to develop a classification system for three domains: the cognitive, the affective, and the psychomotor.  Work on the cognitive domain was completed in the 1950s and is commonly referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain ( Bloom, Englehart , Furst , Hill,  & Krathwohl , 1956).  Others have developed taxonomies for the affective and psychomotor domains .

The major idea of the taxonomy is that what educators want students to know (encompassed in statements of educational objectives ) can be arranged in a hierarchy from less to more complex.  The levels are understood to be successive, so that one level must be mastered before the next level can be reached.

The original levels by Bloom et al. (1956) were ordered as follows:   Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.  The taxonomy is presented below with sample verbs and a sample behavior statement for each level.

Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) revised Bloom's taxonomy to fit the more outcome-focused modern education objectives, including switching the names of the levels from nouns to active verbs, and reversing the order of the highest two levels (see Krathwohl, 2002 for an overview).  The lowest-order level (Knowledge) became Remembering , in which the student is asked to recall or remember information.   Comprehension, became Understanding, in which the student would explain or describe concepts.   Application became Applying, or using the information in some new way, such as choosing, writing, or interpreting.   Analysis was revised to become Analyzing, requiring the student to differentiate between different components or relationships, demonstrating the ability to compare and contrast.   These four levels remain the same as Bloom et al.’s (1956) original hierarchy.  In general, research over the last 40 years has confirmed these levels as a hierarchy (Anderson & Krathwohl).  In addition to revising the taxonomy, Anderson and Krathwohl added a conceptualization of knowledge dimensions within which these processing levels are used (factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognition).

The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University (2011) provides an excellent graphic representation on how these two taxonomies can be used together to generate lesson objectives.

The two highest, most complex levels of Synthesis and Evaluation were reversed in the revised model, and were renamed Evaluating and Creating (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).   As the authors did not provide empirical evidence for this reversal, it is my belief that these two highest levels are essentially equal in level of complexity.   Both depend on analysis as a foundational process.  However, synthesis or creating requires rearranging the parts in a new, original way whereas evaluation or evaluating requires a comparison to a standard with a judgment as to good, better or best.  This is similar to the distinction between creative thinking and critical thinking .  Both are valuable while neither is superior.  In fact, when either is omitted during the problem solving process, effectiveness declines ( Huitt, 1992 ).

In any case it is clear that students can "know" about a topic or subject in different ways and at different levels.  While most teacher-made tests still test at the lower levels of the taxonomy, research has shown that students remember more when they have learned to handle the topic at the higher levels of the taxonomy ( Garavalia , Hummel, Wiley, & Huitt, 1999).  This is because more elaboration is required, a principle of learning based on finding from the information processing approach to learning.

Krathwohl, Bloom, and Masia (1956) also developed a taxonomy for the affective domain . In my opinion, this taxonomy is really more of a reflection of attachment or valuing rather than processing affective-related information as reflected in the cognitive taxonomy.  There are three taxonomies of the psychomotor domain that are received acceptance (Dave, 1975; Harrow, 1972; Simpson, 1972).  Clark (2010) provides an overview of these three taxonomies.

• Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives . New York: Longman.
• Bloom, B., Englehart , M. Furst , E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl , D. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain . New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green.
• Center for Excellen ce in Learning and Teaching (CELT). (2011). A model of learning objectives. Iowa State University. Retrieved March 2011, from http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/RevisedBlooms1.html
• Clark, D. (2010). Bloom's taxonomy of learning domains: The three types of learning. Big Dog & Little Dog's Performance Juxtaposition . Edmonds, WA: Author.  Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html
• Dave, R. H. (1970). Psychomotor levels. In R. J. Armstrong (Ed.), Developing and writing behavioral objectives. Tucson, Arizona: Educational Innovators Press.
• Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom's taxonomy: Original and revised .. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology . Retrieved January 2009, from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt
• Garavalia , L., Hummel, J., Wiley, L., & Huitt, W. (1999). Constructing the course syllabus: Faculty and student perceptions of important syllabus components. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 1 0 (1), 5-22. Available online at http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/cons_course_syll.doc
• Harrow, A. (1972). A taxonomy of the psychomotor domain: A guide for developing behavioral objectives. New York: David McKay.
• Huitt, W. (1992). Problem solving and decision making: Consideration of individual differences using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Journal of Psychological Type, 24, 33-44. Retrieved June 2004, from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/prbsmbti.html
• Krathwohl, D. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41 (4), 212-218. Retrieved from http://www.unco.edu/cetl/sir/stating_outcome/documents/Krathwohl.pdf
• Krathwohl, D., Bloom, B., & Masia, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Handbook II: Affective domain. New York: David McKay.
• Simpson E. (1972). The classification of educational objectives in the psychomotor domain. Washington, DC: Gryphon House.

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All 6 Levels of Understanding (on Bloom’s Taxonomy)

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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According to Benjamin Bloom, there are 6 levels of understanding that we pass through as our intellect grows. They are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. He laid these out in his famous Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Bloom’s taxonomy is a hierarchical arrangement of six cognitive processing abilities and educational objectives that range from simple to complex and concrete to abstract.

The taxonomy starts with the proposition that learning exists on a continuum that reflects degrees of understanding and learning.

According to Bloom’s taxonomy , students must first learn basic facts of a subject and gradually progress to more advanced levels of understanding that eventually lead to being able to produce original knowledge.

In addition to identifying the cognitive abilities at each level of understanding, the taxonomy also includes describing the affective and psychomotor processes that are involved at each level.

Although the taxonomy is named after Benjamin Bloom in the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), the work was the result of a collaboration that included coauthors Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl. A revision was later produced in 2001.

6 Levels of Understanding

1. remembering.

This is the most fundamental level of understanding that involves remembering basic information regarding a subject matter. This means that students will be able to define concepts, list facts, repeat key arguments, memorize details, or repeat information.

This is the first step of developing a comprehensive understanding of a subject, but it doesn’t not mean that the student has a very deep understanding. Producing a critical analysis or counterarguments are beyond the student’s ability at this level.

For example, a history teacher may assign a reading and give a lecture about a significant historical event. The material includes information about the key figures involved and outlining the chronological of events that took place.

For assessment, the exam asks students to answer questions about the dates of certain events and the names of the people associated with those events. In one section of the exam, students are presented with a blank timeline with some dates indicated. They have to write the name of the event that took place at that date and give the name of at least two people involved.

In another section of the exam, students answer multiple choice questions about the role of key figures. Other questions describe an event and then students must choose the name of the person associated with that moment.

At this level of understanding, students are expected to memorize information. This is a form of rote memory.

Synonyms for Remembering

2. Understanding

Understanding means being able to explain. This can involve explaining the meaning of a concept or an idea.

Students should be able to classify and categorize concepts based on descriptive terms or identify key features. If presented with a theory, students can describe the basic tenets and discuss the basic principles.

Although this level of understanding is more advanced, it is very descriptive. Students cannot produce an independent critical analysis of a theory or identify its strengths and weaknesses.

For example, in a psychology course, students might be asked to write a report on attachment. The report might include describing the basic characteristics of the different types of attachment and discussing in detail how attachments are formed.

Students should also be able to describe specific research studies in broad terms and explain the results well enough that another person could understand. This involves the ability to paraphrase. Instead of just repeating information straight for a source document, students should be able to describe the study in their own words.

Another version of assessment could include responding to simple questions about the subject matter. The response should come in the form of writing a short answer consisting of several sentences that shows the student understands the subject and is able to describe it from memory.

However, students will not be able to conduct a comparison of different theories, or identify their similarities and differences. Although the student clearly understands the theories, that level of understanding is not deep enough for them to generate a critical analysis.    

Synonyms for Understanding

3. Applying  

Applying refers to the ability to use information in situations other than the situation in which it was learned. This represents a deeper level of understanding.

The key development is the ability to “apply” information. Understanding can be demonstrated by taking knowledge and using it in a variety of ways.

This can involve using knowledge of how to perform a specific mathematical calculation to solve a problem or illustrate how a principle in physics can be seen in everyday life.

Students can engage in problem-solving on their own and discover solutions independently.

For example, if a physics teacher were to provide students information regarding the weight of a rocket and the degree of force generated by the engines, students could calculate how far the rocket would travel.

They could extend that understanding by performing the same calculations for a rocket traveling under different conditions related to gravity, wind resistance, and other factors.

Similarly, students should be able to illustrate specific concepts with examples or demonstrate simple scientific principles with various objects. This could involve showing how the weight of an object will affect its momentum or alter the direction of another moving object.

The key development in the student’s cognitive processing is the ability to apply descriptive information to a variety of situations.

Synonyms for Applying

4. Analyzing

Conducting an analysis independently is the next level of understanding. This includes the ability to draw logical conclusions based on given facts or make connections between various constructs.

Students are now able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a theory, as well as compare and contrast different theoretical perspectives.

When studying literary works, students should be able to identify specific passages or statements that reflect the author’s philosophical perspective.

They can also identify patterns and trends in data, construct charts and graphs that organize information in a logical manner, and describe how and why data is connected.

For example, students in a political science course may be asked to identify the key ideals of democracy and socialism, highlight the differences and similarities, and discuss the ramifications of each political system.

Similarly, in an art class, students should be able to look at two works of art and make a variety of comparisons. This can include differentiating the genre of two pieces, identifying the medium used, compare and contrast the techniques used by the artist and the different effects those have on the viewer.

At this level of understanding, students are now able to manipulate information, organize it in meaningful ways according to various criteria, and both differentiate and connect various concepts.

Synonyms for Analyzing

See More Examples of Analysis Here

5. Evaluating

Evaluating means determining correctness. Here, students will be able to identify the merits of an argument or point of view and weigh the relative strengths of each point.

They can critique a decision or appraise the rationale given for a certain act.   

This level of understanding represents a significant advancement of cognitive processes. Now students are able to grapple with very abstract concepts.

This can be demonstrated by making arguments for or against a particular legal ruling, conducting a critical analysis underlying a socio-political philosophy, or discuss the various issues to consider in a moral dilemma .

For example, students in a law course may be asked to produce a legal brief regarding a controversial ruling.

This requires presenting the key elements of a case and critiquing the legal arguments presented by others. Ultimately, the student can produce a final judgement of the ruling and justify their position with facts and other legal precedents.

In another example, if presented with a debate topic, students should be able to take a position on the issue and support their view with logical arguments. They may cite facts or statistics that make their position stronger, while at the same time being able to pinpoint the weaknesses of the opposing side and support those criticisms with strong counterarguments .

The advancement here is the ability to critique , judge, and even criticize abstract concepts such as a theory, philosophy, or legal perspective.

Synonyms for Evaluating

6. Creating

The final level of Bloom’s taxonomy is when students can create something new. It is characterized by inventing, designing, and creating something that did not exist previously.

At this last level of cognitive ability, the student becomes the master. Instead of being a consumer of information, they are now producers.

This level requires the ability to use the features of all previous levels in a way that will then lead to producing something completely new.

For example, an individual may be able to author an original literary piece such as a novel or screenplay. Or, a person may invent a completely new way to analyze data by creating a new formula. Other examples include formulating a new theoretical perspective or inventing an original piece of machinery.

A less dramatic example would be in the case that a manager designs a detailed schedule to manage a project. The schedule will include assigning work teams based on abilities, allocating resources, anticipating problems, and developing contingencies.

This is the highest form of understanding that goes far beyond fundamental understanding and into the realm of creation.

Synonyms for Creating

Bloom’s taxonomy of understanding gives educators a framework that is helpful in understanding the progression of student abilities and a way to organize assessment. Sometimes, we might also refer to it as the levels of knowledge . Teachers at different grade levels should develop lessons and assessment strategies that correspond to their students’ level of abilities.

As students move up the educational ladder from K1 to secondary school, and then further to university study and doctoral training, their cognitive abilities and observable learning behaviors continuously evolve. They become capable of handling increasingly challenging educational tasks, starting from simply being able to list facts, to a level of development that can lead to the invention of a new piece of machinery or the creation of a literary work.

The taxonomy has been well-received in the education world and is still in use today by educators worldwide. Bloom’s original book has been translated into at least 20 languages. However, today, an alternative taxonomy called the SOLO taxonomy is increasingly used because it’s believed to present more measurable outcomes for teachers.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R., Pintrich, P. R., Raths, J. D., & Wittrock, M. C. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay , 20, 24.

Eber, P. A., & Parker, T. S. (2007). Assessing Student Learning: Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy. Human Service Education , 27 (1). Doi: link.gale.com/apps/doc/A280993786/AONE?u=anon~395a775c&sid=sitemap&xid=d925de51

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41 (4), 212-218. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Number Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Word Games for Kids (Free and Easy)
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• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 50 Incentives to Give to Students

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• Teaching & Learning

Bloom's Taxonomy

The following article discusses the use of Bloom's Taxonomy to support the development of educational objectives.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy? 

A group of educational researchers led by Dr Benjamin Bloom developed a model for educational objectives in the 1950s to help improve critical thinking in schools. This taxonomy was grouped into three domains;

• The Cognitive Domain : the acquisition of knowledge.
• The Affective Domain : the emotions and attitudes to learning.
• The Psychomotor Domain : the actions and motor skills students need to learn.

The hierarchical ordering of cognitive skills into six levels in the Cognitive Domain became one of the most prominent and influential ideas in education. This framework of lower to higher-order thinking skills has become a foundational approach in the development and writing of learning outcomes .

In the following video John Spencer explains how Blooms Taxonomy has developed, and some of the criticisms and limitations of this educational model.

Alternatives to Bloom's taxonomy

In the 1982 John Biggs and Kevin Collis developed the SOLO taxonomy which incorporates more recent understanding of cognitive development.  You can read more about how the SOLO taxonomy can be used in education in the following web resource: https://pamhook.com/solo-taxonomy/  

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy  

In 2001 a group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, published a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title  A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment .   The revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy  is also commonly referred to simply as Bloom’s Taxonomy even though the two taxonomies do vary to some degree. In the revised model the nouns in the original are replaced with verbs to reflect more dynamic understandings of student learning. A typical illustration that depicts a modern version of Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain is shown below.

Why use Bloom’s revised Taxonomy?  

Although some of the ideas behind Bloom's Taxonomy have dated over time, is has remained a useful framework defining learning outcomes and  designing learning activities , assessments , and rubrics to support Constructive Alignment . Because Bloom's revised taxonomy classifies verbs (remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create, etc.) into a hierarchical structure it can assist in the development of learning outcomes where students can demonstrate their understanding by 'doing' things.

The revised model challenges older education approaches that focused on knowing things and recalling them alone (i.e. teaching to the 'test'). Bloom's verbs instead help to identify what students must be able to do to demonstrate their learning, thereby supporting the development of 'real world' or authentic skills.

Having a set of learning outcomes based on Bloom's revised taxonomy helps teachers to:  

“plan and deliver appropriate instruction”  

“design valid assessment tasks and strategies”  

“ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”

  (Anderson et al., 2001)  

The Cognitive Dimension & The Knowledge Dimension 

In Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy the cognitive process dimension is distinguished from the knowledge dimension. The cognitive process dimension is what is represented in the typical illustration of the taxonomy above. These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge.

The knowledge dimension is made up of four distinct parts of increasing complexity:

• Factual Knowledge – The basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems in it.
• Conceptual Knowledge – The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together.
• Procedural Knowledge – How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.
• Metacognitive Knowledge – Knowledge of cognition in general as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition.

To get a better understanding of how the knowledge and cognitive process dimension are interrelated see Table I below which provides example learning outcomes.  

Table I:  Cognitive Dimension & The Knowledge Dimension 

Adapted from Iowa State University (n.d.)

Bloom's Action verbs 

Below is a table of action verbs adapted from Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). These progress from lower-order to higher order thinking skills. Using verb lists such as the one below can assist educators to develop meaningful learning outcomes that target different levels of cognitive complexity.

Further Resources

• Integrating Technology with Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Outcomes
• How Solo Taxonomy Facilitates Higher Education Learning Outcomes?  

References 

Anderson, L., Krathwohl, D., Airasian, P., Cruikshank, K., Mayer, R., Pintrich, P., Raths, J. & Wittrock, M. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Allyn & Bacon. Boston, MA (Pearson Education Group)  

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/ .  

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. (n.d.). Iowa State University. https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/    

Critical Thinking

• Bloom's Taxonomy
• How can I apply it to my study?
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Bloom and Critical Thinking

Bloom's Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning). Students exhibiting cognitive skills of this level can categorize or classify information, comparing and contrasting it in order to make a decision thereby enhancing their critical thinking skills.

Other characteristics of higher order thinking include: combining, creating, designing, developing, evaluating, justifying, and measuring. A student undertaking a university course should be able to progressively demonstrate these cognitive skills when thinking and reasoning through assignments and problems. Some examples of these include:

• Understanding the links between ideas.
• Determining the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.
• Recognizing, creating and evaluating arguments.
• Identifying inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.
• Approaching problems in a consistent and systematic way.
• Reflecting on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs and values.

Applying Bloom's Taxonomy

Image credit: Jessica Shabatura. For more information see  https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/

Bloom and Critical Thinking actions

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Bloom's Taxonomy

Climbing the cognitive ladder: a deep dive into bloom's taxonomy, level 3: application, benefits of mastering this level, level 4: analysis, level 5: synthesis, level 6: evaluation.

Bloom’s Taxonomy for Critical Thinking

• Post author: oneteacher
• Post published: June 1, 2024
• Post category: Blog
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Introduction

Bloom’s taxonomy is a simple yet detailed classification of the various levels of Critical Thinking, first stated out in the mid-nineties. It provides a structured approach to building and strengthening different levels of  critical thinking skills. Bloom’s taxonomy finds strong relevance in today’s times where educators world over are trying to give learners continuous opportunities to build critical thinking as an important competency skill in the 21 st Century.

Critical Thinking and Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s taxonomy delineates the cognitive processes and represents it in the form of a pyramid which is known as the Bloom’s pyramid. The Bloom’s pyramid has undergone several changes over the years. However at its core, it identifies six stages of cognition. Earlier these six stages were termed as Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation, and the entire framework showed progression from basic recall of information to the complex task of evaluation. However, the latest Bloom’s pyramid shows the six stages of Cognition from Remembering and Understanding as the lowest two levels of cognition, which progress to Creation at its peak, with Applying, Analysing and Evaluating as the middle rungs of the pyramid. This encourages learners to advance their critical thinking capabilities with advancement of each level of the pyramid.

Low and High Order Thinking Skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy

We can perhaps divide the entire list of the stages of Bloom’s pyramid into two clear groups of Low Order Thinking Skills and High Order Thinking skills. When we dissect the stages on the Bloom’s Pyramid, Remembering, Understanding and even Applying to a certain extent could be placed in the Low Order Thinking Skills group. The cognition level involved in these stages does not involve very challenging thought process. As we move from Applying to Analysing, Evaluating and Creating, the thought process needed can be quite complex, multidirectional and challenging because it is at these stages that critical thinking truly blooms. Here, we could also note that Analysing and Evaluation may go hand in hand but are quite different in their cognitive approach. While Analysis involves dissecting information to understand its organizational structure, Evaluation challenges students to make judgments based on criteria and standards. By creating projects, worksheets and even questions, teachers can nurture these high order thinking skills by posing challenges that require students to differentiate between fact and opinion, create new solutions to problems, or defend their positions with evidence. This would ensure that the thinking required for such activities hover around High Order Thinking skills.

Bloom’s taxonomy therefore serves as a useful and practical tool for educators to structure the way they teach thinking skills. By adopting this framework, educators can design lessons that build upon each cognitive step, and even craft a learning journey that encourages their learners to not just know, but understand, apply, analyze, create, and evaluate information. This would hugely help in breaking age old practices of Rote Learning and push children towards Skill building

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Craft STEAM Projects and Holistic Learning

Critical thinking is catalysed as well as analysed by questioning. Bloom’s taxonomy aids educators in constructing learning frameworks that involve not just memorisation but aids  engagement with tasks at a much deeper level. For instance, questions in worksheets and exercises could be designed to not just recall information but analyse and evaluate. One could also design questions that help children evaluate situations at the first stage of their constructivism. On presenting a mandala or even a Rangoli pattern, a teacher might ask, “What patterns do you find?” Children could then be asked to evaluate and answer “How would you include triangles to improve on the original design, without disturbing the balance of the design? Give a reason to support your suggestion.”

Such questions would give students the required push to engage with their tasks and  learning material at a much deeper level that would require them to stretch their cognitive abilities and foster High levels of critical thinking. At One Teacher One Scientist, we create resources like worksheets and activities that address each and every stage of Bloom’s Pyramid to enable learning at various levels of Critical Thinking. The aim is to make children future ready by fostering skills of problem solving, decision making and creative thinking.

To conclude, Bloom’s taxonomy can be an invaluable asset that every educator can refer to. If after designing every teaching resource, we could ask a simple reflective question to check what levels of critical thinking are being touched upon, then each Teaching learning material can be enhanced in its utility for building high order thinking skills in learners. Research has shown that building high levels of critical thinking is a critical competency for every child to thrive in this in our complex world. By integrating Bloom’s structured approach into teaching pedagogies, we can create learning experiences that foster problem solving  can elevate their students’ learning experiences, preparing them to think critically and solve problems creatively.

For teachers looking to integrate these principles into their curriculum, we at One Teacher One Scientist have especially curated courses and workshops that enable teachers to drive every level of Bloom’s Taxonomy into their lesson plans, worksheets and projects they create. These courses empower teachers to integrate theory into practice, giving a fresh life to their art of teaching and make their students future ready in a seamless manner.

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Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Comprehensive Guide and Questions Dictionary for Educators

Mikel Resaba

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework for crafting effective learning objectives and assessments. But what specific questions fall under this model?

• How are Bloom’s Taxonomy questions structured?
• Can they be applied to different subjects like math and science?
• What makes a Bloom’s Taxonomy question higher-level?

Dive in to uncover a comprehensive dictionary of Bloom’s Taxonomy questions for educators!

Table of Contents

Understanding bloom’s taxonomy.

Bloom’s Taxonomy isn’t just a fancy term educators toss around in conferences or meetings. It’s a meticulously structured hierarchy, developed by Benjamin Bloom back in the 1950s, that classifies thinking behaviors essential for learning . Let’s unwrap its layers to genuinely appreciate its significance.

• Remember: This is the foundational step. It’s all about remembering facts. Imagine a student memorizing multiplication tables; that’s the knowledge level in action. But while it’s essential, it’s just the beginning.
• Understand: Now that you’ve memorized, can you understand? This stage challenges students to grasp the meaning of the information, like interpreting the primary theme of a poem. It’s not just about parroting back facts; it’s about making sense of them.
• Apply: Here’s where things get hands-on. Can students use the knowledge in a new way? Like using the Pythagorean theorem – not just reciting it, but applying it to a real-world problem, perhaps in architecture or engineering.
• Analyse: Analyze, dissect, compare. This level nudges students to break information into parts and understand structures. For instance, in a science experiment, can they identify the variables, methods, and outcomes?
• Evaluate: The pinnacle of cognitive skills. Here, students assess values, make judgments, and justify decisions. They might be tasked with debating the ethics of a historical event or critiquing a piece of art.
• Create: Creativity comes to play. This stage is about combining elements to form a new pattern or structure. Think of it as creating a new story by merging elements from different fairy tales.

Several studies, like the one from Educational Psychologist Lorin Anderson , suggest that the mastery of lower levels paves the way for effective engagement with higher-level tasks. 

In fact, for subjects like math or science, the synthesis of various Bloom taxonomy questions can lead to a profound understanding of complex topics.

Bloom Taxonomy Stages and Questions Examples

At the heart of effective teaching lies the ability to ask the right questions. And the Bloom Taxonomy questions framework is an educator’s goldmine, providing a structured pathway to challenge students across cognitive levels. 

Let’s delve deeper into specific examples across subjects, illustrating the taxonomy’s practical utility in classrooms.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Stage 1: Remember

The base of Bloom’s pyramid, the “Knowledge” level, is the stepping stone to all higher-order thinking skills . But make no mistake—just because it’s the foundation doesn’t mean it’s simplistic. At this stage, students absorb raw facts and figures , laying the groundwork for more complex cognitive tasks.

Remember the Facts

Remember is the ability to retrieve information verbatim without necessarily understanding its underlying context. It’s the initial stage of memory retrieval. For instance, remember the capitals of countries or the dates of historical events.

🧠 Examples of Remember Questions

• “What is the capital of Italy?”
• “List the primary colors.”
• “Recite the first 10 elements of the periodic table.”
• “When did the American Civil War start?”

Recognize: A Step Beyond Recall 

Recognition is slightly more complex than recall. It involves identifying information when you see or hear it , typically from a list of options. It’s like recognizing a familiar face in a crowd or identifying the right answer in a multiple-choice question.

🧠 Examples of Recognition Tasks

• Choosing the correct formula to solve a math problem from a list.
• Identifying the correct definition of a word from multiple options.
• Picking out the musical instrument being played in a composition.
• Selecting the right interpretation of a poem from given choices.

Interestingly, according to cognitive science experts like Dr. Robert Bjork , recognition tasks often use different neural pathways than recall tasks . This suggests that, even at the foundational “Knowledge” level, students engage with information in varied ways.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Stage 2: Understand

Comprehension, a critical step in Bloom’s Taxonomy, involves not just absorbing information but truly understanding it. Students delve into the “why” and “how” behind concepts, ensuring they can explain and translate information in their own words.

Decoding the Layers of Understanding 

True comprehension extends beyond rote learning. It entails grasping nuances , interpreting facts , and drawing logical connections .

🧠 Examples of Understanding Questions

• “Explain the main idea of this passage in your own words.”
• “How would you summarize this chapter to a friend who hasn’t read it?”
• “What does this graph indicate about the relationship between X and Y?”
• “Can you paraphrase what the author is saying about the protagonist’s journey?”
• “Describe the process of photosynthesis to someone unfamiliar with the concept.”
• “How would you interpret the theme of the poem we just read?”

🧠 Examples of Understanding Tasks

• Explaining the water cycle in one’s own words after studying it.
• Translating a complex scientific principle into a simple analogy or metaphor.
• Interpreting the emotions and motivations of a character in literature.
• Summarizing the core argument of an essay or article.

The Elegance of Explanation 

Being able to explain a concept signifies a profound grasp over the material . It’s an affirmation that a student can not only digest information but also relay it effectively to others.

🧠 Examples of Explanation Activities

• Demonstrating how photosynthesis works using a diagram.
• Articulating the steps of a math problem and why each step is essential.
• Detailing the significance of a historical event in shaping society.
• Outlining the cause-effect chain in a scientific phenomenon.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Stage 3: Apply

The “Application” level in Bloom’s Taxonomy propels students from merely knowing information to applying it in novel scenarios . It’s not just about retaining or understanding; it’s about putting that knowledge into practice, a critical leap in cognitive development.

Breaking Down “Use” in Learning 

Using knowledge requires students to implement what they’ve learned in real-world or hypothetical situations . This hands-on approach solidifies understanding and often reveals areas that need reinforcement. For instance, applying mathematical concepts to solve everyday problems.

🧠 Examples of Using Knowledge

• Solving a real-life math problem, like determining the discount on a sale item.
• Creating a chemical reaction in a lab using learned principles.
• Writing a short story in a foreign language class.
• Designing a basic electrical circuit in physics.

Demonstrate: Showcasing Applied Knowledge 

Demonstration is a potent learning tool and assessment strategy. It asks students to show, rather than tell , their grasp on a subject. It’s one thing to know the theory behind a concept; it’s another to demonstrate mastery over it.

🧠 Examples of Demonstration Questions

• “How would you use the Pythagorean theorem to determine the length of the third side of this triangle?”
• “Given what you’ve learned about the water cycle, how would you explain the formation of clouds?”
• “If you were a character in the story, how would you have reacted in the same situation?”
• “How can you demonstrate the law of conservation of energy using a simple experiment?”
• “Given the principles of supply and demand, how would you predict the price movement of a product with increasing demand but decreasing supply?”
• “How would you apply the concept of photosynthesis in setting up an efficient greenhouse?”
• “Using the grammar rules we’ve discussed, can you construct a complex sentence that conveys a specific mood?”

🧠 Examples of Demonstration Tasks

• Building a model ecosystem in biology.
• Conducting an experiment to test a scientific hypothesis.
• Demonstrating a dance move in physical education.
• Presenting a case study solution in business studies.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Stage 4: Analyse

The “Analysis” phase of Bloom’s Taxonomy steers students into a realm where they can dissect, differentiate, and organize information . At this juncture, learners move beyond mere knowledge application, diving deeper to understand the intricate components of a topic and how they interrelate.

The Art of Differentiation 

Differentiating is about discerning subtle differences and similarities. Students are prompted to critically examine and separate components to understand their distinct roles or characteristics. This keen observation skill is vital across numerous academic subjects.

🧠 Examples of Differentiating Questions

• What patterns can you identify in the data presented in this graph?”
• “How would you differentiate between the arguments made by Author A and Author B?”
• “Which parts of this experiment were crucial in determining the final outcome?”
• “What inferences can you make from the protagonist’s actions in the story?”
• “Based on the historical document, can you identify the underlying causes of the event?”
• “What relationships do you see between these two scientific concepts?”
• “How would you deconstruct this piece of art to understand its symbolic elements?”

🧠 Examples of Differentiating Tasks

• Comparing and contrasting the themes of two literary works.
• Identifying the different causes of World War I and World War II.
• Distinguishing between aerobic and anaerobic respiration in biology.
• Spotting the stylistic variations between two art movements.

Organization: Building Structured Understanding 

To organize is to structure or categorize information, fostering a clear and hierarchical comprehension of topics. Here, students p rioritize, arrange, and cluster data or concepts , making the abstract tangible and digestible.

🧠 Examples of Organizational Activities

• Categorizing animals based on their habitats or dietary habits.
• Constructing a timeline of significant events leading up to a historical revolution.
• Organizing chemical elements based on their properties in the periodic table.
• Grouping mathematical problems based on solution strategies.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Stage 5: Evaluate

Sitting atop the hierarchy of Bloom’s Taxonomy, the evaluation stage requires critical discernment and the formulation of judgments based on a set of criteria. It isn’t just about identifying the pros and cons but taking that a step further to offer suggestions or make informed decisions.

Decoding the Judging Process

Evaluation doesn’t merely rely on surface-level observation. It involves an intricate process of comparing, contrasting, and making conclusions based on evidence and relevant criteria.

🧠 Examples of Judging Questions

• “Based on the evidence presented, can you justify the author’s conclusions in the article?”
• “Which method discussed in class do you think is most effective for solving this problem, and why?”
• “How would you assess the credibility of this source in relation to our topic?”
• “In comparing these two characters, who do you believe showed greater resilience, and what evidence supports your view?”
• “Based on our discussions, which historical event had the most significant impact on modern society? Defend your choice.”

🧠 Examples of Judging Scenarios

• Reviewing a novel and determining its literary merits in comparison to other works in the genre.
• Analyzing the effectiveness of a marketing campaign using defined KPIs.
• Scrutinizing the ethical implications of a new technology or innovation.
• Appraising the potential success of a startup based on market trends, team competency, and financial viability.

Stepping into Recommendations

Post-judgment, the evaluation stage often dovetails into providing actionable insights or recommendations. This synthesis of judgment and foresight is crucial for informed decision-making.

🧠 Examples of Recommending Instances

• Suggesting improvements for a mobile application after evaluating its user interface and user reviews.
• Proposing policy changes after assessing the environmental impact of an industrial project.
• Recommending a patient’s treatment plan after evaluating their medical history and current health status.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Stage 6: Create

Culminating Bloom’s hierarchy, the Creating level, is where students are tasked to put pieces together in a novel pattern, devise new solutions, or form a unique perspective.

What Does Create Really Mean?

Creation is the culmination of all prior cognitive stages. Students use their knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and evaluation skills to produce something new. This could be as abstract as a theory or as tangible as a model or prototype.

🧠 Examples of Create Questions

• “If you were to design a new ending to this story, how would it unfold and why?”
• “Can you devise a new experiment that would expand on the findings from our previous lab?”
• “How would you combine the themes of two different books to create a new, original story?”
• “Based on the historical events we studied, can you craft a hypothetical ‘what if’ scenario and predict its outcomes?”
• “Imagine you’re tasked with creating a new product that solves a current environmental issue. What would it be?”
• “Can you compose a poem that integrates five different literary devices we’ve discussed this semester?”
• “Using the principles of geometry, design a unique structure that serves a specific purpose in a community.”

🧠 Examples of Create Tasks

• Storytelling from Prompts: Provide students with a set of random images or words. Ask them to craft a unique, cohesive story that connects all the elements.
• Invent a Game: Challenge students to design a board game or card game that teaches a particular concept they’ve learned. They should come up with rules, design game pieces, and explain the educational aspect.
• Concept Mashup: Ask students to merge two unrelated concepts or subjects they’ve studied to create something new. For instance, combining historical events with futuristic technology to envision a new world.

Incorporating the bloom taxonomy higher level questions in subjects like math or science can lead to groundbreaking student-led discoveries. For instance, posing a question about creating a new solution to an age-old math problem could yield surprising insights.

Incorporating Technology into Bloom’s Taxonomy Teaching

In an age where technology reigns supreme, educators and presenters are continually seeking innovative ways to captivate their audience and make learning both engaging and effective. Enter ClassPoint AI , a groundbreaking tool that automates Bloom’s Taxonomy question generation based on your PowerPoint slide content.

AI-Powered Bloom Taxonomy Quiz Question Generation

Incorporating ClassPoint AI into your education or presentation strategy is not just about leveraging technology—it’s about reshaping the way we view and conduct assessments and interactions. Here’s how:

• AI-Powered Efficiency: Gone are the days of spending countless hours crafting the perfect quiz. With ClassPoint AI’s AI-generated quiz questions, you can instantly transform any PowerPoint slide into an engaging quiz. Just one click, and you’re set! This not only saves precious time but also ensures the relevancy of the quiz to your content.
• Diverse Assessment Capabilities: With its flexible quiz customization, ClassPoint AI breaks the monotony of traditional quizzes. Whether you’re aiming for a Multiple Choice, Short Answer, or Fill in the Blanks format, you have the power to diversify and match your quiz to the learning objectives.
• Promoting Critical Thinking: The integration of Bloom’s Taxonomy Levels is a game-changer. Tailoring questions according to these cognitive complexity levels ensures students aren’t just memorizing—they’re analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing the information, leading to a deeper understanding of the subject.
• Bridging Language Gaps: With the world being a global village, ClassPoint AI’s multi-language support ensures that no learner is left behind. Whether it’s for international students in a classroom or a diverse audience in a global seminar, this feature ensures inclusivity.

Revolutionizing Traditional Learning Methods with All-In-One Bloom Taxonomy Teaching Tool – ClassPoint

Teaching using the Bloom’s Taxonomy model needs not be a tedious endeavour. With ClassPoint , all stages of Bloom’s Taxonomy teaching can be supercharged with various presentation , interactive quiz and gamification tools.

Try these teaching tools to integrate your teaching seamlessly with the Bloom’s Taxonomy framework:

Other Real-World Applications

While ClassPoint AI is undeniably a boon for educators, its utility extends far beyond traditional classrooms:

• Corporate Training Sessions: Trainers can leverage ClassPoint AI to gauge employee comprehension during workshops, making training sessions more interactive and effective.
• Webinars and Online Workshops: Presenters can integrate quizzes to maintain audience engagement and receive instant feedback.
• Language Academies: Language instructors can create custom quizzes in various languages, aiding in more nuanced language learning and comprehension.

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Unleash the Power of AI: How to Create an AI Quiz in PowerPoint

Bloom Taxonomy Higher Level Questions: Fueling Deeper Thought and Insight

Drifting beyond the surface, the upper tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy invite learners into a realm of exploration, critical thinking, and synthesis. This intellectual space is inhabited by higher-level questions, ones that demand more than mere recall or rote understanding.

Unlocking Higher Order Thinking

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model of learning objectives. The base layers focus on basic understanding, while the upper levels pivot towards analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These “higher order” stages beckon students to engage actively with material, connecting dots and drawing insightful conclusions.

Here’s a brief explanation of these stages:

• Analysis: Dissecting complex ideas to understand their structure.
• Synthesis: Combining disparate pieces of information to construct new ideas.
• Evaluation: Judging the merit of ideas based on specific criteria.

Diving Into Examples

To appreciate the depth and breadth of higher-level questions, consider the following examples spanning various domains:

• Literature: How does the main character’s journey reflect societal norms of that era?
• Math: How would changing this variable in the equation influence the outcome? Why?
• History: What were the underlying causes of the war, and how might they have been avoided?
• Science: How might this biological process differ in another species?
• Art: How does the artist’s use of color evoke specific emotions in the viewer?
• Economics: How would introducing a new policy impact the economic stability of the region?
• Technology: How can this software be improved to enhance user experience without compromising on security?
• Philosophy: How might this theory be interpreted differently in various cultures?
• Business: What strategic moves can the company make to edge out its competition in the next quarter?
• Psychology: How does early childhood trauma influence adult relationships?
• Medicine: What are the implications of this research study for future treatments?
• Sociology: How might societal structures evolve in the next decade based on current trends?
• Music: How does this composition break from traditional structures of its genre?
• Environment: How can this conservation method be optimized for urban settings?
• Architecture: How does the design of this building cater to both aesthetic and functional needs?

Frequently Asked Questions on Bloom’s Taxonomy

What is bloom’s taxonomy.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model of learning objectives introduced by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. It categorizes cognitive skills and objectives into different levels, from basic to complex. 

The taxonomy serves as a framework for educators to design lessons, assessments, and assignments that cater to varying degrees of cognitive demands.

Why is there an emphasis on higher-level questions in modern education?

Higher-level questions, as classified by the upper tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy, challenge students to engage critically with material, fostering skills like analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. 

These questions encourage deep thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, which are invaluable skills in today’s rapidly evolving world. They prepare students not just for exams, but for real-world challenges.

How can I incorporate higher-level questions into my teaching?

Start by analyzing your current questions and determine which cognitive level they address. Then, try to reshape or add questions that require students to compare, critique, design, or predict. 

For instance, instead of asking, “What happened during the Civil War?” (a recall question), ask, “How might history have changed if the outcome of the Civil War was different?” (an evaluative question).

Are lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy no longer relevant?

No, all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are important. The foundational levels like “Remember” and “Understand” provide the necessary knowledge base upon which higher-level thinking skills are built. 

While there’s an emphasis on higher-order skills in modern education, it’s essential for students to have a solid grasp of basic knowledge.

Do higher-level questions have a place in all subjects and grade levels?

Yes, higher-level questions can be integrated into any subject, from mathematics to arts. The key is tailoring the complexity of the question to the subject matter and the students’ cognitive development. 

Even younger students can be introduced to basic analytical or evaluative questions, and as they progress, these questions can become more intricate and challenging.

Making the Most of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy offers educators a robust method for formulating questions that assess varied cognitive levels. Here’s how you can maximize its potential:

• Regularly mix lower and higher-level questions in lessons.
• Use tech tools to make interactions more dynamic and responsive. 

Interested in revolutionizing your teaching approach? Give ClassPoint AI a try for free and discover how technology can supercharge Bloom’s Taxonomy in your classroom!

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What is Bloom’s Taxonomy: the pyramid of true learning

Exploring the depths and implications of Bloom's Taxonomy in learning.

Imagine a seed, tucked into the soil, ready to start its growth. It will go through stages, transforming from a tiny seed into a sprouting plant, and eventually into a blooming flower.

This process is not unlike the journey your mind embarks on when learning something new. That’s where Bloom’s Taxonomy comes in—a framework for understanding the stages of learning.

A Seed Planted: What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model designed to classify learning objectives. Created by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues in the 1950s, it’s a ladder of sorts—a way to understand how learning progresses from simple facts to complex analysis. Each rung represents a different level of understanding, a new layer of complexity, a new bloom on the flower of knowledge.

Bloom’s Taxonomy, also known as The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, provides a roadmap for the journey of learning, outlining the steps from basic knowledge to complex understanding. The aim is to promote higher forms of thinking in education, moving beyond rote memorization to foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills .

It’s not just about memorizing — it’s about understanding information, applying it, analyzing it, evaluating it, and creating something new with it. It’s a model that recognizes that learning is not a one-size-fits-all process but a layered, multifaceted journey.

Bloom’s Taxonomy has been widely embraced in education and training contexts around the globe, and it remains one of the most well-known and frequently used educational frameworks. In essence, it provides a blueprint for learning, offering a structured approach to the development of educational programs and lesson plans, and a systematic method for assessing learners’ understanding.

“At the time it was introduced, the term taxonomy was unfamiliar as an education term. Potential users did not understand what it meant, therefore, little attention was given to the original Taxonomy at first. But as readers saw its potential, the framework became widely known and cited, eventually being translated into 22 languages,” wrote American psychologist David R. Krathwohl, who would later greatly influence the revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Original Bloom’s Taxonomy: The First Blossom

The original Bloom’s Taxonomy had six stages, each representing a different cognitive skill. Let’s take a walk through this garden of growth.

The first level of the taxonomy is Knowledge. This is where your learning journey starts. It’s about remembering and recalling basic facts and information—names, dates, places, and ideas. This is the seed of knowledge, the foundation upon which all other learning is built.

Comprehension

Next comes Comprehension. It’s more than just knowing facts—it’s understanding them. It’s the moment when a seedling first breaks through the surface and reaches towards the sunlight, starting to take in its environment.

Application

At the Application level, things start getting interesting. Here, you begin to use what you’ve learned in new ways. It’s the stage when the plant begins to spread its leaves, putting to use the sunlight it’s absorbing.

The fourth stage, Analysis, is where the understanding becomes deeper. It’s about breaking information down into parts and understanding how those parts relate to each other—the way a botanist might dissect a flower to better understand its structure.

Synthesis, the second-to-last stage, is where creativity comes into play. It’s about combining information in new ways like a gardener arranging different flowers to create a beautiful bouquet.

The final stage, Evaluation, is about making judgments and forming opinions about what you’ve learned. It’s the full bloom of the flower, ready to be admired and critiqued.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy: A New Bloom

Over time, our understanding of learning has evolved, and so too has Bloom’s Taxonomy. Just as a gardener might prune and adjust a plant to help it grow more effectively, a group of cognitive psychologists are improving and adapting the taxonomy.

Led by one of Bloom’s former students, Lorin Anderson, and educational psychologist David R. Krathwohl , researchers revisited the original taxonomy in the early 2000s . They made some key changes to better reflect our contemporary understanding of learning processes. The revised taxonomy maintains the essence of the original—still presenting a hierarchical model of cognitive processes. However, there were two significant adjustments.

Changing Nouns to Verbs

The first change was linguistic but impactful: the six categories were renamed from nouns to verbs. This shift emphasizes that learning is an active process. Each category now represents an action that a learner engages in, rather than a static stage of understanding.

• Remembering: The base level, previously known as “Knowledge,” is now “Remembering.” This involves retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
• Understanding: Previously “Comprehension,” this level involves constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages.
• Applying: This remains unchanged in name but now emphasizes the use of procedures to solve problems, not just in routine tasks.
• Analyzing: This level is about breaking material into constituent parts and detecting how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose.
• Evaluating: Previously the highest level in the original taxonomy, “Evaluation” is now the penultimate stage. It involves making judgments based on criteria and standards.
• Creating: This final stage, previously “Synthesis,” is now “Creating.” It’s about putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole or reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure.

Swapping the Top Two Levels

The second significant change in the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is the swapping of the top two levels. In the original, “Evaluation” was the highest level of cognitive work. In the revised model, “Creating” takes this spot. This change was made to reflect the idea that creating a new product or point of view requires a higher level of understanding and mastery than making a judgment or evaluation.

These adjustments in the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy were not made to replace the original model but to update it, recognizing that our understanding of cognitive processes and learning behaviors have evolved.

Like the original, the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy serves as a powerful tool that can enhance teaching and learning strategies, emphasizing the active, dynamic nature of learning.

The Importance of Bloom’s Taxonomy: Why it Matters

Why should we care about this taxonomy? Why not just learn and let learn? Well, Bloom’s Taxonomy offers a structured way to approach learning that helps ensure a deep, thorough understanding of a topic. It’s like a map guiding us through the territory of knowledge, ensuring we don’t miss any important landmarks along the way.

The taxonomy also provides a useful framework for teachers and educators to design their curriculum and assessments. By addressing each level of the taxonomy, they can ensure they’re not just teaching facts, but also fostering understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and creativity. It’s a way to nurture the whole garden of learning, not just a single plant.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs: The Language of Learning

Each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is associated with specific verbs that describe the cognitive processes involved. These verbs serve as signposts, guiding learners and educators alike through the stages of understanding.

• Remembering: This level involves verbs like define, list, recall, and recognize. You’re dealing with the basic elements of knowledge here—the seeds of understanding.
• Understanding: Verbs at this level include describing, explaining, summarizing, and interpreting. They’re about making sense of the knowledge you’ve gained.
• Applying: Here, you’ll see verbs like use, demonstrate, solve, and implement. These actions are all about using your knowledge in practical ways.
• Analyzing: At this level, verbs such as compare, differentiate, examine, and relate come into play. They’re about dissecting knowledge, and understanding its inner workings.
• Evaluating: Here, verbs, like assess, critique, judge, and defend, are used. These actions are about forming judgments based on your understanding.
• Creating: The highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy involves verbs like design, construct, produce, and invent. These are the actions of a fully bloomed learner, able to use their knowledge in new and innovative ways.

These verbs aren’t just descriptors—they’re actions that learners actively engage in. They provide a clear structure to follow, guiding learners and educators alike on the journey from the simple act of recalling information to the complex process of creating something new.

It’s not just about the destination—it’s also about the journey, and these verbs help illuminate the path.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Questions: Probing the Depths of Knowledge

Bloom’s Taxonomy doesn’t just guide the learning process—it also provides a framework for asking questions. Each level of the taxonomy corresponds to a different type of question , allowing teachers and learners to probe the depths of understanding.

• Remembering: Questions at this level might include “What is…?” or “Can you recall…?” They’re about retrieving basic information.
• Understanding: Here, questions might be “Can you explain why…?” or “How would you summarize…?” They’re about comprehending the information.
• Applying: Questions at this level could include “How would you use…?” or “What examples can you find…?” They’re about applying knowledge to new situations.
• Analyzing: Questions like “What are the differences between…?” or “How does…relate to…?” come into play here. They’re about breaking down complex ideas.
• Evaluating: Questions at this level might be “What do you think about…?” or “Can you defend your position on…?” They’re about making judgments based on knowledge.
• Creating: Finally, questions like “What would you invent…?” or “How would you improve…?” are used. These are the questions that push learners to create something new from their understanding.

Bloom’s Taxonomy List of Objectives: Guiding the Learning Journey

Just as a gardener plans out a garden, setting objectives for what they want to grow and where, educators use Bloom’s Taxonomy to plan out the learning journey. Each level of the taxonomy can be associated with specific learning objectives , forming a roadmap for growth.

• Remembering: The objective at this level is to recall information accurately.
• Understanding: The goal here is to comprehend the meaning of the information.
• Applying: The aim at this level is to use the information in a new context.
• Analyzing: The objective here is to break down complex information into its constituent parts and understand how they relate.
• Evaluating: The goal at this level is to make informed judgments based on the acquired understanding.
• Creating: The final objective is to use the accumulated knowledge to create something new or original.

Each objective serves as a stepping stone, guiding the learner from one level of understanding to the next, ensuring a comprehensive grasp of the subject matter.

Using and Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy: Charting the Course of Learning

Like a compass in a vast forest, Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a sense of direction in the learning journey. But how do you use it in practice?

Start by identifying the current level of understanding. Are you or your students just beginning to learn about a topic, or do you already have a solid foundation to build upon? This will determine your starting point on the taxonomy.

From there, use the taxonomy as a guide to structure your learning or teaching. Plan activities and assessments that address each level of the taxonomy, ensuring a well-rounded understanding.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Activities: From Seed to Blossom

Let’s take a look at some examples of activities that correspond to each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Remember, these are just starting points—feel free to adapt and expand upon them to suit your specific learning needs.

Remembering: Create flashcards with key terms and concepts. Use them to practice recalling information.

Understanding: Write a summary or an explanation of a topic in your own words. This can help solidify your understanding.

Applying: Solve a problem or carry out a task using the information you’ve learned. This could be a math problem, a science experiment, or a real-world scenario.

Analyzing: Compare and contrast two related concepts or ideas. How are they similar? How are they different? This can help you see the nuances of the topic.

Evaluating: Form an opinion about a topic and defend it with evidence. This encourages critical thinking and helps you form your own perspectives.

Creating: Design a project or create a product that incorporates what you’ve learned. This could be a piece of artwork, a business plan, a research proposal, or anything else that allows you to use your knowledge in a new and creative way.

Critique and Limitations of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy has been applied by generations of  K – 12  teachers and college instructors in their teaching. It is a model that greatly enhances learning objectives compared to unstructured learning. But like all models, it is not perfect.

In a 2018 article , Ron Berger, Chief Academic Officer at EL Education, critiques the traditional view of Bloom’s Taxonomy. He argues that the hierarchical pyramid graphic misrepresents the nature of learning by suggesting that cognitive processes are discrete and ranked in importance.

Berger contends that learning does not occur in a linear progression, starting with remembering and moving upward. Instead, he asserts that understanding is built through the application and creation of knowledge. Just as adults learn new skills by applying and creating, students also need opportunities to apply their knowledge and engage in the creation process to develop a deep understanding. Berger suggests that the integrated, circular, and iterative process of creating, analyzing, revising, and improving is how learners truly build understanding.

While acknowledging the usefulness of frameworks like Bloom’s Taxonomy in organizing thinking and reminding educators to address a range of skills, Berger argues that the taxonomy encourages instructional practices that do not align with how learning actually happens. He emphasizes the importance of providing students with ample opportunities to create and analyze throughout their learning journey, integrating active, hands-on experiences with the acquisition of knowledge.

Final words

In the end, Bloom’s Taxonomy is more than just a hierarchy of learning—it’s a celebration of the human mind’s capacity to grow, to understand, and to create. It’s a reminder that learning is not a straight line but a blooming flower , each petal a new layer of understanding. So the next time you embark on a journey of learning, remember to take a moment to stop and smell the roses.

FAQ about Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical framework used to classify educational objectives and skills into different levels of complexity and cognitive processes.

Bloom’s Taxonomy was developed by Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist, in collaboration with a group of educators in the 1950s.

The purpose of Bloom’s Taxonomy is to provide educators with a structured and systematic approach to design and assess learning outcomes. It helps in setting clear learning objectives, planning instructional strategies, and evaluating student performance.

The six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, in ascending order of complexity, are: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.

The “Remembering” level focuses on recalling or retrieving factual information, such as facts, terms, and concepts. It involves tasks like listing, defining, naming, and describing.

The “Understanding” level requires students to demonstrate comprehension and interpretation of information. It involves tasks like summarizing, explaining, comparing, and paraphrasing.

The “Applying” level involves using acquired knowledge and skills in new situations or contexts. It includes tasks like solving problems, demonstrating techniques, and implementing procedures.

The “Analyzing” level focuses on breaking down information into its constituent parts and examining relationships between them. It involves tasks like categorizing, organizing, comparing, and contrasting.

The “Evaluating” level requires making judgments and assessments based on criteria and standards. It involves tasks like critiquing, appraising, justifying, and defending.

The “Creating” level involves generating new ideas, products, or interpretations by combining existing knowledge and skills. It includes tasks like designing, constructing, composing, and planning.

Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used by teachers to design effective lesson plans, develop appropriate assessment methods, and scaffold student learning. It encourages higher-order thinking skills and promotes deep understanding.

Yes, Bloom’s Taxonomy is applicable to all subjects and grade levels. It can be adapted and customized according to the specific needs and learning objectives of different disciplines and age groups.

Absolutely! Bloom’s Taxonomy can be effectively applied in online or distance learning environments. It provides a framework for designing engaging and interactive activities that promote active learning and critical thinking.

Some critics argue that Bloom’s Taxonomy oversimplifies the complexity of learning and that it places too much emphasis on the cognitive domain while neglecting other important aspects, such as affect

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Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Ask Critical Thinking Questions

“Good learning starts with questions, not answers.” – Guy Claxton

Critical thinking is required in the workplace, in educational settings, and to address everyday challenges. In ESL classes, teachers often ask only factual questions that rely on short-term memory, such as “What did Lee Pa do yesterday?” and “What is the capital of Minnesota?”

While memory is an important skill, teachers should ask questions and plan activities that dig deeper. Even in beginning level classrooms, it is essential that learners are asked questions that challenge them to think critically.

One tool that can be used to incorporate critical thinking questions and activities into the classroom is Bloom’s Taxonomy . Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification system that is used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and understanding.

Bloom’s Taxonomy divides thinking into six categories, with one being the simplest level of thinking, up to six, which is the most complex.

• Knowledge:  Remembering or recalling appropriate, previously learned information to draw out factual (usually right or wrong) answers. When asking question, use words and phrases such as: how many, when, where, list, define, tell, describe, identify, etc, to draw out factual answers, testing students' recall and recognition.
• Comprehension:  Grasping or understanding the meaning of informational materials. When asking question, use words such as: describe, explain, estimate, predict, identify, differentiate, etc, to encourage students to translate, interpret, and extrapolate.
• Application:  Applying previously learned information (or knowledge) to new and unfamiliar situations. When asking question, use words such as: demonstrate, apply, illustrate, show, solve, examine, classify, experiment, etc, to encourage students to apply knowledge to situations that are new and unfamiliar.
• Analysis:  Breaking down information into parts, or examining (and trying to understand the organizational structure of) information. When asking question, use words and phrases such as: what are the differences, analyze, explain, compare, separate, classify, arrange, etc, to encourage students to break information down into parts.
• Synthesis:  Applying prior knowledge and skills to combine elements into a pattern not clearly there before. When asking question, use words and phrases such as: combine, rearrange, substitute, create, design, invent, what if, etc, to encourage students to combine elements into a pattern that's new.
• Evaluation:  Judging or deciding according to some set of criteria, without real right or wrong answers. When asking question, use words such as: assess, decide, measure, select, explain, conclude, compare, summarize, etc, to encourage students to make judgements according to a set of criteria.

For resources and articles related to using Bloom’s Taxonomy to ask questions in the ESL classroom, check out these articles and resources:

• Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel and Wall Chart with Question Stems
• Levels of Questions in Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Interactive Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

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BLOOM'S TAXONOMY AND CRITICAL THINKING

document on how blom´s taxonomy can help pther to develop critical thinking

Related Papers

Johan van Niekerk

Key Competencies in the Knowledge Society

Abdunasir Sideeg , Abdunasir Sideeg

This article aims to present some fresh insights into one of the milestones in the field of education. For sixty years, Bloom's taxonomy has been one of the most significant tools used in course design as it provides a rigorous framework for crafting learning outcomes and designing both assessment tasks and instructional activities aligned with these learning outcomes. Though not a panacea for all problems of course design and educational assessment, when meticulously understood and wisely used in a student-centered environment which integrates the taxonomy with other useful approaches and tools such as backward design and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development (ZPD), Bloom's taxonomy could provide an invaluable and indispensable roadmap for crafting effective learning outcomes that drive the whole process of course design.

Fatima Kdooh

Ferry Hidayat

One of my references to explain what " Digital Bloom's Taxonomy " is. This Andrew Churches' work is really enlightening.

International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies

International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies

Embedded in Bloom " s critical thinking taxonomy, the present study is to find the relationship between critical thinking and listening comprehension of Iranian elementary EFL learners focusing the moderating role of gender. Having diminished Oxford Quick Placement test, the researchers randomly selected 40 male and 40 female elementary-level Iranian EFL learners as the main participants in this study. California Critical Thinking Skills Test and the listening comprehension test designed by Danar Wijanarko (2010) based on Bloom " s Taxonomy was also administered to find the possible significant relationship between critical thinking and listening comprehension of Iranian elementary EFL learners considering gender " s moderating role. Using two-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation and regression analyses, the researchers found that there was no significant interaction among critical thinking, gender and listening comprehension ability of the learners. However, the findings indicated that there were significant positive relationships between the critical thinking ability and listening comprehension of both male and female participants. The findings point to the importance of critical thinking in language learning and teaching. The results make an implications avenue for policy makers, materials writers, teachers and learners.

faisal ishaq

faculty.kfupm.edu.sa

Sahalu Junaidu

Mathews Kalyepe

ABSTRACT THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES IN CLASSES TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING. A CASE STUDY OF SOUTH AFRICAN TERTIARY SCHOOLS. By MATHEWS SIMFUKWE KALYEPE At the Independent Examination Board (IEB) Regional conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in February 2016, it was revealed that Grade 12 learners were not answering essay questions in a manner that exhibited critical thinking. Following the increase in the number of schools that are using computer technologies in recent years in South Africa, some people have wondered if the use of these technologies can help in the development of Bloom’s level 4 to 6 Cognitive skills that show critical thinking skills of students. The researcher therefore re-modelled an original section of the Grade 12 Life Sciences course into a Computer Aided Critical thinking Course and made it into case study to investigate this phenomenon. In order to make the course valid, the Analysis, De-sign, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (A.D.D.I.E.) approach for designing a course was followed and with the input from three experienced Education specialists, in Rustenburg, this course was implemented for this study. Because the study made use of two groups for comparison reasons between the control group which did the original course and the experimental group which did a computer Aided course, a test before the treatment of the course, and after the treatment of the course was inevitable to ob-serve any changes that might show the changes in the performance of the subjects. These results would then give a platform to confirm or not to confirm the hypothesis. As it happened, the exper-imental group reported a larger increase in the score, and thereby in Critical thinking than the con-trol group. The only possible explanation for this observation was that the computer Aided course brought about these changes in students who did them. This result aligned with the hypothesis for this study. However, there was still more to work on especially in regards to the critical writing skills. If more training in critical writing could be done, the increase would even be much higher (Conna & Valverde).

ACM Sigcse Bulletin

Colin Johnson , Jana Jackova

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How Does Bloom's Taxonomy Relate to Critical Thinking Information?

Janie sullivan.

Bloom's taxonomy is a very well-known classification of learning. Educators use Bloom's when creating curriculum as a way of defining the level of cognitive thinking skills they want students to exhibit when learning specific material. Higher order thinking skills like application and analysis are generally tied to more upper-division curriculum, while lower order thinking skills like knowledge and comprehension are found in objectives of lower-division courses. Critical thinking skills are an essential part of the thinking classification levels in Bloom’s.

Explore this article

• Bloom's Lower Order Thinking Skills
• Bloom's Higher Order Thinking Skills
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Questioning and Thinking
• Misconceptions about Critical Thinking

1 Bloom's Lower Order Thinking Skills

Lower order thinking skills as evidenced on the classification pyramid developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 include knowledge, comprehension, and application. Activities that utilize these kinds of thinking skills will show that the student can recite information, facts, and dates and organize the information to solve problems by applying basic concepts to reach solutions. Keywords associated with lower order thinking skills are "recall," "choose," "find," "define," "demonstrate," "explain," "build," "develop," and "utilize." These keywords are often used when defining learning objectives for lower-division courses.

2 Bloom's Higher Order Thinking Skills

Bloom defined higher order thinking skills as those that require analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Someone exhibiting cognitive skills of this level will categorize or classify information, comparing and contrasting it in order to make a decision. Other characteristics of higher order thinking include: combining, creating, designing, developing, evaluating, justifying, and measuring. A student in an upper-division course should be able to demonstrate all of these cognitive skills when thinking and reasoning through problems.

3 Critical Thinking Skills

Critical thinking skills are an integral part of both higher and lower order thinking as defined by Bloom. Critical thinking itself is defined as having two components: 1) skills to generate information (lower order thinking) and 2) using those skills to guide behavior (higher order thinking). Critically thinking about a set of facts or other information in order to make an informed decision requires the thinker to go through the six levels of cognitive thinking defined by Bloom: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Major or life-changing decisions that are made without going through this process may not be the best, most informed decisions and may exhibit less than satisfactory results.

4 Questioning and Thinking

The most effective way to facilitate critical thinking in an individual is to ask questions. Refer to the cognitive levels in Bloom's to formulate the questions. Questions that will ensure a student is using lower order thinking in problem solving start with keywords such as "who," "what," "why," and "when." These questions will get a student to start thinking on a basic level about a problem. You move up the scale by asking questions such as "How would you __?" or "What evidence can you find_ ?" other questions designed to make a student think critically at a higher level might be "Do you agree with ?" or "How would you rate ?" Questions of this kind will help a student learn how to analyze and evaluate information so he or she can make informed decisions that will present satisfactory results for all involved.

5 Misconceptions about Critical Thinking

There are some universal misconceptions about critical thinking that must be discussed when you try to develop these skills. First, critical thinking is said to be a negative process that tears down ideas, but it is actually a process that puts ideas into perspective. Second, critical thinking has sometimes been equated with over-thinking or an inability to make a decision because of unending analysis of the information being presented. In reality, critical thinking ensures that commitments and decisions are informed ones because there is analysis and reflection taking place. Another misconception about critical thinking is that it renders the thinker cold and unfeeling; actually, this process frees a thinker from past assumptions and self-doubt. Once a thinker gets past these misconceptions, he or she will be able to climb Bloom's pyramid of cognitive thinking levels to become a critical thinker.

• 1 The Critical Thinking Community
• 2 Overview of Critical Thinking

About the Author

Janie Sullivan, a freelance writer living in Apache Junction, Arizona, has had articles published in Small Business Start-Ups and The Adjunct Advocate magazines. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the University of Montana and both a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Phoenix.

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Bloom's Taxonomy English Critical Thinking Classroom Display - Start of Year, Back to School

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Visual aid/Display

Last updated

4 August 2024

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Critical thinking is an essential skill to build across the curriculum. Students often need reference points to progress through the critical thinking process - such as when using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a framework.

I religiously use displays such as these in my classroom, they enable students to use the critical thinking process more independently.

What’s included?

7 x A4 Posters:

• Cover poster with the Bloom’s Taxonomy coloured pyramid stating each phase
• 6 x posters that match each tier of the pyramid in name and colour. Each has verb and sentence starter examples.

Final note:

Why Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a powerful tool that helps educators design learning experiences that challenge and engage students at every level. By providing a clear framework for categorizing cognitive skills, teachers can create lessons that move students beyond simple memorization towards higher-order thinking. From recalling facts to creating new ideas, Bloom’s Taxonomy ensures that students are equipped with the skills they need to succeed in school and beyond.

Are you looking for other English display resources to complete your classroom aesthetic? I have the following bundle that you’ll love!

If you don’t want the whole bundle, you can click on the link and purchase each part of the bundle separately – just click on the image you are interested in! Here you will also find links to other great products!

13 English Classroom Display Bundle - Start of Year, Back to School

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A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Get this amazing deal quick! Included are a variety of English display posters that will make your classroom engaging, look great, and a perfect reference point for your students. You will get 13 products for £17, which is a saving of £13!!! The best thing is, these posters can be printed, laminated and kept for years! This saves you time, money and your impact on the environment. What's included? 1. Writing fluently posters 2. Command term cloud posters 3. Homonym posters 4. Literary device posters 5. Literary genre posters 6. Synonym and antonym posters 7. Writing PETER analytical paragraphs posters 8. Writing PEEL analytical paragraphs posters 9. Sentence types posters 10. Punctuation posters 11. Bloom's Taxonomy critical thinking posters 12. Parts of speech posters 13. Verb strength posters (football theme) Are you looking for other back to school materials? Below I have some bundles available for a discounted price. Alternatively, you can just buy what you need! If you click on the link you can purchase each part of the bundle separately if you are looking for something specific – just click on the image you are interested in! [Start of Year Activity Bundle - Back to School](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13083712) [Classroom Display Geometric Pinks Reds Theme Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13082279) [Classroom Display Geometric Blues Theme Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13081449) [Classroom Display Geometric Yellow Theme Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13081446) [Classroom Display Space Theme Bundle ](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13081441) [Classroom Display Ocean Theme Bundle ](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13081437) [Classroom Display Jungle Theme Bundle](https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-13081430)

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