An Overview of Bloom’s TaxonomyIn 1956, Dr. Benjamin S. Bloom and his colleagues published Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain. This work categorized instructional objectives into what is commonly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy. It provided educators with a valuable tool to help them understand higher order thinking skills, create meaningful learning objectives and assess students’ mastery of those objectives. Bloom’s basic premise was that not all learning has the same merit. Rather, there is a hierarchy that begins with memorization and proceeds to higher levels whereby learners can apply their knowledge in increasingly more sophisticated and, arguably more useful, ways. From lowest to highest, those six levels are described below.
The 6 Levels of Bloom's TaxonomyRote memorization is valuable, but it does not always translate to knowledge and skills the student can apply in the real world. As a student's learning advances from Knowledge to Evaluation, he/she becomes increasingly capable of making productive use of the course content.
Using Bloom’s TaxonomyWhen developing learning objectives, creating lesson plans and assessing student learning, instructors should use action verbs. And a number of online resources are available to assist. For example, the TeAch-nology website> provides a simple list of Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs. On TeacherVision website there is printer friendly version Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs. This is not to imply that applying Bloom’s Taxonomy and using the appropriate action verbs is easy. It requires different instructional techniques, ones that engage learners and turn students into active learners rather than passive information recipients.
Testing Students' LearningThe instructor's challenge is 2-fold. A college instructor should strive to guide students to the basic learning objectives and create a learning environment that can lead them to higher levels. But how do you know they have achieved your goal? You need to assess them at those higher levels. To get started you may want to check out some examples of questions that assess higher level learning.
The Benefits of Bloom’s TaxonomyThe benefits of helping students achieve higher level learning seem obvious. However, in a 2010 article entitled "12 Things Teachers Must Know about Learning," Bill Page suggested that this was not common practice. He referred to a study by eminent educational researcher, John Goodlad. Goodlad reported that 95 percent of all teaching and testing was done at level-one thinking. Why don’t instructors teach to higher levels of learning? According to Page, it is because teaching to the knowledge level is the easiest form of teaching. At the same time however, memorization is the most difficult type of learning for many students. Conversely, Page explained that “learning that utilizes higher level thinking effortlessly goes into long-term memory.”
© 2010 Paul A. Hummel, Ed.D.
Posted May 3, 2012