Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy

1. 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

   • Consisted of six major categories
     • 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
     • Application
       • Refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”
     • Knowledge
       • Involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes
     • 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.”
     • Evaluation
       • Ingenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”
     • Synthesis
       • Involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”

2. Bloom’s taxonomy is a powerful tool to help develop learning objectives because it explains the process of learning

   • Before you can understand a concept, you must remember it.
   • To apply a concept you must first understand it.
   • In order to evaluate a process, you must have analyzed it.
   • To create an accurate conclusion, you must have completed a thorough evaluation.

3. 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 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:
     • Remember
       • list, recite, outline, define, name, match, quote, recall, identify, label, recognize.
         • By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to recite Newton’s three laws of motion.
     • Understand
       • describe, explain, paraphrase, restate, give original examples of, summarize, contrast, interpret, discuss.
         • By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to describe Newton’s three laws of motion to in her/his own words
     • Apply
       • calculate, predict, apply, solve, illustrate, use, demonstrate, determine, model, perform, present.
         • By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to calculate the kinetic energy of a projectile.
     • Analyze
       • classify, break down, categorize, analyze, diagram, illustrate, criticize, simplify, associate.
         • By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to differentiate between potential and kinetic energy.
     • Evaluate
       • choose, support, relate, determine, defend, judge, grade, compare, contrast, argue, justify, support, convince, select, evaluate.
         • By the end of this lesson, the student will be able to determine whether using conservation of energy or conservation of momentum would be more appropriate for solving a dynamics problem.

4. The biggest difference between course and lesson level objectives is that we don’t directly assess course level objectives.

   • Course level objectives are just too broad. Instead, we use several lesson level objectives to demonstrate mastery of one course level objective
   • To create good course level objectives, we need to ask ourselves: “what do I want the students to have mastery of at the end of the course?”
     • if your students can prove (through assessment) that they can do each and every one of the lesson level objectives in that section
     • Then you as an instructor agree they have mastery of the course level

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY:

   • https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/
     • https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/