Pedagogical Resource – Using Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Bloom鈥檚 Taxonomy听is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for their students (learning objectives). The taxonomy was proposed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist at the University of Chicago. The terminology has been recently updated to include the following six levels of learning. These six levels can be used to structure the learning objectives, lessons and assessments of your course.
- Remembering:听Retrieving, recognizing and recalling relevant knowledge from long鈥恡erm听memory.
- Understanding:听Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through听interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing and听explaining.
- Applying:听Carrying out or using a procedure for executing or implementing.
- Analyzing:听Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to听one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing and attributing.
- Evaluating:听Making judgements based on criteria and standards through checking and听critiquing.
- Creating:听Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole;听reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning or听producing.
Like other taxonomies, Bloom鈥檚 is hierarchical, meaning that learning at the higher levels is dependent on having听attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels.听You will see Bloom鈥檚 Taxonomy often displayed as a pyramid graphic to help demonstrate this hierarchy. We have updated this pyramid into a 鈥渃ake-style鈥� hierarchy to emphasize that each level is built on a foundation of the previous levels.
How Bloom鈥檚 Taxonomy can aid in course design
Bloom鈥檚 Taxonomy is a powerful tool听to help develop learning objectives because it听explains the process of learning:
- Before you can听understand听a concept, you must听remember;
- To听apply听a concept you must听first听understand;
- In order to听evaluate听a process, you must have听analyzed;
- To听create听an accurate conclusion, you must have completed a thorough听evaluation.
