Benjamin Bloom and Bloom’s Taxonomy

LTMS 525Brant Kenny

Mini-Biography

• Jewish American• Lived from 1913-1997• Received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees

from PSU and his PhD from the Univ. of Chicago.

• Primarily responsible for the development of Bloom’s Taxonomy – a classification system for educational objectives.

• Also worked with the of Mastery Learning – A method which believes that all children can learn if they are provided with appropriate learning conditions

Bloom’s Taxonomy – History

• Created from a research project in 1948• This project was designed to create a method

of classification of educational goals and student performance/evaulation

• The research team originally wanted the taxonomy to cover all three domains of learning – cognitive, affective and psychomotor.

• While taxonomies have been developed for all three, Bloom’s specifically focuses on the cognitive domain.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Overview• Bloom’s Taxonomy gives us a learning process• It is essentially a logical progression from basic

thinking skills to high level thinking skills

Basic Concepts of the Taxonomy• You must remember a concept first before you

can understand a concept or fact.• You must understand a concept first before

you can apply a concept.• You must have analyzed the concept or

procedure before evaluating it.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Knowledge

• Knowledge is the first level of the taxonomy• It primarily deals with low level skills such as

recall, recognition of facts and other basic concepts.

• Examples of this level are elementary spelling quizzes, naming all of the states in the United States, drivers license exams (written) and addition/subtraction quizzes.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Knowledge

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Comprehension

• Comprehension is the second level of the taxonomy.

• This step builds on the Knowledge level by asking students to demonstrate understanding of a concept.

• Examples of this level can been seen in translation exercises in foreign language classes, identifying nouns and verbs in elementary CA classes, classifying minerals and gasses on the periodic table in Chemistry and summarizing a newspaper article in an 6th grade Social Studies class.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Comprehension

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Application

• Application is the third level of the taxonomy• This level builds on previous levels and begins

to incorporate higher thinking skills for each student.

• Examples of this are seen in projects such as interpreting a soliloquy from Hamlet in a CA class, solving a series of similar word problems in a MS math class, sight-reading a piece of music in concert band and demonstrating the proper use of a piece of lab equipment in a science class.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Application

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Analysis

• Analysis is the fourth level of the taxonomy.• At this level, students begin to think about how

different ideas and concepts work, or fail to work, together.

• Examples of this are seen in many assignments throughout the year. CA teachers may ask a class to compare and contrast Summer and Winter. Biology teachers may ask for the similarities and differences between plant and animal cells.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Analysis

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Synthesis

• Synthesis is the fifth level of the taxonomy• This level asks students to use the information

and skills which they have developed to create a student artifact which is totally original

• Examples of this level can be seen in a self portrait painted in a specific style in Art class, designing a bridge from toothpicks which will be tested for structural integrity in a Science class, a class discussion asking how to solve the political issues in the Middle East or a short response asking the class to predict the amount of time needed to complete an experiment in Chemistry.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Synthesis

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Evaulation

• Evaluation is the final level of the taxonomy.• This level engages the student’s higher level

thinking strategies and asks them to evaluate situations and make decisions based on their experience, knowledge and emotions.

• Assignments which ask for judgments, decisions or opinions all fall under this level.

• Examples of this can been seen in Science classes where students are asked to develop an assessment criteria to assess how well a bridge performed under load in a science experiment or asking a class if they agree or disagree with a specific law in a SS class.

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Evaulation