Bloom's Taxonomy

The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, known as Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom,

Engelhart, Furst, & Krathwohl, 1956) is one of the most recognized learning theories in
the field of education. Educators often use Bloom's Taxonomy to create learning
outcomes that target not only subject matter but also the depth of learning they want
students to achieve, and to then create assessments that accurately report on students’
progress towards these outcomes
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators
set for their students (learning objectives. The terminology has been recently updated to
include the following six levels of learning. These 6 levels can be used to structure the
learning objectives, lessons, and assessments of your course. 

 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.”
 Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
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.
A statement of a learning objective contains a verb (an action) and an object (usually a
noun).

 The verb generally refers to [actions associated with] the intended cognitive

process.
 The object generally describes the knowledge students are expected to acquire
or construct. (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 4–5)

The cognitive process dimension represents a continuum of increasing cognitive

complexity—from remember to create. Anderson and Krathwohl identify 19 specific
cognitive processes that further clarify the bounds of the six categories (Table 1)

Table 1. The Cognitive Process Dimension – categories, cognitive processes (and alternative
names)
Remember
recognizing(identifying)
recalling (retrieving)
Understand
Interpreting (clarifying, paraphrasing, representing, translating)
Exemplifying (illustrating, instantiating)
Classifying (categorizing, subsuming)
Summarizing (abstracting, generalizing)
inferring (concluding, extrapolating, interpolating, predicting)
Comparing (contrasting, mapping, matching)
Explaining (constructing models)
 Apply
executing (carrying out)
implementing (using)
Analyze
Differentiating (discriminating, distinguishing, focusing, selecting)
organizing (finding, coherence, integrating, outlining, parsing, structuring)
attributing(deconstructing)
Evaluate
checking (coordinating, detecting, monitoring, testing)
critiquing (judging)
Create
generating(hypothesizing)
planning (designing)
producing (construct)

The knowledge dimension represents a range from concrete (factual) to abstract

(metacognitive) (Table 2). Representation of the knowledge dimension as a number of
discrete steps can be a bit misleading. For example, all procedural knowledge may not
be more abstract than all conceptual knowledge. And metacognitive knowledge is a
special case. In this model, “metacognitive knowledge is knowledge of [one’s own]
cognition and about oneself in relation to various subject matters . . . ” (Anderson and
Krathwohl, 2001, p. 44).
Table 2. The Knowledge Dimension

Factual Conceptual Procedural Metacognitive

 knowledge  knowledge of  knowledge  strategic

of classifications of subject- knowledge
terminology and categories specific  knowledge
 knowledge  knowledge of skills and about
of specific principles and algorithms cognitive
details and generalization  knowledge tasks,
elements s of subject- including
 knowledge of specific appropriate
theories, techniques contextual
models, and and and
methods conditional
 structures  knowledge knowledge
of criteria for  self-
determining knowledge
when to use
appropriate
procedures

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Model

Note: These are learning objectives and learning activities. It may be useful to think
of preceding each objective with something like, “students will be able to…:
The Knowledge Dimension

Factual Conceptual Procedural Metacognitive

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

Category Examples, key words (verbs), and

technologies for learning (activities)
Examples: Recite a policy. Quote
prices from memory to a customer.
Recite the safety rules.

Key Words: defines, describes,

Remembering: identifies, knows, labels, lists,
matches, names, outlines, recalls,
Recall or retrieve previous learned
information recognizes, reproduces, selects,
states

Technologies: book marking, flash

cards, rote learning based on
repetition, reading
 Examples: Rewrite the principles of
test writing. Explain in one's own
words the steps for performing a
complex task. Translate an equation
into a computer spreadsheet.
Understanding: Comprehending the
meaning, translation, interpolation,
Key Words: comprehends, converts,
and interpretation of instructions and
problems. State a problem in one's defends, distinguishes, estimates,
own words. explains, extends, generalizes, gives
an example, infers, interprets,
paraphrases, predicts, rewrites,
summarizes, translates

Technologies: create an analogy,

participating in cooperative learning ,
taking notes, storytelling, Internet
search
Examples: Use a manual to calculate
an employee's vacation time. Apply
laws of statistics to evaluate the
reliability of a written test.

Key Words: applies, changes,

Applying: Use a concept in a new
situation or unprompted use of an computes, constructs, demonstrates,
abstraction. Applies what was learned discovers, manipulates, modifies,
in the classroom into novel situations operates, predicts, prepares,
in the work place. produces, relates, shows, solves,
uses

Technologies:  collaborative learning ,

create a process, blog, practice
Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of
equipment by using logical deduction.
Recognize logical fallacies in
reasoning. Gathers information from a
department and selects the required
Analyzing: Separates material or
tasks for training.
concepts into component parts so that
its organizational structure may be
understood. Distinguishes between Key Words: analyzes, breaks down,
facts and inferences. compares, contrasts, diagrams,
 deconstructs, differentiates,
discriminates, distinguishes,
identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines,
relates, selects, separates

Technologies: Fishbowls , debating,
questioning what happened, run a
test

Examples: Select the most effective

solution. Hire the most qualified
candidate. Explain and justify a new
budget.

Key Words: appraises, compares,

Evaluating: Make judgments about concludes, contrasts, criticizes,
the value of ideas or materials . critiques, defends, describes,
discriminates, evaluates, explains,
interprets, justifies, relates,
summarizes, supports

Technologies: survey, blogging

Examples: Write a company
operations or process manual. Design
a machine to perform a specific task.
Integrates training from several
sources to solve a problem. Revises
and process to improve the outcome.

Key Words: categorizes, combines,

Creating: Builds a structure or compiles, composes, creates,
pattern from diverse elements. Put devises, designs, explains,
parts together to form a whole, with
emphasis on creating a new meaning generates, modifies, organizes, plans,
or structure . rearranges, reconstructs, relates,
reorganizes, revises, rewrites,
summarizes, tells, writes

Technologies: Create a new model,

write an essay, network with others