Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework for categorising educational goals, created by Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues in 1956. It is widely used to design curriculum, assessments, and learning activities that promote higher-order thinking skills.
The taxonomy is divided into three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The cognitive domain, which is the most widely used, focuses on mental skills and knowledge acquisition. It is further divided into six levels, each representing a different type of cognitive process.
- Remembering: This is the lowest level, where learners recall facts and basic concepts. For example, memorizing definitions or dates.
- Understanding: At this level, learners explain ideas or concepts. For example, summarizing a text or explaining a process.
- Applying: Learners use information in new situations. For example, solving problems using learned techniques or applying theories to practical scenarios.
- Analyzing: This level involves breaking down information into parts and examining relationships. For example, comparing and contrasting different theories or identifying causes and effects.
- Evaluating: Learners make judgments based on criteria and standards. For example, critiquing an argument or assessing the validity of a research study.
- Creating: This is the highest level, where learners produce new or original work. For example, designing a project, writing a novel, or developing a new theory.
Bloom’s Taxonomy can help us identify the desired level of cognitive process. Once we have determined which level of Bloom’s Taxonomy we want our learners to achieve, we can use this information to guide the complexity and type of learning activities to be designed.
Where the outcomes and assessment both target the same Bloom’s level, we can be assured that learners are being evaluated on what they were actually meant to learn. In professional learning, this avoids under-assessing, for example, only quizzing recall when the aim is to promote analysis) or over-assessing, for example, asking for a process design when only basic knowledge is needed.
Practical Examples of outcomes and assessments at each level of the taxonomy
Here are practical examples of learning outcomes at different Bloom’s levels, in a professional context, with examples of matching assessments:
1. Remembering (Knowledge/Recall)
Example Outcome: “List the primary steps in the company’s client onboarding process.”
A matching assessment might be multiple-choice questions or fill-in-the-blank quiz about the steps.
2. Understanding (Comprehension)
Example Outcome: “Explain the purpose of the company’s code of conduct policy to a new hire.”
A matching assessment might be a short-answer response or summary/interpretation activity.
3. Applying
Example Outcome: “Use the incident reporting procedure to document a simulated workplace safety event.”
A matching assessment might be a role-play, case study, or simulation exercise where participants complete a report.
4. Analysing
Example Outcome: “Differentiate between effective and ineffective project management techniques in a given scenario.”
A matching assessment might be to analyse a case study and identify what was done correctly/incorrectly through a group discussion or written analysis, presented as a report.
5. Evaluating
Example Outcome: “Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different leadership styles in addressing a conflict situation.”
A matching assessment might be a written evaluation, debate, or presentation comparing approaches, with recommendations and a justification for them.
6. Creating (Synthesis)
Example Outcome: “Design a client feedback process tailored to your department’s needs.”
A matching assessment might be to develop and present a process plan or prototype; project work with peer/instructor feedback.
Further Reading
To find out more, read the following article:
Momen, A., Ebrahimi, M., & Hassan, A. M. (2022, September). Importance and implications of the theory of Bloom’s taxonomy in different fields of education. In International conference on emerging technologies and intelligent systems (pp. 515-525). Cham: Springer International Publishing.