BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Who is Benjamin Bloom ?

• A Jewish-American educational psychologist

• Contributions:
• 1. Classification of educational objectives
• 2. Theory of Mastery-Learning
 WHAT IS TAXONOMY?
• Comes from two Greek words:
• Taxis: arrangement
• Nomos: science
• Science of arrangements
• A set of classification principles ,or structure and domain simply means category.
• TAXONOMY: “Classification especially of animals and plants according to their natural
relationship”
• Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Mass . : G.C. Merriam.co.,1953,p.871
 Background
• In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst,
WALTER HILL AND DAVID KRATHWOHL
• In order to promote higher forms of thinking in education rather than just
remembering facts (rote learning)
• Published a framework for categorizing educational goals:
• Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
• This framework has been applied by generations of teachers and college
instructors in their teaching.
Definition
• Bloom taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish
different levels of human cognition—i.e., thinking, learning, and
understanding.

Purpose
• The purpose of Bloom’s Taxonomy is to help educators to inform or
guide the development of assessments (tests and other evaluations of
student learning), curriculum (units, lessons, projects, and other learning
activities), and instructional methods such as questioning strategies.
 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY
• Original TAXONOMY (1956)
• By BLOOM
• REVISED TAXONOMY (2001)
• By LORIN ANDERSON
• A farmer student of Bloom
CLASSIFICATION OF THREE DOMAIN
AFFECTIVE
DOMAIN

BLOOM’S
TAXONOMY

COGNITIVE PSYCHOMOT
DOMAIN OR DOMAIN
 THE ORIGINAL TAXONOMY (1956)

• The Three Domains Of Learning:

• Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)
• Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self)
• Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)
• Instructional designers, trainers, and educators often refer to these three
categories as KSA
COGNITIVE DOMAIN AFFECTIVE DOMAIN PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAIN

Knowledge Receiving Perception

Comprehension Responding Set

Application Valuing Guided response

Analysis organization Mechanism

Synthesis Characterization Complex overt response

evaluation
DOMAINS
 COGNITIVE DOMAIN

• Taxonomy related to this domain ,has been presented by Bloom and his associates
in 1956.
• The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual
skills.
• This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and
concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are
six major categories of cognitive processes, starting from the simplest to the most
complex
COGNITIVE DOMAIN
 KNOWLEDGE
• Lowest level of objectives.
• Involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of
methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or
setting.”
• Student can:
• Write, List, Define with his knowledge if he have.
 OF SPECIFICS

OF WAYS AND
KNOWLEDGE
MEANS

OF UNIVERSALS
AND
ABSTRACTIONS
 COMPREHENSION
• Based upon the knowledge
• If there is no knowledge there is no comprehension
• It means basic understanding of facts, ideas, methods, process, principles
and theories
• Student translates, comprehends or interprets information based on prior
learning like:
• Explain, summarize, paraphrase, describe
 TRANSLATION

COMPREHENSION INTERPRETATION

EXTRAPOLATION
 APPLICATION
• Refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”
• Student selects, transfers and uses data and principles to complete a
problem with a minimum of direction.
• How student can use, compute, solve and apply his knowledge.
• Example:
• 100-15=85
 GENERALIZATION
OF FACTS, LAWS,
PRINCIPLES &
OTHERS

DIAGNOSIS OF
APPLICATION PUPIL’S
WEAKNESS

APPLICATION OF
CONTENTS, TERMS
& LAWS BY THE
PUPILS
 ANALYSIS
• Breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts.
• Student distinguishes, classifies and relates the evidence or structure of a
statement or question.
• Student can analyze, categorize, compare and separate.
• Example: old capital of INDIA? CALCUTTA ,New capital?DELHI
• Why? (Analysis)
 Of element

ANALYSIS Of relationship

Organized
principles
 SYSNTHESIS
• Involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”
• Student originates, integrates, and combines ideas into a product, plan or
proposal that is new to him.
• He can create, design, invent and develop
• He can combine different types of information to find alternative solutions.
• Example: he can combine this to make a sentence:
• Mother – invention –is- necessary - the
 Unique
combination by
arranging different
element

Suggests new plans

SYSNTHESIS by combining all
elements

Establish an
abstract
relationship among
different elements
 EVALUATION
• Judgement about the value of material and methods for given
purposes.
• Student can judge what he learned whether it is right or wrong.
If wrong than he can start the process again.
• Student can judge, recommend, critique and justify.
 EVALUATION

Judgement in Judgement in
terms of internal terms of external
evidences evidences
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY(2001)
• Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, and David Krathwohl
revisited the cognitive domain and made some changes.  They mad
these changes:
• changing the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms.
• creating a processes and levels of knowledge matrix.
• rearranging them.
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
 THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN
• Skills in the affective domain describe the way people react emotionally and their
ability to feel other living things' pain or joy. Affective objectives typically target
the awareness and growth in attitudes, emotion, and feelings, values, interest.
• There are five levels in the affective domain moving through the lowest-order
processes to the highest:
A TAXONOMY FOR THE AFFECTIVE
DOMAIN
RECEIVING

RESPONDIN
CHARACTERISING
G

ORGANISIN
VALUING
G
 RECEIVING
• The lowest level; the student passively pays attention. Without
this level, no learning can occur. Receiving is about the
student's memory and recognition as well.
• EXAMPLE: Student saw a person helping poor...
 RECEIVING

CONTROLLED
WILLINGNES
AWARENESS OR SELECTED
TO RECEIVE
ATTENTION
 RESPONDING
• The student actively participates in the learning process, not
only attends to a stimulus; the student also reacts in some way.
• EXAMPLE: He saw that people appreciating the person who
helped poor…
 WILLINGNESS
TO RESPOND

SATISFACTION
RESPONDING
IN RESPONSE

UNWILLINLY
RESPONDING
 VALUING

• The student attaches a value to an object, phenomenon,

or piece of information. The student associates a value
or some values to the knowledge they acquired.
• Example: He gives value that helping poor is an
appreciable work…
 ACCEPETENCE
OF VALUE

PREFERENCE
VALUING
OF VALUE

COMMITMENT
 ORGANIZING
• The student can put together different values, information, and
ideas, and can accommodate them within his/her own schema;
the student is comparing, relating and elaborating on what has
been learned.
• Example: Than he organizes his learning that how he can help
poor…
 CONCEPTUALIZATION
OF VALUE

ORGANIZATION

ORGANISATION OF
VALUE
 CHARACTERIZING

• The student at this level tries to build abstract

knowledge.
• High level
• Example: At this stage the habit becomes the part of his
character.
 GENERALIZED SET

CHARACTERIZATION

CHARACTERIZATION
 PSYCHOMOTOR DOMAIN (ACTION
BASED)
• Skills in the psychomotor domain describe the ability to physically
manipulate a tool or instrument like a hand or a hammer. Psychomotor
objectives usually focus on change and/or development in behavior and/or
skills.
• Bloom and his colleagues never created subcategories for skills in the
psychomotor domain.
 IMPLICATIONS
• Bloom’s Taxonomy serves as the backbone of many teaching
philosophies, in particular, those that lean more towards skills rather than
content.
• Bloom's taxonomy can be used as a teaching tool to help balance
assessment and evaluative questions in class, assignments and texts to
ensure all orders of thinking are exercised in students' learning, including
aspects of information searching.
 IMPLICATIONS
• Bloom’s Taxonomy serves as the backbone of many teaching
philosophies, in particular, those that lean more towards skills rather than
content.
• Bloom's taxonomy can be used as a teaching tool to help balance
assessment and evaluative questions in class, assignments and texts to
ensure all orders of thinking are exercised in students' learning, including
aspects of information searching.