What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Bloom’s taxonomy is a method of characterizing the basic questions within the education system. Bloom’s taxonomy is named after Benjamin Bloom, who led the group of educators that formed the taxonomy. There were a series of conferences from 1949 to 1953 which was formed to enhance communication between educators on the layout of curricula and examinations.
Volume Of The Taxonomy
The first volume of the taxonomy is, Handbook I: Cognitive which was published in 1956. The second volume is Handbook II: Affective. In 2000, a revised version was made of the taxonomy for the cognitive field. There are three main areas of educational activities or learning (Bloom, et al 1956). The first one is cognitive which is related to the mental skills of an individual. Second is effective which consists of growth in feelings or emotional domains, more specifically attitude or self. Third is psychomotor which consist of physical or manual skills.
The domains in Bloom’s taxonomy work as categories. For instructional designers, trainers and educators often refer to the three domains as KSA which means Knowledge that is cognition, skills which is psychomotor and attitudes which is effective.
The cognitive domain includes prudence and the development of intellectual skills (Bloom, 1956). This includes the ability to recall or recognize certain facts, procedural, patterns and ideas that help to build intellectual abilities and caliber.
There are six essential subdivisions of cognitive processes:
- Knowledge
- Understanding
- Procedure
- Analysis
- Synthesis
- Evaluation
The categories above are known as degrees of difficulties. Therefore, the first step has to be mastered before the next one can be considered.
Lorin Anderson who is a former student of Bloom, along with David Krathwohl revised the cognitive domain in the mid-nineties, which includes the following changes:
- Altering the names in the six categories
- Rearranging the domains
- Producing the processes and levels of knowledge matrix
In the original domain the sequence was:
- Evaluation
- Synthesis
- Analysis
- Application
- Comprehension
- Knowledge
Whereas, in the revised version the domains were rearranged in the following manner:
- Creating
- Evaluating
- Analyzing
- Applying
- Understanding
- Remembering
The new taxonomy establishes and covers a wider and active form of thinking and is most probably more accurate. In the new version, the six categories are more advanced and active. Bloom’s revised taxonomy improves the usability of it by using action words, and adds a cognitive and knowledge matrix.
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