Bloom’s Taxonomy is a system of classifying learning objectives, created by Benjamin Bloom in the 1950’s.
The system consists of 6 levels of understanding, ranging from simple cognitive tasks to higher-order thinking:
- Knowledge – remembering basic facts and concepts
- Comprehension – understanding the meaning of information and being able to compare, organize, or interpret the information.
- Application – manipulating knowledge and applying it to new situations to solve new problems.
- Analysis – breaking down concepts to identify their individual parts and recognize patterns.
- Synthesis – using old ideas to create new ideas, predictions, or conclusions.
- Evaluation – assessing the veracity of information and weighing information in order to reach a conclusion.
Teachers who keep Bloom’s taxonomy in mind will be better able to create assignments and test questions that fulfill specific learning objectives.
In 2001, Bloom’s Taxonomy was revised such that all categorizes became verbs instead of nouns, and. The revised 6 categories now are: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating.
For a detailed history, description, and analysis of Bloom’s Taxonomy, see Bloom’s Taxonomy: What’s Old is New Again by the eLearning Guild.