Climbing the Ladder to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Climbing the Ladder to Bloom’s Taxonomy

Benjamin Bloom (1956), an influential educational researcher, identified six levels of cognitive complexity for learning: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.

These six learning objectives are known as Bloom’s Taxonomy.

In my middle school classroom, the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are used to help measure how well each student develops higher-order thinking skills:

1. Knowledge requires the student to observe and recall information, such as facts, dates, definitions, descriptions or ideas.
2. Comprehension requires more understanding than knowledge; the writer must grasp the meaning of a subject and be able to transfer knowledge of a subject into a new context. At this level, the student interprets facts, organizes ideas, groups ideas logically, infers causes and predicts consequences.
3. Application requires that the student to use the information in a new situation. At this level, the student solves problems using the knowledge gained previously and solves problems using required skills or knowledge.
4. Analysis requires the student to see patterns, identify parts or components, organize the information and recognize hidden or underlying meaning. At this level, the student identifies individual components of the information.
5. Synthesis requires the student to create new ideas out of those she or he already knows. At this level, the student generalizes ideas based on known facts and relates knowledge from various areas to predict outcomes and draw conclusions.
6. Evaluation requires the student to compare and discriminate between ideas. At this level, the student assesses the value of theories and ideas, chooses between them based on logical arguments, and verifies whether a fact is valid or not. The student recognizes subjectivity in facts and ideas and is capable of grasping the fact itself apart from that subjectivity.
   

Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, Handbook I: The cognitive

domain. New York: David McKay.