Bloom's Taxonomy *

Benjamin Bloom created this taxonomy to categorize the level of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings.  The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize test questions. 

Unless instructors are very careful, it is easy for 99% of the questions to be at the knowledge level - At thislevel you will be testing the ability of a student to parrot back information provided in the lecture or readings.  To test "real" learning (i.e., higher order understanding) you have to move your questions up to a higher level on the pyramid. 

Bloom's ideas are easy to comprehend but difficult to apply. Test items are harder to write and it is harder to teach students to reach higher levels of understanding. Most high school students are rarely required to answer higher level questions in their courses.

Bloom's focus was on mastery.  What is the best way to encourage a student to master a domain and how do we determine when enough is enough?  [more]

Following the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association, B S Bloom took a lead in formulating a classification of "the goals of the educational process". Three "domains" of educational activities were identified. The first of these, named the Cognitive Domain, involves knowledge and the development of intellectual attitudes and skills. (The other domains are the Affective Domain and the Psychomotor Domain, and need not concern us here).

Eventually, Bloom and his co-workers established a hierarchy of educational objectives, which is generally referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy, and which attempts to divide cognitive objectives into subdivisions ranging from the simplest behaviour to the most complex. 

It is important to realise that the divisions outlined above are not absolutes and that other systems or hierarchies have been devised. However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily understood and widely applied.
 

Competence	Skills Demonstrated
Knowledge	observation and recall of information knowledge of dates, events, places  knowledge of major ideas mastery of subject matter Question Cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.
Comprehension	understanding information grasp meaning translate knowledge into new context interpret facts, compare, contrast order, group, infer causes  predict consequences Question Cues:  summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend
Application	use information use methods, concepts, theories in new situations solve problems using required skills or knowledge Questions Cues:  apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover
Analysis	seeing patterns organization of parts recognition of hidden meanings identification of components  Question Cues: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer
Synthesis	use old ideas to create new ones generalize from given facts relate knowledge from several areas predict, draw conclusions Question Cues: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what it?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite
Evaluation	compare and discriminate between ideas assess value of theories, presentations make choices based on reasoned argument verify value of evidence recognize subjectivity Question Cues assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize

* Adapted from: Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green. 

Links

http://www.wested.org/tie/dlrn/blooms.html
Information on video and audio conferencing

http://www.wested.org/tie/dlrn/distance.html
What is distance education?

Distance Education Defining Elements  [more on definitions]
The separation of teacher and learner during at least a majority of each instructional process. 
The use of educational media to unite teacher and learner and carry course content. 
The provision of two-way communication between teacher, tutor, or educational agency and learner (Verduin and Clark, 1991). 

For further Web-based information on Bloom's taxonomy:

http://www.valdosta.edu/~whuitt/psy702/cogsys/bloom.html

http://www.eecs.usma.edu/usma/academic/eecs/instruct/howard/slidesho/sigcse2/index.htm

http://www.uct.ac.za/projects/cbe/mcqman/mcqappc.html

Copyright © 2000 NSULA

As teachers we tend to ask questions in the "knowledge" catagory 80% to 90% of the time. These questions are not bad, but using them all the time is. Try to utilize higher order level of questions. These questions require much more "brain power" and a more extensive and elaborate answer. Below are the six question categories as defined by Bloom. 

     KNOWLEDGE 
          remembering; 
          memorizing; 
          recognizing; 
          recalling identification and 
          recall of information 
               Who, what, when, where, how ...? 
               Describe 
     COMPREHENSION 
          interpreting; 
          translating from one medium to another; 
          describing in one's own words; 
          organization and selection of facts and ideas 
               Retell... 
     APPLICATION 
          problem solving; 
          applying information to produce some result; 
          use of facts, rules and principles 
               How is...an example of...? 
               How is...related to...? 
               Why is...significant?
     ANALYSIS 
          subdividing something to show how it is put together; 
          finding the underlying structure of a communication; 
          identifying motives; 
          separation of a whole into component parts 
               What are the parts or features of...? 
               Classify...according to... 
               Outline/diagram... 
               How does...compare/contrast with...? 
               What evidence can you list for...? 
     SYNTHESIS 
          creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or 
         may be a physical object; combination of ideas to form a new whole 
               What would you predict/infer from...? 
               What ideas can you add to...? 
               How would you create/design a new...? 
               What might happen if you combined...? 
               What solutions would you suggest for...? 
     EVALUATION 
          making value decisions about issues; 
          resolving controversies or differences of opinion; 
          development of opinions, judgements or decisions 
               Do you agree...? 
               What do you think about...?
               What is the most important...? 
               Place the following in order of priority... 
               How would you decide about...? 
               What criteria would you use to assess...? 

Bb 5.0 Orientation - getting started  | Bb Orientation - ways to improve  | Evaluation  |  Quality - Benchmarks