B l o o m ' s Ta xo n o m y o f L e a r n i n g

Domains

Bloom's Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of

educational psychologist Dr Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher
forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and
evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than
just remembering facts (rote learning). It is most often used when
designing educational, training, and learning processes.

The Three Domains of Learning

The committee identified three domains of educational activities
or learning (Bloom, et al. 1956):

o Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)

o Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self)
o Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)

Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be
a little bigger than we normally use. Domains may be thought of as
categories. Instructional designers, trainers, and educators often refer
to these three categories as KSA
(Knowledge [cognitive], Skills [psychomotor], and Attitudes [affective]).
This taxonomy of learning behaviors may be thought of as “the goals of
the learning process.” That is, after a learning episode, the learner
should have acquired a new skill, knowledge, and/or attitude.

While the committee produced an elaborate compilation for the

cognitive and affective domains, they omitted the psychomotor domain.
Their explanation for this oversight was that they have little experience
in teaching manual skills within the college level. However, there have
been at least three psychomotor models created by other researchers.

Their compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting

from the simplest cognitive process or behavior to the most complex.
The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or
hierarchies that have been devised, such as the Structure of Observed
Learning Outcome (SOLO). However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily
understood and is probably the most widely applied one in use today.

Cognitive
Domain
The cognitive domain
involves knowledge
and the development
of intellectual skills
(Bloom, 1956). 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 an processes, starting from the simplest to the most complex
(see the table below for an in-depth coverage of each category):

o Knowledge
o Comprehension
o Application
o Analysis
o Synthesis
o Evaluation

The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the

first ones must normally be mastered before the next one can take
place.

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, and David Krathwohl
revisited the cognitive domain in the mid-nineties and made some
changes, with perhaps the three most prominent ones being (Anderson,
Krathwohl, Airasian, Cruikshank, Mayer, Pintrich, Raths, Wittrock,
2000):

o changing the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms
o rearranging them as shown in the chart below
o creating a processes and levels of knowledge matrix

The chart shown below compares the original taxonomy with the revised one:

This new taxonomy reflects a more active form of thinking and is

perhaps more accurate. The new version of Bloom's Taxonomy, with
examples and keywords is shown below, while the old version may be
found here

Table of the Revised Cognitive Domain

Examples, key words (verbs), and technologies for
Category
learning (activities)

Examples: Recite a policy. Quote prices from

memory to a customer. Recite the safety rules.

Remembering: Recall or Key Words: defines, describes, identifies,

retrieve previous learned knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines,
information. recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states

Technologies: book marking, flash cards, rote

learning based on repetition, reading

Examples: Rewrite the principles of test

writing. Explain in one's own words the steps
for performing a complex task. Translate an
equation into a computer spreadsheet.
Understanding:
Comprehending the meaning, Key Words: comprehends, converts, defends,
translation, interpolation, and distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends,
interpretation of instructions generalizes, gives an example, infers,
and problems. State a interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites,
problem in one's own words. summarizes, translates

Technologies: create an analogy,

participating in cooperative learning, taking
notes, storytelling, Internet search

Applying: Use a concept in a Examples: Use a manual to calculate an

new situation or unprompted employee's vacation time. Apply laws of
use of an abstraction. Applies statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written
what was learned in the test.
classroom into novel
situations in the work place. Key Words: applies, changes, computes,
constructs, demonstrates, discovers,
manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts,
prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves,
uses

Technologies: collaborative learning, create a

process, blog, practice

Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of equipment

by using logical deduction. Recognize logical
fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information
from a department and selects the required
Analyzing: Separates tasks for training.
material or concepts into
component parts so that its Key Words: analyzes, breaks down,
organizational structure may compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs,
be understood. Distinguishes differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes,
between facts and inferences. identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates,
selects, separates

Technologies: Fishbowls, debating,

questioning what happened, run a test

Examples: Select the most effective solution.

Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and
justify a new budget.

Evaluating: Make judgments Key Words: appraises, compares, concludes,

about the value of ideas or contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends,
materials. describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains,
interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes,
supports

Technologies: survey, blogging

Examples: Write a company operations or

process manual. Design a machine to perform
a specific task. Integrates training from several
sources to solve a problem. Revises and
Creating: Builds a structure or process to improve the outcome.
pattern from diverse elements.
Put parts together to form a Key Words: categorizes, combines, compiles,
whole, with emphasis on composes, creates, devises, designs, explains,
creating a new meaning or generates, modifies, organizes, plans,
structure. rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes,
revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes

Technologies: Create a new model, write an

essay, network with others
Cognitive Processes and Levels of Knowledge
Matrix
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy not only improved the usability of it by
using action words, but added a cognitive and knowledge matrix.

While Bloom's original cognitive taxonomy did mention three levels of

knowledge or products that could be processed, they were not
discussed very much and remained one-dimensional:

o Factual - The basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a

discipline or solve problems.
o Conceptual – The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger
structure that enable them to function together.
o Procedural - How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using
skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.

In Krathwohl and Anderson's revised version, the authors combine the

cognitive processes with the above three levels of knowledge to form a
matrix. In addition, they added another level of knowledge -
metacognition:

o Metacognitive – Knowledge of cognition in general, as well as awareness and

knowledge of one’s own cognition.

When the cognitive and knowledge dimensions are arranged in a

matrix, as shown below, it makes a nice performance aid for creating
performance objectives:

The Cognitive Dimension

The Knowledge Under-

Remember Apply Analyze Evaluate Create
Dimension stand
Factual
Conceptual
Procedural
Metacognitive

However, others have identified five contents or artifacts (Clark,

Chopeta, 2004; Clark, Mayer, 2007):

o Facts - Specific and unique data or instance.

o Concepts - A class of items, words, or ideas that are known by a common
name, includes multiple specific examples, shares common features. There are
two types of concepts: concrete and abstract.
o Processes - A flow of events or activities that describe how things work rather
than how to do things. There are normally two types: business processes that
describe work flows and technical processes that describe how things work in
 equipment or nature. They may be thought of as the big picture, of how
something works.
o Procedures - A series of step-by-step actions and decisions that result in the
achievement of a task. There are two types of actions: linear and branched.
o Principles - Guidelines, rules, and parameters that govern. It includes not only
what should be done, but also what should not be done. Principles allow one
to make predictions and draw implications. Given an effect, one can infer the
cause of a phenomena. Principles are the basic building blocks of causal
models or theoretical models (theories).

The Cognitive Dimension

An example matrix that has been filled in might look something like this:

The Knowledge Under-

Remember Apply Analyze Evaluate Create
Dimension stand
para-
Facts list classify outline rank categorize
phrase
Concepts recall explains show contrast criticize modify
Processes outline estimate produce diagram defend design
give an
Procedures reproduce relate identify critique plan
example
different-
Principles state converts solve conclude revise
iates
Meta-cognitive proper use interpret discover infer predict actualize