Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning Domains
Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning 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 committee identified three domains of educational activities or learning (Bloom, et al.
1956):
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):
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
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.
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):
changing the names in the six categories from noun to verb forms
rearranging them as shown in the chart below
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