Bloom’s Taxonomy; How Learners Can Show What They Know and Can Do, Creatively

Bloom’s Taxonomy, originally developed in 1956, is a framework for categorizing educational goals, objectives, and standards. When I first came across this taxonomy, I was interested in building rubrics that more accurately measured student intelligence. I found out that Bloom’s Taxonomy was created to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering facts. Over time, the taxonomy has been revised to reflect new educational goals and understandings.

The Original Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)

In the original version, the cognitive domain is broken into six levels of objectives:

1. Knowledge: Recalling facts and basic concepts (e.g., dates, events, formulas).
2. Comprehension: Understanding information and grasping meaning (e.g., explaining ideas or concepts).
3. Application: Using information in new situations (e.g., applying knowledge to actual problems).
4. Analysis: Breaking down information into parts to explore understandings and relationships (e.g., identifying motives or causes).
5. Synthesis: Compiling information in a different way by combining elements in a new pattern or proposing alternative solutions (e.g., creating a new pattern or structure).
6. Evaluation: Presenting and defending opinions by making judgments about information, validity of ideas, or quality of work based on a set of criteria (e.g., critiquing or reviewing).

The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (2001)

I was surprised when the Taxonomy was revised, as I built rubrics with it, but as I studied the revision I became even happier to see the top level, “Evaluation (1956) had been replaced with “creativity” (2001). The revised taxonomy reflects a more dynamic conception of classification, where the emphasis is on what learners can do with knowledge, rather than just possessing it. The levels have slightly different names and their order has been revised:

1. Remember: Recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
2. Understand: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
3. Apply: Carrying out or using a procedure in a given situation.
4. Analyze: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose.
5. Evaluate: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.
6. Create: Putting elements together to form a novel, coherent whole or make an original product.

Key Differences

1. Name Changes: The levels have been renamed to better reflect the nature of the tasks. For example, “Knowledge” has become “Remember,” and “Synthesis” has become “Create.”
2. Order Change: The highest level in the original taxonomy was “Evaluation,” while in the revised version, “Create” is considered the highest level, indicating a shift towards creativity and innovation as the pinnacle of cognitive processing.
3. Focus on Action: The revised taxonomy uses verbs rather than nouns to describe the levels, emphasizing the actions associated with each level of thinking. This aligns with the focus on active learning and doing.

Implications for Education

The shift in Bloom’s Taxonomy reflects changes in educational priorities and pedagogical approaches:

1. Higher-Order Thinking: There is a greater emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, such as creating and evaluating, which are crucial in today’s information-rich and rapidly changing world.
2. Active Learning: The revised taxonomy promotes active learning strategies that engage students in applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating, rather than passively receiving information.
3. Curriculum Design: Educators are encouraged to design curricula and assessments that foster critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, preparing students for real-world challenges.

Examples from K-12 Education

Let’s look at what this might mean for K-12 education, by reviewing some examples from elementary, middle and high schools:

Elementary School:

• Original Taxonomy: Students might be asked to recall the names of the planets in the solar system (Knowledge) and explain why Earth is unique (Comprehension).
• Revised Taxonomy: Students might create a model of the solar system (Create) and compare the characteristics of different planets (Analyze).

Middle School:

• Original Taxonomy: Students might be asked to apply mathematical formulas to solve problems (Application) and evaluate the outcomes of historical events (Evaluation).
• Revised Taxonomy: Students might design an experiment to test a scientific hypothesis (Create) and critique the effectiveness of different government policies (Evaluate).

High School:

• Original Taxonomy: Students might analyze literary themes in a novel (Analysis) and synthesize information from multiple sources into a research paper (Synthesis).
• Revised Taxonomy: Students might develop a business plan for a new product (Create) and assess the impact of social media on modern communication (Evaluate).

By understanding the shift in Bloom’s Taxonomy, educators can better structure their teaching strategies to enhance student learning and promote the development of critical, creative, and evaluative thinking skills.