We explain what Bloom's cognitive taxonomy is, its objective and the levels it establishes. Plus, how it was updated for the digital age.
What is Bloom's taxonomy?
Bloom's cognitive taxonomy, also known simply as Bloom's taxonomy, is a hierarchical model of educational goals developed in the 1950s by the American psychologist and pedagogue Benjamin Bloom (1913-1999). Its purpose was to propose a common vocabulary and method for stating school objectives and procedures.
It is a taxonomy (that is, a form of ordered classification) of the cognitive abilities necessary for learning that is, a model from which to evaluate and understand progress in the acquisition of new knowledge, and thus be able to design exercises, evaluations and teaching methods. It consists of a set of six hierarchical levels, that is, ordered based on their educational importance, called “cognitive domains”, in each of which a key aspect of the learning process is detailed.
Since these levels describe the mental processes of learning, they are inserted in the cognitive dimension of learning, that is, in its strictly rational aspect. In total, educational scholars have established that There are three dimensions of learning:
- The affective dimension of emotions.
- The psychomotor dimension of the body.
- The cognitive dimension rational, which is the only one that Bloom's taxonomy deals with.
Bloom's work was extremely significant in the educational field of his time, and changed the way assessment was thought about within the classroom. In fact, his taxonomy was originally designed as a tool to make it easier for teachers at the University of Chicago to design strategies to measure the academic development of their students. Since its publication in 1956, Bloom's taxonomy has undergone revisions and updates, and in 2001 its first updated version was published.
See also: Cognitive development
Objectives of Bloom's Taxonomy
The purpose of Bloom's taxonomy is expand the understanding of the educational fact and quantify the student's progress in a more complex and diverse way in the acquisition of new knowledge. Thus, it is a very useful tool for the design of evaluation strategies, the formulation of objectives and the creation of tasks and exercises.
Levels of Bloom's taxonomy
According to Bloom's model, there are six different levels of the cognitive domain, each focused on a specific process of acquisition and processing of what has been learned. The idea is that each one allows the teacher a greater understanding of the complexities of the content, so that they can formulate more appropriate and enriching questions or exercises.
These levels are usually represented as a pyramid, to emphasize the hierarchy of their importance, and are as follows:
| Cognitive level | Explanation | Examples of questions |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition level | It is the most basic level of all, located at the foot of the pyramid, it seeks only to determine if the student remembers the information learned and if he can identify it or differentiate it from the context. | ● What countries were involved in the 30 Years War?
● What is the chemical formula of water? ● In what year did the French Revolution occur? |
| Understanding level | At this level the aim is to check whether the student is able to organize or link the information learned, using their own perceptions and their own language. | ● What were the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union?
● What were the background of American independence? ● What are the steps of the food chain and what is the relationship between them? |
| Application level | At this level the aim is to check if the student is able to apply prior knowledge to an unknown scenario or a new situation, in order to solve a problem. | ● How can the following equation be solved using a method other than substitution?
● What immediate consequences would the destruction of the ozone layer bring? ● What would be three everyday examples of negative feedback? |
| Analysis level | At this level the aim is to check whether the student is able to identify, separate and process separately the elements of the learned information, establishing relationships with other references and proposing probable hypotheses. | ● How did slavery contribute to the American Civil War?
● What advantages and disadvantages does globalization bring? ● What does Rubén Darío mean when he says “That the race is standing and the arm is ready, / that Captain Cervantes is on the ship, / and above floats the flag of Christ”? |
| Synthesis level | At this level the aim is to check whether the student is able to put together conceptual elements or fragments of information in a new way, in order to form abstract relationships and infer results. | ● What could have been the reasons that led the United States to intervene in World War II?
● What is the importance of the hydrological cycle for sustaining life? ● What consequences can be drawn from the fall of the Roman Empire? |
| Evaluation level | At this level, the highest of the pyramid, the aim is to check whether the student is capable of understanding complex ideas, to assume creative positions regarding them or to reason probable justifications, using logic, inventiveness and critical sense. | ● Was it an ethical decision to put Nazi war criminals on trial and sentence them to death at the end of World War II? Justify your answer.
● Explain in your words what the difficulties are in reducing humanity's carbon emissions and delaying climate change. ● Reason an answer to the paradox of the ship of Theseus, using objects from everyday life. |
Bloom's Taxonomy for the Digital Age
In 2009, Dr. Andrew Churches published an update to Bloom's taxonomy designed specifically for the context of the digital age. This revision incorporated assignments and activities based on 2.0 tools, typical of the contemporary era, such as performing an online search, uploading files to the cloud or posting something so that others can see it.
In doing so, Churches recognized one of the dilemmas of the coming era: technodependence and its impact on educational schemes especially in the deficit of technological training of teachers.
In this update, each of Bloom's levels were assigned an activity specific to the digital world, such as:
- Recognition level (remember in the revised version of 2001): participate in the social network, bookmark sites, search on Google.
- Level of understanding (grasp): do advanced searches on Google, do journalism in blog format, tag and categorize on social networks.
- Application level (apply): play, hack, upload files to a server, share with third parties, edit.
- Analysis level (analyze): recombine, validate, reverse engineer, collect media information.
- Synthesis level (assess): Review and comment on a blog, moderate comments, make networkingrework, test.
- Evaluation level (create): Programming, filming, animating, participating in a wiki, directing, broadcasting.
Continue with: Pedagogy
References
- “Benjamin Bloom” on Wikipedia.
- “Bloom's Taxonomy” at the Higher Education Update Center of the ORT University (Uruguay).
- “Levels of Bloom's taxonomy” in the Division of Basic Sciences and Engineering of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico).
- “Bloom's Taxonomy” at Vanderbilt University (USA).
- “Bloom's Taxonomy (education)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
