Bloom's Taxonomy - Learning In Action

Benjamin S. Bloom (1913 – 1999) was an American education psychologist who is best known for his mastery learning theory. Bloom received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Penn State University and a Ph. D. in education from the University of Chicago. In addition to serving as professor at the University of Chicago, Bloom advised the ministeries of education in foreign nations like Israel and India.

His basic theory of mastery learning is that learning objectives could be organized according to their cognitive complexity. His interest was in providing teachers a tool not only for assessment but for creating successful learning sequences in their lessons.

Bloom published his taxonomy in the 50's and it has been revised many times over the years. It is interesting to note that Benjamin Bloom, never used a pyramid to illustrate his taxonomy.

Bloom's Pyramid

Now we see Bloom's in a more familiar representation, the pyramid. The idea behind learning taxonomies or classifications systems is that there is a hierarchical ladder of learning processes that one proceeds through. Higher order thinking would be those cognitive processes near the top of the pyramid which theoretically require base level knowledge and understanding. In Bloom's taxonomy, for example, skills involving analysis, evaluation and synthesis (creation of new knowledge) are thought to be of a higher order, requiring different learning and teaching methods, than the learning of facts and concepts.

Another Visual Bloom's

This is another visual representation of Bloom's found on the wikispace Edorigami. Andrew Churches is the organizer of this wiki and can tell you an amazing amount of information about Bloom's then and now. The advantage of looking at Bloom's in this way is the idea that learning can begin at any point and that knowledge, skills, and affectation (mindset) all work together. Don't let the more complicated and less controlled nature of this visual be off-putting.

Bloom's Taxonomy - Basic Review

This video provides a basic overview of Bloom's taxonomy and its laddered stages. The guy is Dave Knopp and he is director of assessment and evaluation somewhere.

Bloom's Taxonomy - Basic Review Part 2

Dave Knopp with Part 2 of Bloom's review. This video focuses on the words to use when creating assessments.

Bloom's Taxonomy - Basic Review Part 3

Dave again, with part 3 of basic review of Bloom's taxonomy. At this point, I would call this a thorough review! Thank you, Dave!

Bloom's Modified

And, then people started messing with Bloom's, updating it for the way we teach and the way we learn now. This is a pretty good video, make in the Commoncraft style. Interesting that this guy (an English teacher) just decided to make this video. He has had over 5300 views. Pretty good!

Bloom's modified Part 2

In this video, writing is the top and the guy shows how to use What, Why, How to teach paragraph writing.

Bloom's 1990's

During the 1990's, Lorin Anderson worked with David Krathwohl to reconsider Bloom's Taxonomy. They published the Revised Taxonomy (pictured above) in 2001.

As is easy to notice, the major revision, as simple as it may seem, is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the levels. The other huge difference is a new understanding of the sequence and work accomplished in the levels. Here is a comparison:

Original Bloom's Revised Bloom's (from lowest order to highest)
Knowledge Remembering
Comprehension Understanding
Application Applying
Analysis Analyzing
Synthesis Evaluating
Evaluation Creating

It is interesting to note that Creating became the highest order thinking domain in the revised Bloom's.

Activities with the Domains

There are many ways to learn and assess mastery in each of the Bloom's domains. What Bloom's (old and new) tries to capture is the learning process, creating understanding about how we learn.

Reasoning through the sequence, learning basically happens like this:

Before we can understand a concept, we have to remember it.

Before we can apply the concept, we must understand it.

Before we analyze a concept, we must be able to apply it.

Before we can evaluate its importance or impact, we must have shown proficiency in application.

Before we can create, making our own use of the concept, we must have remembered, understood, applied, analyzed, and evaluated the concept.

Creating is the highest order of thinking and learning mastery.

The process is one of basic knowledge acquisition, deepening understanding, new knowledge creation.

Student Voices

Bloom's 3.0

Obviously the reconsideration and redefinition of Bloom's that occurred in the 1990's did not include the huge advances in technology and the social revolution of collaboration that we have witnessed to date. Not to worry, Mike Fisher of DigiGogy has revisioned Bloom's once again.
DigiGogy is his blog about teaching with the new digital tools.

The question that this visual suggests is how are we using the free, digital tools at our disposal, to lead our students through knowledge acquisition, deepening understanding, and creating?

21st Century Pedagogy

Greg Whitby is an Austrailian educator and is one of the foremost voices of what challenges and opportunities the 21st century is presenting. He is the Executive Director of Schools in the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta, NSW.

In 2007, Whitby was named as the most innovative and creative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its annual Smart 100 Awards. In the same year, he received a Presidential Citation from the Australian Council for Educational Leaders of which he has been a Fellow since 2002. Whitby was also made an Apple Distinguished Educator "for his contribution to the implementation of Learning Technologies in Education".

Classroom 2.0

Classroom 2.0 is a great, easy, free resource for teachers wanting to learn about integration of technology and collaboration into the classroom and curriculum. They have interested speakers and guest in their forums. There events are in the early evening and on Saturday mornings.