Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework to categorize learning objectives and has been used to inform teaching and instructional design work. The original Bloom’s Taxonomy was created in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom, but the updated 2001 version by David Krathwohl and Lorin Anderson is the most popular these days. 

There are six levels which are: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create, each with increasingly complex cognitive processes. The following figure displays the hierarchy of cognitive processes along with definitions and examples. The higher on the pyramid (e.g., “create”), the more complex.

While Bloom’s Taxonomy describes the cognitive processes required to perform that task or achieve that objective, knowledge types help describe the task or objective . 

The four Knowledge Types are: 

1. Factual: terminology and basic facts or details (Ex: Sacramento is the capital of California.)
2. Conceptual: bridging ideas together; theories, principles, models, etc. (Ex: Understanding the process of photosynthesis.)
3. Procedural: doing something; techniques, algorithms, methods, etc. (Ex: Adding fractions together.)
4. Metacognitive: self-knowledge and strategic learning activities (Ex: Writing a summary of each topic to retain knowledge.)

See below image for a complete list of examples of how knowledge can be intersected with Bloom’s Taxonomy to create targeted learning objectives (24 total). 

A few examples: 

Factual & Understand: Summarize the plot of the book.

Conceptual & Apply: Provide advice to those unfamiliar with this topic.

Metacognitive & Evaluate: Reflect on your progress so far in the course.

References

A Model of Learning Objectives. (n.d.). [Illustration]. https://www.celt.iastate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/RevisedBloomsHandout-1.pdf

Iowa State University Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. (n.d.). Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. Iowa State University. https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/#:~:text=Familiarly%20known%20as%20Bloom%27s%20Taxonomy,Analysis%2C%20Synthesis%2C%20and%20Evaluation.

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy [Illustration]. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/#:~:text=Familiarly%20known%20as%20Bloom%27s%20Taxonomy,Analysis%2C%20Synthesis%2C%20and%20Evaluation.