Higher Ed Trends
What is
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical ordering of cognitive skills that can help teachers and students in the classroom. It was pioneered by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, who established a framework for categorizing educational goals. Bloom’s Taxonomy may be used to create assessments, plan lessons, evaluate the complexity of assignments, develop online courses and plan project-based learning.
Bloom’s Taxonomy refers to six levels of higher order thinking skills that can be carried out via educational activities. The first level is to “Remember” and can be put to practice by memorizing a poem. “Understanding” takes place when students summarize the plot of a story. Students can use the “Apply” domain to select a design to meet a purpose, while “Analyze” refers to identifying components of democracy, for example. Students may “Evaluate” by making a judgement based on an ethical issue, while they can “Create” by writing an essay based on a given topic.
