Bloom's taxonomy

A hierarchical list of thinking skills (cognitive domain) devised by Benjamin S. Bloom in 1956.The six levels, from lowest to highest, are: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Another level, some propose, is meta-cognition.Teachers use the six levels of this learning taxonomy to state objectives of lessons and devise questions to stimulate thinking at each level.Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) have revised Bloom's Taxonomy based largely upon what scholars have learned about the brain in the forty-five years since Bloom's publication.Anderson and Krathwohl's revision recognizes thinking skills in two directions instead of Bloom's one. It plots types of knowledge along one dimension, and types of cognitive process on the other.In the knowledge dimension, meta-cognition occupies the highest level, procedural knowledge the second, conceptual knowledge the third, and factual knowledge the lowest of the four.Bloom's new versionIn the cognitive process dimension, in place of "knowledge" is "remember," "comprehension" becomes "understand," "application and analysis" become "apply and analyze." "Evaluation" previously occupied the top position, but in the revision, it takes the second highest one. (Art critics take note!) Also significant is the replacement of "synthesis" with "create," and its new position recognizes that creativity occupies the highest level of thinking.References:Anderson, Lorin W., & Krathwohl, David R. (editors) (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning,Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.Bloom, B. S. (editor) (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York, Toronto: Longmans, Green.Also see cognitive, effort, interdisciplinary, and multiple intelligence theory.