What is Bloom's Taxonomy?



Bloom's taxonomy is said to be a principal component in the teaching and learning process. So, from the perspective of a teacher, the bloom that's only something of vital importance. The main focus of this section is to familiarize you with a conceptual idea on Bloom's taxonomy.

Here, going to the end of this section, we'll be having a segment on the process of learning how learning takes place in an individual. Then, we'll be going into the different domains of Bloom's taxonomy such as communicative main psychomotor domain and affective domain. We'll be going into detail on the different levels of learning in the cognitive domain and how this learning happens in each level. We'll also be having details on the different hierarchy and how this hierarchy works.

So here, we will start with what is learning. Learning is a process of bringing out certain desirable behavior change in an individual by the acquisition or modification of knowledge, skills, and values. This statement is a very beautiful statement that reveals what learning is. Here, it implies two major aspects. The first one is that learning is a deliberate process that focuses on certain desirable behavioral change. It is this desirable behavioral change we term it as learning objectives. When viewed from the point of view, we will restate it as learning outcome. The second aspect implied in this statement is that learning is something that happens through the acquisition or modification of knowledge, skills, and values.

So here, knowledge is something that nurtures the mental activities of the learner, and the skill is something that strengthens the motor-related activities of the learner. Values are that which fine-tunes the appreciation or the mannerism of an individual. As we have earlier mentioned, the expected goal of a curriculum in terms of demonstrable skill or knowledge system as learning objectives. Here, we look into what is Bloom's taxonomy.

Bloom's taxonomy gives a very authentic architecture into the process of learning. Literally, taxonomy means classification. Hence, Bloom's taxonomy is basically a hierarchical classification of various levels of learning in three domains, namely cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The cognitive domain is related to the intellectual activities of the learner, while affective domain is connected to the appreciation and the emotion domain of the learner, and psychomotor domain is related to the motor skills.

Thus, Bloom's taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical models used to classify the educational objectives. Here, we will have an overview of the cognitive domain of Bloom's taxonomy. In this light, it has been mentioned cognitive domain revised, which means there should be a previous version. Actually, the Bloom's taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom. His prime focus is to promote higher forms of thinking in the field of education. In the spirit of ISIF for the different levels of learning in the cognitive domain, he's been presented in the form of Moore's.

In the previous version, the different levels were knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. But in the revised version of 2001, these nouns have been replaced by the verbs. The learning is said to be a continuum that happens from remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. So what are the different operations which have been happening in these levels will be detailed in the next slide.

Here we will have an in-depth analysis into the various levels of learning in the cognitive domain according to Bloom's taxonomy. The first level of learning in the cognitive domain is remembering. This is also termed as the memory level of learning where the learner stores all the impulses that reach him through the five senses and retrieves it from memory whenever it is needed.

The next level is understanding. Here, the learner has been able to understand whatever he has taught in the memory through intellectual apprehension so that he has been able to paraphrase, explain, identify, and discuss to some extent. The next level according to the cognitive domain is applying. In this level, the learner is able to use whatever he has learned to a new situation for the solution of these problems. That is, he will be able to take information of an abstract nature and use it in a concrete situation.

The next level is analyzing. This level is a higher level of applying. In this level, the learner develops the capacity to break down complex situations into component parts and will be able to apply the concept learned into this bus and be able to find out the relationship among them. The next level according to this hierarchy is evaluating. In this level, the learner is being elevated to the level of a judge where the learner has been able to appraise and make judgments on the different areas that he has learned. And the highest level of learning according to the cognitive domain is creating.

Here, the learner is being elevated to the position of a discoverer where the learner has been able to find something new. He'll be able to put together many disorganized elements or parts to form a whole in a new way. So this gives a very beautiful concept into how learning should happen. The learner should be able to proceed from the remembering level to the creating level so that he will be able to contribute something new to the field of knowledge.

Here, we will try to understand how the hierarchy operates in the cognitive domain. As we have already discussed, the learning in the cognitive domain takes place through six levels, namely remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. So now, let us try to find out what is the hierarchy between these levels.

We know that before you can understand a concept, you have to remember it first. So remembering becomes a prerequisite for understanding. To apply a concept, we have to understand it first. So understanding becomes a prerequisite for applying. To evaluate a concept, you have to analyze it first. So analyzing becomes a prerequisite for evaluating. To create an accurate conclusion, we must complete a thorough evaluation. So evaluation becomes a prerequisite for creating.

Now it is evident that learning is a process engineered in such a way that one level is a prerequisite for the other, and learning takes place in a continuum. So now we have gone through the conceptual framework of Bloom's taxonomy. For effective teaching and evaluation, these concepts have to be incorporated into practice. We could conclude that Bloom's taxonomy gives a skeleton or a wireframe for effective teaching.

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