What is Bloom's Taxonomy? Applications & Importance of Bloom's Taxonomy

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”- Maimonides

“Bloom’s Taxonomy” is a popular educational model.

Before we discuss the purpose of Bloom’s Taxonomy, let us talk about the conventional educational system which was unlike the modern system. The traditional educational setup lacked a lot of things when it comes to providing the best teaching-learning provisions to students but, the goal of achieving–

“Bloom’s Taxonomy” is a popular educational model. Be it the time when students used to study in “Gurukuls” or the recent times using “edTech”, the purpose is to make students life-long learners & inculcate good values & skills in them. Bloom’s Taxonomy can be understood as one such attempt to revive the educational practices with the best teaching methodologies & the way of student performance evaluation.

“Best student learning outcomes + skill development” remains the same.

Let’s begin with understanding what is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Three Domains of Bloom's Taxonomy

I) Cognitive Domain

In the cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy, the major focus is given to the development of knowledge and intellectual skills. As per the complexity, there are six sub-heads of the cognitive domain.

1. Knowledge

Gaining knowledge about facts, figures, and basic concepts.

2. Comprehension

Understanding the facts gathered during the knowledge stage .

3. Application

Applying the knowledge and the concepts in the best way possible.

4. Analysis

Analyzing the application, making conclusions, and understanding relationships between the different aspects of the application.

5. Evaluation

Judging and defending conclusions about the information generated from the application.

6. Creation

Creating new results by planning, designing, developing the actual application.

II)Affective Domain

This domain of Bloom's taxonomy deals with the feelings and the emotions associated with the passage. It contains complex ideas and conscience, phenomena, and characters. The main aspects of the affective domain are as follows.

• Reception
• Response
• Values
• Organization
• Characterization

III) Psychomotor Domain

The psychomotor domain of bloom’s taxonomy deals with coordination, sensory organ movement, and the physical movement of the body of a student. A great practice is required to be good at these skills. The physical act of driving, playing the keyboard, guitar, are major examples of the psychomotor domain.

Applications of Bloom’s Taxonomy

• Finding meanings of words, phrases, idioms that are used in the paragraph using application and understanding
• Concluding the passage and its points using evaluation and analysis
• Gaining details and remembering them using understanding and remembering
• Understanding the author’s tone by using the concept of evaluation
• Give a proper title for the passage using the concept of evaluation and understanding

Example of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Imagine that an essay has to be written by a college student to analyze their communication skills. To complete the given assignment, the student must be able to use the levels of Bloom’s taxonomy as given below

1. Remember:

Make use of previous knowledge and different types of communication techniques required in regular life

2. Understand:

Analyze how all these different types of communication techniques will help them write the assignment

3. Apply:

Make use of an academically credible communication theory and make sure it applies to their personal communication style.

4. Analyze:

Analyze how different types of communications are required based on the situations, audiences, and intentions

5. Evaluate:

Assess the communication process from a macro-perspective and see the contemporary challenges

6. Create:

Create an original framework that uniquely describes one’s communication style

Six Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy & Its Importance

Wondering what do the above-mentioned levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy indicate?

Let me explain it to you step-by-step…

Level #1: Remember

Remember - it indicates the learning of students in the classroom.

Whatever a student has learned theoretically or practically, both are considered as knowledgeable aspects. Just like any other aspect of education, knowledge, though basic, but is one of the most important.

A student’s knowledge level acts as a “catalyst” in unlocking the other levels.

If a student has good knowledge, he/she can implement it in a way that no one could imagine.

So, this level could be considered as the pillar of the educational model.

Level #2: Comprehension

Comprehension indicates the level of understanding.

For instance, no matter how much a student scores in the exam & know about a concept, but the value of education would be when he/she truly understands it.

Understanding a concept to the core can be a game-changer for students who want to have a successful career ahead.

Therefore, students must focus on understanding the teachings to their depth and not take them lightly.

Level #3: Application

The third most level of Bloom’s Taxonomy is application.

As the name indicates, the application refers to the way a student learns, understands, and then applies the concept in real life.

For instance, a student learns how to write in the “English” language.

He understands it well and has a good aptitude. However, if there comes a time where his parents need to write a letter in English for urgent work then, he should be able to write the letter.

This is where he would apply his knowledge in real life.

So, if you doubt-

“Is Bloom's taxonomy a learning theory?”

I hope the query has been resolved!

Level #4: Analysis

Analyzing anything is quite an imperative task.

Just because someone says something, the students must not accept the same.

They must develop an analysis power that could differentiate between what is authentic & what’s not.

It would help the students deal with any situation in their career.

Level #5: Synthesis

Synthesis can be understood as gathering everything that is learned and then creating something new out of it. As easy as it may sound, but to reach this level, the student needs to be well prepared & has gained knowledge in depth.

The student must be at a stage to become an avid learner.

Level #6: Evaluation

Evaluation simply refers to a skill that enables students to judge anything in terms of whether it’s true or not along with giving strong reasoning.

The students can reach this stage only when all other stages are cleared. It won’t happen overnight, the entire process takes a good amount of time.

However, teachers need to encourage a student to clear all the stages & develop skills that would help them fulfill their dreams.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Model in 2001 indicates the highest level to be - creation.

Level #7: Creation

Creation indicates that the student must be able to create something out of the teaching-learning process. It can be understood as a student writes a book on something or he creates a device that would help society in some way.

Creation in itself is a great achievement. It aims toward the welfare of the society – which is one of the main purposes of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Why Use Bloom’s Taxonomy?

The levels of Bloom's Taxonomy can aid in guiding students through the learning process, starting with remembering, understanding, evaluating, and creating. This makes it particularly beneficial for course design.

It can further help in developing assessments by assisting you in matching course learning objectives to any desired level of mastery. For instance, when teaching lower-level, introductory courses, the faculty can measure detailed mastery of objectives at the lower levels, and when teaching more advanced, higher division courses, one would be assessing students' abilities at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

Learning objectives should be established in a pedagogical interaction so that both instructors and learners understand the real purpose behind them. Following are some of the reasons why Bloom’s Taxonomy is critical in an educational institute.

By using application and understanding levels, determine and comprehend the meaning of the phrases, words, and idioms used in the paragraph.

• Using evaluation and analysis, conclude the passage and its points.
• Getting information and retaining it through understanding and remembering.
• Using the evaluation concept, the faculty can determine the tone of the author's voice.

Original Bloom’s Taxonomy vs. Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

The original Bloom’s taxonomy included levels of Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Whereas the revised taxonomy changed into Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. The older version included both the noun aspect and the verb aspect but was unidimensional. The revised taxonomy renames the original skills to verbs, flips the top skills, and also subdivides each skill along a knowledge dimension.

The revised version is just an update to the original taxonomy that simply expanded on the vision of the original while revising the language and hierarchy of the popular cognitive process dimension. As per Krathwohl, the revision of this taxonomy was developed in much the same manner 45 years later. This is generally referred to as the "Revised Bloom’s taxonomy." The new draft also considered many of Bloom's own criticisms and concerns about his original taxonomy.

‘Creating’ which is the most vital level of the revised version, moves the student into a world of thinking whereby they begin to come up with new and unique innovations and ideas, even moving into the dimension of original thought.

Why is Bloom's Taxonomy important?

For more than 50 years and counting, faculty from K–12 through HEIs have used Bloom's taxonomy extensively. This is mostly because of its structure, which emphasizes setting realistic learning objectives that teachers and students can both comprehend and developing a well-thought-out strategy to achieve them.

In order to quickly assess what the students are capable of as a result of the training they have received at each level of Bloom's taxonomy without the need for class-wide generalizations, educators are increasingly urged to see learning objectives in behavioral terms. It further allows teachers to assess learning on an ongoing basis, promoting students' reflection on their academic progress.

In addition, it is important for different stakeholders.

To students:

• Bloom’s taxonomy helps students improve their brain strength and further help in creating more synapses between nerve cells.
• It promotes higher-order thinking in the students by building up their lower-level cognitive skills.
• It helps students develop skills that employers want, such as problem-solving skills, critical-thinking skills, etc.

To Faculty:

• The taxonomy helps teachers determine the intellectual capability at which individual students can work and develop clear objectives in their framework.
• It can assist in designing assessments by matching course learning objectives to any given level of mastery.
• It further helps faculty improve their critical thinking.

To Institutions:

• Bloom’s taxonomy helps in achieving better outcomes and monitoring & improving overall progress.
• Additionally, creating a curriculum that meets the needs of the industry might be helpful for course creators.

How Bloom’s Taxonomy Is Useful for Teachers?

Bloom’s taxonomy helps the teachers to think and analyze their teaching and student’s learning. The framework is used to state clear objectives which can help the teachers to plan lessons accordingly. Moreover, it can provide a framework for cognitive behaviors which can be applied to understand the difficulty of tasks, conduct an assessment, and simplify or complicate the activities.

Bloom’s Taxonomy helps the teachers to understand the objectives of classroom teaching. It guides them to change the complexity of the questions and helps students to achieve higher levels of hierarchy. Further, it helps to develop critical thinking among teachers.