BENJAMIN BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF LEARNING DOMAINS

Bloom’s Taxonomy, (in full: ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains’, or strictly speaking: Bloom’s ‘Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives’) was initially (the first part) published in 1956 under the leadership of American academic and educational expert Dr Benjamin S Bloom. ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy’ was originally created in and for an academic context, (the development commencing in 1948), when Benjamin Bloom chaired a committee of educational psychologists, based in American education, whose aim was to develop a system of categories of learning behaviour to assist in the design and assessment of educational learning.

EXPLANATION OF BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Taxonomy means ‘a set of classification principles’, or ‘structure’, and Domain simply means ‘category’. Bloom’s Taxonomy underpins the classical ‘Knowledge, Attitude, Skills’ structure of learning method and evaluation, Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains remains the most widely used system of its kind in education particularly, and also industry and corporate training. It’s easy to see why, because it is such a simple, clear and effective model, both for explanation and application of learning objectives, teaching and training methods, and measurement of learning outcomes.

Bloom’s Taxonomy provides an excellent structure for planning, designing, assessing and evaluating training and learning effectiveness. The model also serves as a sort of checklist, by which you can ensure that training is planned to deliver all the necessary development for students, trainees or learners, and a template by which you can assess the validity and coverage of any existing training, be it a course, a curriculum, or an entire training and development programme for a large organisation.

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY DEFINITIONS

Bloom’s Taxonomy model is in three parts.

1. Cognitive domain: Deals with the intellectual capability, i.e., knowledge, or ‘think’.

2. Affective domain: Looks at the feelings, emotions and behaviour, i.e., attitude, or ‘feel’.

3. Psychomotor domain: Deals with movements, Manual and physical skills, i.e., skills, or ‘do’.

In each of the three domains Bloom’s Taxonomy is based on the premise that the categories are ordered in degree of difficulty.

An important premise of Bloom’s Taxonomy is that each category (or ‘level’) must be mastered before progressing to the next. As such the categories within each domain are levels of learning development, and these levels increase in difficulty. The learner should benefit from development of knowledge and intellect (Cognitive

Domain); attitude and beliefs (Affective Domain); and the ability to put physical and bodily skills into effect - to act (Psychomotor Domain).

BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OVERVIEW

Here’s a really simple adapted ‘at-a-glance’ representation of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This simple overview can help you (and others) to understand and explain the taxonomy. This overview helps to clarify and distinguish the levels. For the more precise original Bloom Taxonomy terminology and definitions see the more detailed domain structures beneath this at-a-glance model. It’s helpful at this point to consider also the ‘conscious competence’ learning stages model, which provides a useful perspective for all three domains, and the concept of developing competence by stages in sequence.

Cognitive Affective Psychomotor Knowledge Attitude Skills

1. Recall data 1. Receive (awareness) 1. Imitation (copy)

2. Comprehend/Understand 2. Respond (react) 2. Manipulation (follow instructions)

3. Apply (use)

3. Value (understand and act) 3. Develop Precision

4. Analyse (structure/elements)

4. Organise personal value system

4. Articulation (combine, integrate related skills)

5. Synthesize (create/build)

5. Naturalization (automate, become expert)

6. Evaluate (assess, judge in relational terms)

5. Internalize value system (adopt behaviour)