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Rohit is a secondary school teacher who has an opportunity to lead a summer program for a group of exchange students from the US. The program is eight weeks long and is meant to provide the learners with a concise outline of Indian history and culture.
Rohit has taught history in schools for close to a decade. But he struggles to structure the program and plan its exact objectives and outcomes in the absence of proper guidance from the organizers. After spending two futile weeks trying to create a program structure, Rohit stumbles upon Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives online. Immediately, Rohit realizes that he has found his solution.
Absorbing the key aspects of Bloom’s model, Rohit plans out his program down to the most precise detail. The program is a great success and Rohit is credited as an exemplary teacher.
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What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
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A Brief History Of Bloom’s Taxonomy
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How Bloom’s Taxonomy Helps Teachers And Learners
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The Three Domains Of Bloom’s Taxonomy
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Transform Your Learning Experience
What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives is a hierarchical ordering of skills in different domains whose primary use is to help teachers teach and students learn effectively and efficiently. The meaning of Bloom’s taxonomy can be understood by exploring its three learning domains—cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Each of these domains further consists of a hierarchy that denotes different levels of learning.
The fact that each domain is hierarchical means that learners need to move through these domains one step at a time. They cannot proceed to a new level without completing the previous one. This is an important characteristic of Bloom’s taxonomy. It fits in with Bloom’s taxonomy objectives in providing a systematic and gradual learning process.
A Brief History Of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s taxonomy was originally devised by Benjamin Bloom in 1965, published as a comprehensive classification of learning objectives and outcomes. In 2001, Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl (one of Bloom’s original collaborators) revised Bloom’s initial framework to produce a modified and updated version of Bloom’s taxonomy. This revision also involved contributions from curriculum theorists, cognitive psychologists, instructional researchers and testing and assessment specialists.
How Bloom’s Taxonomy Helps Teachers And Learners
Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives is meant to make learning easier and more enjoyable both for teachers and learners. Here’s a list of ways in which Bloom’s taxonomy objectives facilitate the process of learning for both stakeholders:
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Helps organize and collect information in a methodical manner
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Incentivizes teachers and learners to constantly upskill themselves
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Builds team spirit and promotes values that are required to work in a collective environment
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Through its hierarchies, it sets up a series of goals that learners can aspire to achieve
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The multiple domains categorize different elements of learning allowing teachers and learners to prioritize domains where they might be lacking insight and information
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Involves both theoretical knowledge and practical applications so that the learning process is as holistic as possible.
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Can be used to create a wide variety of assessments and assignments, both personalized and uniform
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Can be used to simplify and complicate an activity in order to track learning progress more accurately
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Can be used to create digital applications that can be customized based on a learner’s specific needs
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Its flexible design means it can be easily updated or revised in the future, taking into account the changing needs of teachers and learners
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The nature of its domains means that it can be applied to almost anything that requires a stage-by-stage system of learning
The Three Domains Of Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s taxonomy comprises three learning domains to understand different levels of learning.
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Cognitive
The cognitive domain of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning tries to cater to Bloom’s taxonomy objectives such as critical thinking, problem-solving and creating and enhancing a knowledge base. This was the first domain created by Bloom’s original team of researchers and includes hierarchies that are concerned with building new knowledge as well as refining previously gathered information. The different levels of the cognitive domain are as follows:
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Remember:
Concerned with all kinds of memorization techniques and optimal use of information acquired in the past. For example, remembering the names of all the prime ministers of India
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Understand:
Concerned with going into the depths of a concept or an idea in order to comprehend it in multiple ways. For example, identifying the main challenges in governance each prime minister had to deal with during their tenure
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Apply:
Concerned with applying knowledge to produce something tangible. For example, taking a political challenge from five decades ago and applying its lessons to a similar issue in the present
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Analyze:
Concerned with examining and scrutinizing different aspects of what is being learnt. For example, analyzing the personalities of different prime ministers and how that affected their performance
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Evaluate:
Concerned with detecting the motivations and intentions behind events, processes and situations. For example, assessing why certain prime ministers decided to go to war at certain junctures in history
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Create:
Concerned with building something that’s original and constructive. For example, creating a list of qualities that any modern prime minister of India should possess. This particular level was known as “Synthesis” in the original model, but was later changed to acknowledge creativity as the highest form of cognitive achievement in the revised version of Bloom’s taxonomy.
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Affective
The affective domain of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning helps to achieve Bloom’s taxonomy objectives in relation to attitudes, values and interests of learners. Its primary focus is to trace the evolution of values and how they develop across the entire learning process. The different levels of the affective domain are as follows:
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Receiving:
Concerned with paying adequate attention to someone who’s presenting or performing. For example, listening to a lecturer and writing a summary of that lecture
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Responding:
Concerned with producing a performance or a presentation to increase self-confidence and technical skills. For example, delivering a lecture to an audience on a specific subject
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Valuing:
Concerned with expressing the values that one prioritizes in life and justifying why they do so. For example, delivering a speech highlighting any three values that one considers to be the most important for any professional
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Organization:
Concerned with organizing a particular value system and comparing it with other systems to better appreciate different settings and cultures. For example, delivering a presentation that compares value systems as seen in government-funded charities and non-governmental organizations
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Characterization:
Concerned with projecting one’s values in real time to be able to work successfully in a team. For example, writing an essay as part of a team on how value systems need to adapt to the world of online learning
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Psychomotor
The psychomotor domain of Bloom’s taxonomy of learning helps to realize Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives such as physically accomplishing tasks and performing various movements and skills. The different levels of the psychomotor domain are as follows:
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Reflex:
Concerned with an instinctive response to a physical stimulus. For example, catching a tennis ball that’s thrown at learners or trying to hit a target with that same tennis ball
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Basic Fundamental Movements:
Concerned with everyday actions or movements such as walking or running. For example, participating in a relay race that tests one’s fitness, speed and teamwork capabilities
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Perceptual Abilities:
Concerned with performing activities that integrate more than one sensory perception. For example, playing a game of cricket that assesses one’s ability to react to events as well as anticipate events before they occur
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Skilled Movements:
Concerned with adapting oneself and one’s attributes to a challenging environment. For example, playing a game of soccer or hockey at a location with a high altitude where players are expected to conserve energy in order to prevent heavy fatigue
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Non-Discursive Communication:
Concerned with expressing oneself through purposeful movement and activity. For example, playing any team sport that requires both active communication with fellow players and a display of personal skills
Through this breakdown of each of the domains of Bloom’s taxonomy, it’s clear how the taxonomy can cater to all kinds of learners and attempt to meet a vast collection of learning requirements. While it isn’t necessary for learners to experience all three domains, the cognitive domain is usually considered indispensable in any learning process.
Transform Your Learning Experience
Bloom’s taxonomy is just one of several structured learning approaches that you’d want your employees to master. At Harappa, our Inspiring Faculty Program is equipped with a variety of learning approaches, models and applications that’ll ensure a transformative learning experience for employees from all kinds of organizations. Besides Bloom’s taxonomy, your employees will have the opportunity to learn with the help of concepts and models like the Pyramid Principle, Meta Cognition, Aristotle’s Appeals and the Ladder of Inference.
By integrating theoretical expertise with must-have skills such as confident facilitation, empathetic listening or masterful storytelling, this program is the perfect pathway for employees to embark on a journey of impactful learning that makes tangible differences to their performance and productivity. Enroll for this program and maximize the learning potential of your employees.
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