Sunday, April 8, 2012

Bloom's Taxonomy

In 1956 Benjamin Bloom and a group of cognitive psychologists produced a taxonomy for the development of intellectual behavior which became deeply embedded in our thinking on the process of education. Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation are an integral part of the pre-service and in-service training of teachers.

In the 1990's Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom) and a group of cognitive psychologists "updated" the taxonomy to Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating. Note: By seeing "updated" in quotes, you can safely assume my thoughts on the whole update concept.

The issue here is NOT nomenclature! Many of us in education are "stuck" teaching our students at the lower levels of the taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension and application, while students thirst for learning at the higher levels: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

I'm talking to myself here as well! The new online tools combined with time-tested techniques create endless possibilities for quenching that thirst.

How do you embed Bloom's Taxonomy into a learning environment? How can you mentor me to do a better job?

Checkout Samantha Penney's adaptation of a few new online tools to Bloom's Taxonomy.


What tools would you add to each level?

1 comment:

  1. Glad to see you blogging again, Alan. Enjoy your post, even when they sail way over my head!

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