Module in Facilitating Learning
MODULE 16. THE REVISED BLOOM’S TAXONOMY OF EDUCATIONAL
OBJECTIVES
Overview:
These levels can be helpful in developing learning outcomes because certain
verbs are particularly appropriate at each level and not appropriate at other levels
(though some verbs are useful at multiple levels). A student might list presidents or
proteins or participles to demonstrate that they remember something they learned, but
generating a list does not demonstrate (for example) that the student is capable of
evaluating the contribution of multiple presidents to American politics or explaining
protein folding or distinguishing between active and passive participles.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Formulate learning outcomes reflecting the different levels of the revised
taxonomy.
2. Explore the use of apps in applying the revised taxonomy.
Discussion:
In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter
Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational
goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom’s Taxonomy,
this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college
instructors in their teaching.
The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major
categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and
Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as “skills and abilities,” with
the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these
skills and abilities into practice.
While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple
to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according
to the six main categories.
1 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+revised+bloom
%27s+taxonomy+of+educational+objectives&source=lnms&tbm
The Original Taxonomy (1956)
Here are the authors’ brief explanations of these main categories in from the
appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Handbook One, pp. 201-207):
Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods
and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”
Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that
the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the
material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other
material or seeing its fullest implications.”
Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete
situations.”
Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent
elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or
the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”
Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a
whole.”
Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for
given purposes.”
2 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
The Revised Taxonomy (2001)
A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional
researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of
Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.
This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of “educational
objectives” (in Bloom’s original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of
classification.
The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and
gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the
original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which
thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:
Remember
o Recognizing
o Recalling
Understand
o Interpreting
o Exemplifying
o Classifying
o Summarizing
o Inferring
o Comparing
o Explaining
Apply
o Executing
o Implementing
Analyze
o Differentiating
o Organizing
o Attributing
Evaluate
o Checking
o Critiquing
Create
o Generating
o Planning
o Producing
In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but
its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:
Factual Knowledge
o Knowledge of terminology
3 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
o Knowledge of specific details and elements
Conceptual Knowledge
o Knowledge of classifications and categories
o Knowledge of principles and generalizations
o Knowledge of theories, models, and structures
Procedural Knowledge
o Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
o Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
o Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures
Metacognitive Knowledge
o Strategic Knowledge
o Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and
conditional knowledge
o Self-knowledge
4 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
Practical Guide in Using the Revised Taxonomy
When you are ready to plan your units, lessons or activities, Bloom’s Taxonomy
will be very useful in helping you formulate your learning objectives. Below is a
collection of action words and possible activities or work which you can use for your
plan.
Cognitive Dimension Sample action Words Suggested Activities,
Levels Outputs or Outcomes
Remember Recall Describe Recitations, Worksheets,
(Recalling Information) Name Locate definitions, Facts charts,
List Write Lists
State Find
Tell Underline
Reproduce Define
Understand Explain Describe Story problems, drawing
(Explaining information Translate Define show and tell, summary,
and concepts) Interpret Report paraphrasing
5 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
Discuss Predict
Apply Use Practice Presentation, role-playing,
(Using information in a Solve Execute simulation, collection,
new way) Implement Demonstrate model, scrapbook, product
Construct Dramatize
Analyze Compare Contrast Chart, plan, questionnaire,
(Distinguishing different Distinguish Separate spread sheet, summary,
parts of a whole) Investigate Differentiate survey
Infer Sequence
Evaluate Assess Appraise Opinion, judgement,
(Defending a concept or Debate Check recommendation, report,
idea) Defend Decide self-evaluation, position
Dispute Justify paper, critique
Judge Rate
Create Change Invent Framework, model, story,
(Creating something new) Design Devise multi-media presentation,
Formulate Generate poem, song, essay
Improve Compose
Propose
Why Use Bloom’s Taxonomy
The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to
which the author of this teaching guide has added some clarifying points:
1. Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical
interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that
interchange.
2. Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.
3. Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:
o “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
o “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”;
o “ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”
4. It guides the teacher in formulating learning outcomes that tap higher-order
thinking skills.
6 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
Exercises/Drills:
1. Think of a topic you are interested to teach. Formulate learning outcomes for a
unit in a topic.
Topic: ________________________________________ Year/Level: ____________
1. Write at least 10 learning outcomes:
Learning Learning Outcomes
Outcome
Number
10
2. Analyse the learning outcomes you formulated. Write the numeral corresponding
to your learning outcomes in the appropriate space in the matrix below.
Knowledge Dimension
Cognitive Factual Conceptual Procedural Metacognitive
Dimension
1. Remember
2. Understand
7 Ricky D. Fecara
Module in Facilitating Learning
3. Apply
4. Analyze
5. Evaluate
6. Create
3. Up to what cognitive level were you able to formulate learning outcomes?
4. Which knowledge dimension were you able to include?
Evaluation:
1. Formulate learning outcomes reflecting the different levels of the revised
taxonomy
Please watch this video for additional information
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzAukEMiSHo
References:
Maria Rita, D. L. (2014). Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process: Lorimar
Publishing
Brawner, D.G. (2018). Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching. Adriana Publishing Co.
Inc.
https://citl.illinois.edu/docs/default-source/default-document-library/bloom's-taxonomy-
(revised).pdf?sfvrsn=2
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
8 Ricky D. Fecara
