Overview of Bloom’s Taxonomy
• In 1956, Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago headed a group of educational psychologists
who developed a classification of levels of intellectual behavior important in learning.
• Bloom's Taxonomy* divides educational objectives into three domains, cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor. (sometimes loosely described as knowing/head, feeling/heart and doing/hands
respectively).
• The cognitive domain is most often used by educators to evaluate student learning. A revised version
of the cognitive taxonomy was created in 2000** and is illustrated below.
• Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of facts,
as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest
order which is classified as creating.
• Verb examples that represent intellectual activity on each level are listed here.
Remembering: can the student recall
or remember the information?
Understanding: can the student
explain ideas or concepts?
Applying: can the student use the
information in a new way?
Analyzing: can the student distinguish
between the different parts?
Evaluating: can the student justify a
stand or decision?
Creating: can the student create new
product or point of view?
define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce, state,
arrange, name, order, recognize, relate
classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize,
report, select, translate, paraphrase, express, indicate, restate,
review
apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate,
interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write, practice
analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast,
criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine,
experiment, question, test
appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate,
assess, choose, compare, arrange, manage, organize, rate
assemble, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, write,
predict, compose, propose, set up, prepare, plan, estimate
*Benjamin Bloom, ed. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York: Longmans, 1956
**L. W. Anderson, D. R. Krathwohl, Peter W. Airasian, Kathleen A. Cruikshank, Richard E. Mayer, Paul R. Pintrich, James Raths,
and Merlin C. Wittrock (eds) (2000) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and **Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives Allyn and Bacon
http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm
Sacramento State CTL 2012