An essay on Bloom's taxonomy

Bloom is, perhaps, best known in education for having recognized three distinct domains of learning. These three domains are the Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor realms of educational activities. When focusing strictly on the Cognitive domain, it is imperative to remember that this area focuses solely on knowledge and intellectual skils.

The six major behavioral categories that fall under the Cognitive domain are uniquely independent, yet mastery of one must precede the next. The most basic type of learning that students perform, according to the hierarchy of the Cognitive domain, is Knowledge. Knowledge is synonymous with the recollection of data or information. Students who are able to successfully complete learning tasks dealing with knowledge will be able to complete objectives that contain verbs such as "describes", "identifies", "names", "or recalls". Comprehension is the next category in the ladder of higher order thinking skills. Comprehension, then, deals with the ability to understand, interpret, translate, and estimate. An example of a lesson objective describing Comprehension is "The student will be able to explain the directions of the game of basketball in their own words."

One proceeds up rest of the hierarchy of Bloom's Cognitive domain with Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. Evaluation, in this sense, is the most complex learning that takes place and deals with the ability to judge the value of ideas or materials. . Application is the ability to apply previously learned facts and concepts to solve problems. Analysis can be defined as the ability to distinguish between facts and inferences and recognize organizational structure, while synthesis is the ability to put what you've learned into the form of a culminating summary.

All of these categories have their own set of objective verbs that assist in either recognizing or formulating objectives in different assessments and lesson/unit plans. Also, since Bloom's taxonomy takes on a hierarchical structure, the level of higher order thinking skills becomes evident upon the success or failure of these objectives.