Slides from the plenary session delivered at the first Teachers Helping Teachers seminar in Manila, Philippines.

1. Blooming Materials
Aligning Learning, Teaching and
Assessment Goals by the
application of Bloom’s Taxonomy

2. Caveat!
• In any study related to the brain or mind, we
are using the mind to measure itself
• Neurologists and biologists working at the
level of the neuron do not know exactly how
the brain functions
• Nobody can claim this is how something
works, when talking about the mind,
everything is filtered through the individual’s
personal experience, knowledge and
perceptions of their own mind/brain and how
it works for them in relation to others

3. What is a taxonomy?
• A taxonomy is a system of classification
which provides a unique (i.e. single)
point within the system for every item
which is to be classified
Example: the system used to identify
living organisms, plants, animals, etc.
identifies modern-day human beings as
homo sapiens sapiens

4. Why a Taxonomy for Educators?
• Standards
• Handling a large number of seeming
vague or disconnected objectives
• A framework for learning, teaching and
assessing both the effectiveness of
instruction and the abilities of the
students

5. Bloom’s Original Taxonomy
• Cognitive • Knowledge
• Affective • Attitudes
• Psychomotor • Skills

6. The Cognitive Domain
Evaluation recommend, judge, summarize
Synthesis create, invent, hypothesize
Analysis separate, compare, analyse
Application use, apply, demonstrate
Comprehension write, explain, justify
Knowledge define, name, describe

7. Modifications to the original
Note the change from Nouns to Verbs [e.g., Application to Applying] to
describe the different levels of the taxonomy. Note that the top two
levels are essentially exchanged from the Old to the New version.
Source: http://www.odu.edu/educ/llschult/blooms_taxonomy.htm

8. The Knowledge Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Remembering Understanding Applying Analysing Evaluating Creating
Domain
1. Knowledge of terminology
Factual 2. Knowledge of specific details and
elements

9. The Knowledge Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Remembering Understanding Applying Analysing Evaluating Creating
Domain
1. Knowledge of classifications and
categories
Conceptual
2. Knowledge of principles and
generalizations
3. Knowledge of theories, models, and
structures

10. The Knowledge Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Remembering Understanding Applying Analysing Evaluating Creating
Domain
1. Knowledge of subject-specific skills
and algorithms
Procedural
2. Knowledge of subject-specific
techniques and methods
3. Knowledge of criteria for determining
when to use appropriate procedures

11. The Knowledge Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Remembering Understanding Applying Analysing Evaluating Creating
Domain
1. Strategic knowledge
2. Knowledge about cognitive tasks,
Metacognitive including appropriate contextual and
conditional knowledge
3. Self-knowledge

12. The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Domain Remember
Factual
Conceptual
1. Recognizing
Procedural 2. Recalling
Metacognitive

13. The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Domain Understand
Factual 1. Interpreting
2. Exemplifying
Conceptual
3. Classifying
Procedural
4. Summarizing
5. Inferring
Metacognitive
6. Comparing
7. Explaining

14. The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Domain Apply
Factual
Conceptual
1. Executing
Procedural 2. Implementing
Metacognitive

15. The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Domain Analyse
Factual
Conceptual
1. Differentiating
2. Organizing
Procedural
3. Attributing
Metacognitive

16. The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Domain Evaluate
Factual
Conceptual
1. Checking
Procedural 2. Critiquing
Metacognitive

17. The Cognitive Domain
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Domain Create
Factual
Conceptual
1. Generating
2. Planning
Procedural
3. Producing
Metacognitive

18. The “Complete” Picture
The Cognitive Domain
Knowledge
Remember Understand Apply Analyse Evaluate Create
Domain
Factual List Summarize Classify Order Rank Combine
Conceptual Describe Interpret Experiment Explain Assess Plan
Procedural Tabulate Predict Calculate Differentiate Conclude Compose
Appropriate
Metacognitive use
Execute Construct Achieve Action Actualize

19. Why a Taxonomy for Educators?
• Standards
• Handling a large number of seeming
vague or disconnected objectives
• A framework for learning, teaching and
assessing both the effectiveness of
instruction and the abilities of the
students

20. Why a Taxonomy for Educators?
Objectives
• Global • All students will start
school ready to learn
• Educational • The ability to read musical
scores
• Instructional • The students learn to
solve quadratic equations

21. What’s the relationship?
Level of Objective
Global Educational Instructional
Scope Broad Moderate Narrow
Time needed One or more years
Weeks or monthsr Hours or days
to learn (often many)
Purpose or
Provide vision Design curriculum Plan lessons
function
Plan daily
Plan a multi-year Plan units of
activities,
Example curriculum for instruction, e.g. the
experiences, and
elementary reading Romans in Britain
exercises

22. Caveat 2!
• Be careful not to confuse an instructional
objective with the activity used to carry it out
• Compare these two teachers’ statements:
My students are going to learn how dominant
and recessive genes explain the differential
inheritance of some characteristics in brothers
and sisters
My students are going on a field trip to the zoo

23. Four Important Questions
• Learning – What is important for students to learn in the
limited school and classroom time available?
• Instruction – How does one plan and deliver instruction
that will result in high levels of learning for large numbers
of students?
• Assessment – How does one select or design assessment
instruments and procedures that provide accurate
information about how well students are learning?
• Alignment – How does one ensure that objectives,
instruction, and assessment are consistent with one
another?

24. Where next?
• As a starting point, the online Wiki about
Bloom’s Taxonomy has some useful links to
click.
• Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) is also very
readable, whatever your position as an
educator within the school system
• You can e-mail me if you have any questions:
colin_sumikin@yahoo.co.uk
(Please put THT Phil in the subject line)