bloom's taxonomy of critical thinking skills

Critical thinking and Information Literacy: Bloom's Taxonomy

• A Note on Critical Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Bloom's Taxonomy
• Christopher Dwyer's Critical Thinking

What is Bloom's Taxonomy and why is it relevant to Critical Thinking

Bloom's Taxonomy and Critical Thinking go hand in hand.  Bloom's taxonomy takes students through a thought process of analyzing information or knowledge critically.  Bloom's taxonomy begins with knowledge/memory and slowly pushes students to seek more information based upon a series of levels of questions and keywords that brings out an action on the part of the student.  Both critical thinking and Bloom's taxonomy are necessary to education and meta-cognition. 

Practical Applications:

• Th e Idea of “dialogue” with a “text” and on of  filling gaps or silences in the what you are  reading in order  so that you can contribute to any conversation, in particular when writing a research paper is primordial.
• Teaching students extrapolation- The concept that they are in charge of answering their own questions. "effects" of something must be determined by my own findings!
• The more “content” background knowledge we have the more critical our engagement.

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

Source below Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching- Patricia Armstrong-  Bloom's Taxonomy

• Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.
• Teachers can benefit from using frameworks to organize objectives because
• Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.
• “plan and deliver appropriate instruction”;
• “design valid assessment tasks and strategies”; and
• “ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”

See also, Anderson, Lorin W., et al.  A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing : A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives / Editors, Lorin W. Anderson, David Krathwohl ; Contributors, Peter W. Airasian ... [et Al.].  Complete ed., Longman, 2001.

The Revised Taxonomy 2001

• Recognizing
• Interpreting
• Exemplifying
• Classifying
• Summarizing
• Implementing
• Differentiating
• Attributing

"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:  Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching- Patricia Armstrong-  Bloom's Taxonomy

• Knowledge of terminology
• Knowledge of specific details and elements
• Knowledge of classifications and categories
• Knowledge of principles and generalizations
• Knowledge of theories, models, and structures
• Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
• Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
• Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures
• Strategic Knowledge
• Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge
• Self-knowledge

Critical thinking Bloom's Taxonomy

Image source: Google Images Search:  WellsAcademicSolutions-

In Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), Bloom outlined  six hierarchical and interconnected:

• Comprehension
• Application

Bloom Taxonomy Example

Here is an example of Bloom's Taxonomy in use:

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Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning

Charlotte Ruhl

Research Assistant & Psychology Graduate

BA (Hons) Psychology, Harvard University

Charlotte Ruhl, a psychology graduate from Harvard College, boasts over six years of research experience in clinical and social psychology. During her tenure at Harvard, she contributed to the Decision Science Lab, administering numerous studies in behavioral economics and social psychology.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

On This Page:

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical models used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. The three lists cover the learning objectives in cognitive, affective, and sensory domains, namely: thinking skills, emotional responses, and physical skills.

Key Takeaways

• Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model that categorizes learning objectives into varying levels of complexity, from basic knowledge and comprehension to advanced evaluation and creation.
• Bloom’s Taxonomy was originally published in 1956, and the Taxonomy was modified each year for 16 years after it was first published.
• After the initial cognitive domain was created, which is primarily used in the classroom setting, psychologists devised additional taxonomies to explain affective (emotional) and psychomotor (physical) learning.
• In 2001, Bloom’s initial taxonomy was revised to reflect how learning is an active process and not a passive one.
• Although Bloom’s Taxonomy is met with several valid criticisms, it is still widely used in the educational setting today.

Take a moment and think back to your 7th-grade humanities classroom. Or any classroom from preschool to college. As you enter the room, you glance at the whiteboard to see the class objectives.

“Students will be able to…” is written in a red expo marker. Or maybe something like “by the end of the class, you will be able to…” These learning objectives we are exposed to daily are a product of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a system of hierarchical models (arranged in a rank, with some elements at the bottom and some at the top) used to categorize learning objectives into varying levels of complexity (Bloom, 1956).

You might have heard the word “taxonomy” in biology class before, because it is most commonly used to denote the classification of living things from kingdom to species.

In the same way, this taxonomy classifies organisms, Bloom’s Taxonomy classifies learning objectives for students, from recalling facts to producing new and original work.

Bloom’s Taxonomy comprises three learning domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Within each domain, learning can take place at a number of levels ranging from simple to complex.

Development of the Taxonomy

Benjamin Bloom was an educational psychologist and the chair of the committee of educators at the University of Chicago.

In the mid 1950s, Benjamin Bloom worked in collaboration with Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl to devise a system that classified levels of cognitive functioning and provided a sense of structure for the various mental processes we experience (Armstrong, 2010).

Through conducting a series of studies that focused on student achievement, the team was able to isolate certain factors both inside and outside the school environment that affect how children learn.

One such factor was the lack of variation in teaching. In other words, teachers were not meeting each individual student’s needs and instead relied upon one universal curriculum.

To address this, Bloom and his colleagues postulated that if teachers were to provide individualized educational plans, students would learn significantly better.

This hypothesis inspired the development of Bloom’s Mastery Learning procedure in which teachers would organize specific skills and concepts into week-long units.

The completion of each unit would be followed by an assessment through which the student would reflect upon what they learned. 

The assessment would identify areas in which the student needs additional support, and they would then be given corrective activities to further sharpen their mastery of the concept (Bloom, 1971).

This theory that students would be able to master subjects when teachers relied upon suitable learning conditions and clear learning objectives was guided by Bloom’s Taxonomy.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Bloom’s Taxonomy was originally published in 1956 in a paper titled Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Bloom, 1956).

The taxonomy provides different levels of learning objectives, divided by complexity. Only after a student masters one level of learning goals, through formative assessments, corrective activities, and other enrichment exercises, can they move onto the next level (Guskey, 2005).

Cognitive Domain (1956)

Concerned with thinking and intellect.

The original version of the taxonomy, the cognitive domain, is the first and most common hierarchy of learning objectives (Bloom, 1956). It focuses on acquiring and applying knowledge and is widely used in the educational setting.

This initial cognitive model relies on nouns, or more passive words, to illustrate the different educational benchmarks.

Because it is hierarchical, the higher levels of the pyramid are dependent on having achieved the skills of the lower levels.

The individual tiers of the cognitive model from bottom to top, with examples included, are as follows:

Knowledge : recalling information or knowledge is the foundation of the pyramid and a precondition for all future levels → Example : Name three common types of meat. Comprehension : making sense out of information → Example : Summarize the defining characteristics of steak, pork, and chicken. Application : using knowledge in a new but similar form → Example : Does eating meat help improve longevity? Analysis : taking knowledge apart and exploring relationships → Example : Compare and contrast the different ways of serving meat and compare health benefits. Synthesis : using information to create something new → Example : Convert an “unhealthy” recipe for meat into a “healthy” recipe by replacing certain ingredients. Argue for the health benefits of using the ingredients you chose as opposed to the original ones. Evaluation : critically examining relevant and available information to make judgments → Example : Which kinds of meat are best for making a healthy meal and why?

Types of Knowledge

Although knowledge might be the most intuitive block of the cognitive model pyramid, this dimension is actually broken down into four different types of knowledge:

• Factual knowledge refers to knowledge of terminology and specific details.
• Conceptual knowledge describes knowledge of categories, principles, theories, and structures.
• Procedural knowledge encompasses all forms of knowledge related to specific skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.
• Metacognitive knowledge defines knowledge related to thinking — knowledge about cognitive tasks and self-knowledge (“Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy,” n.d.).

However, this is not to say that this order reflects how concrete or abstract these forms of knowledge are (e.g., procedural knowledge is not always more abstract than conceptual knowledge).

Nevertheless, it is important to outline these different forms of knowledge to show how it is more dynamic than one may think and that there are multiple different types of knowledge that can be recalled before moving onto the comprehension phase.

And while the original 1956 taxonomy focused solely on a cognitive model of learning that can be applied in the classroom, an affective model of learning was published in 1964 and a psychomotor model in the 1970s.

The Affective Domain (1964)

Concerned with feelings and emotion.

The affective model came as a second handbook (with the first being the cognitive model) and an extension of Bloom’s original work (Krathwol et al., 1964).

This domain focuses on the ways in which we handle all things related to emotions, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivations, and attitudes (Clark, 2015).

From lowest to highest, with examples included, the five levels are:

Receiving : basic awareness → Example : Listening and remembering the names of your classmates when you meet them on the first day of school. Responding : active participation and reacting to stimuli, with a focus on responding → Example : Participating in a class discussion. Valuing : the value that is associated with a particular object or piece of information, ranging from basic acceptance to complex commitment; values are somehow related to prior knowledge and experience → Example : Valuing diversity and being sensitive to other people’s backgrounds and beliefs. Organizing : sorting values into priorities and creating a unique value system with an emphasis on comparing and relating previously identified values → Example : Accepting professional ethical standards. Characterizing : building abstract knowledge based on knowledge acquired from the four previous tiers; value system is now in full effect and controls the way you behave → Example : Displaying a professional commitment to ethical standards in the workplace.

The Psychomotor Domain (1972)

Concerned with skilled behavior.

The psychomotor domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy refers to the ability to physically manipulate a tool or instrument. It includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. It focuses on the development of skills and the mastery of physical and manual tasks.

Mastery of these specific skills is marked by speed, precision, and distance. These psychomotor skills range from simple tasks, such as washing a car, to more complex tasks, such as operating intricate technological equipment.

As with the cognitive domain, the psychomotor model does not come without modifications. This model was first published by Robert Armstrong and colleagues in 1970 and included five levels:

1) imitation; 2) manipulation; 3) precision; 4) articulation; 5) naturalization. These tiers represent different degrees of performing a skill from exposure to mastery.

Two years later, Anita Harrow (1972) proposed a revised version with six levels:

1) reflex movements; 2) fundamental movements; 3) perceptual abilities; 4) physical abilities; 5) skilled movements; 6) non-discursive communication.

This model is concerned with developing physical fitness, dexterity, agility, and body control and focuses on varying degrees of coordination, from reflexes to highly expressive movements.

That same year, Elizabeth Simpson (1972) created a taxonomy that progressed from observation to invention.

The seven tiers, along with examples, are listed below:

Perception : basic awareness → Example : Estimating where a ball will land after it’s thrown and guiding your movements to be in a position to catch it. Set : readiness to act; the mental, physical, and emotional mindsets that make you act the way you do → Example : Desire to learn how to throw a perfect strike, recognizing one’s current inability to do so. Guided Response : the beginning stage of mastering a physical skill. It requires trial and error → Example : Throwing a ball after observing a coach do so, while paying specific attention to the movements required. Mechanism : the intermediate stage of mastering a skill. It involves converting learned responses into habitual reactions so that they can be performed with confidence and proficiency → Example : Successfully throwing a ball to the catcher. Complex Overt Response : skillfully performing complex movements automatically and without hesitation → Example : Throwing a perfect strike to the catcher’s glove. Adaptation : skills are so developed that they can be modified depending on certain requirements → Example : Throwing a perfect strike to the catcher even if a batter is standing at the plate. Origination : the ability to create new movements depending on the situation or problem. These movements are derived from an already developed skill set of physical movements → Example : Taking the skill set needed to throw the perfect fastball and learning how to throw a curveball.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

In 2001, the original cognitive model was modified by educational psychologists David Krathwol (with whom Bloom worked on the initial taxonomy) and Lorin Anderson (a previous student of Bloom) and published with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment .

This revised taxonomy emphasizes a more dynamic approach to education instead of shoehorning educational objectives into fixed, unchanging spaces.

To reflect this active model of learning, the revised version utilizes verbs to describe the active process of learning and does away with the nouns used in the original version (Armstrong, 2001).

The figure below illustrates what words were changed and a slight adjustment to the hierarchy itself (evaluation and synthesis were swapped). The cognitive, affective, and psychomotor models make up Bloom’s Taxonomy.

How Bloom’s Can Aid In Course Design

Thanks to Bloom’s Taxonomy, teachers nationwide have a tool to guide the development of assignments, assessments, and overall curricula.

This model helps teachers identify the key learning objectives they want a student to achieve for each unit because it succinctly details the learning process.

The taxonomy explains that (Shabatura, 2013):

• Before you can understand a concept, you need to remember it;
• To apply a concept, you need first to understand it;
• To evaluate a process, you need first to analyze it;
• To create something new, you need to have completed a thorough evaluation

This hierarchy takes students through a process of synthesizing information that allows them to think critically. Students start with a piece of information and are motivated to ask questions and seek out answers.

Not only does Bloom’s Taxonomy help teachers understand the process of learning, but it also provides more concrete guidance on how to create effective learning objectives.

The revised version reminds teachers that learning is an active process, stressing the importance of including measurable verbs in the objectives.

And the clear structure of the taxonomy itself emphasizes the importance of keeping learning objectives clear and concise as opposed to vague and abstract (Shabatura, 2013).

Bloom’s Taxonomy even applies at the broader course level. That is, in addition to being applied to specific classroom units, Bloom’s Taxonomy can be applied to an entire course to determine the learning goals of that course.

Specifically, lower-level introductory courses, typically geared towards freshmen, will target Bloom’s lower-order skills as students build foundational knowledge.

However, that is not to say that this is the only level incorporated, but you might only move a couple of rungs up the ladder into the applying and analyzing stages.

On the other hand, upper-level classes don’t emphasize remembering and understanding, as students in these courses have already mastered these skills.

As a result, these courses focus instead on higher-order learning objectives such as evaluating and creating (Shabatura, 2013). In this way, professors can reflect upon what type of course they are teaching and refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy to determine what they want the overall learning objectives of the course to be.

Having these clear and organized objectives allows teachers to plan and deliver appropriate instruction, design valid tasks and assessments, and ensure that such instruction and assessment actually aligns with the outlined objectives (Armstrong, 2010).

Overall, Bloom’s Taxonomy helps teachers teach and helps students learn!

Critical Evaluation

Bloom’s Taxonomy accomplishes the seemingly daunting task of taking the important and complex topic of thinking and giving it a concrete structure.

The taxonomy continues to provide teachers and educators with a framework for guiding the way they set learning goals for students and how they design their curriculum.

And by having specific questions or general assignments that align with Bloom’s principles, students are encouraged to engage in higher-order thinking.

However, even though it is still used today, this taxonomy does not come without its flaws. As mentioned before, the initial 1956 taxonomy presented learning as a static concept.

Although this was ultimately addressed by the 2001 revised version that included active verbs to emphasize the dynamic nature of learning, Bloom’s updated structure is still met with multiple criticisms.

Many psychologists take issue with the pyramid nature of the taxonomy. The shape creates the false impression that these cognitive steps are discrete and must be performed independently of one another (Anderson & Krathwol, 2001).

However, most tasks require several cognitive skills to work in tandem with each other. In other words, a task will not be only an analysis or a comprehension task. Rather, they occur simultaneously as opposed to sequentially.

The structure also makes it seem like some of these skills are more difficult and important than others. However, adopting this mindset causes less emphasis on knowledge and comprehension, which are as, if not more important, than the processes towards the top of the pyramid.

Additionally, author Doug Lemov (2017) argues that this contributes to a national trend devaluing knowledge’s importance. He goes even further to say that lower-income students who have less exposure to sources of information suffer from a knowledge gap in schools.

A third problem with the taxonomy is that the sheer order of elements is inaccurate. When we learn, we don’t always start with remembering and then move on to comprehension and creating something new. Instead, we mostly learn by applying and creating.

For example, you don’t know how to write an essay until you do it. And you might not know how to speak Spanish until you actually do it (Berger, 2020).

The act of doing is where the learning lies, as opposed to moving through a regimented, linear process. Despite these several valid criticisms of Bloom’s Taxonomy, this model is still widely used today.

What is Bloom’s taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model of cognitive skills in education, developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956.

It categorizes learning objectives into six levels, from simpler to more complex: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. This framework aids educators in creating comprehensive learning goals and assessments.

Bloom’s taxonomy explained for students?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework that helps you understand and approach learning in a structured way. Imagine it as a ladder with six steps.

1. Remembering : This is the first step, where you learn to recall or recognize facts and basic concepts.

2. Understanding : You explain ideas or concepts and make sense of the information.

3. Applying : You apply what you’ve understood to solve problems in new situations.

4. Analyzing : At this step, you break information into parts to explore understandings and relationships.

5. Evaluating : This involves judging the value of ideas or materials.

6. Creating : This is the top step where you combine information to form a new whole or propose alternative solutions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy helps you learn more effectively by building your knowledge from simple remembering to higher levels of thinking.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . New York: Longman.

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching . Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Armstrong, R. J. (1970). Developing and Writing Behavioral Objectives .

Berger, R. (2020). Here’s what’s wrong with bloom’s taxonomy: A deeper learning perspective (opinion) . Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/education/opinion-heres-whats-wrong-with-blooms-taxonomy-a-deeper-learning-perspective/2018/03

Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay , 20, 24.

Bloom, B. S. (1971). Mastery learning. In J. H. Block (Ed.), Mastery learning: Theory and practice (pp. 47–63). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Clark, D. (2015). Bloom’s taxonomy : The affective domain. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/Bloom/affective_domain.html

Guskey, T. R. (2005). Formative Classroom Assessment and Benjamin S. Bloom: Theory, Research, and Implications . Online Submission.

Harrow, A.J. (1972). A taxonomy of the psychomotor domain . New York: David McKay Co.

Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41 (4), 212-218.

Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S., & Masia, B.B. (1964). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook II: Affective domain . New York: David McKay Co.

Lemov, D. (2017). Bloom’s taxonomy-that pyramid is a problem . Retrieved from https://teachlikeachampion.com/blog/blooms-taxonomy-pyramid-problem/

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy . (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/effective-teaching-practices/revised-blooms-taxonomy/

Shabatura, J. (2013). Using bloom’s taxonomy to write effective learning objectives . Retrieved from https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/

Simpson, E. J. (1972). The classification of educational objectives in the Psychomotor domain , Illinois University. Urbana.

Further Reading

• Kolb’s Learning Styles
• Bloom’s Taxonomy Verb Chart
• Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. Vol. 1: Cognitive domain. New York: McKay, 20, 24.
• Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into practice, 41(4), 212-218.
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How Bloom's Taxonomy Can Help You Learn More Effectively

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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• The Six Levels
• How It Works
• Applications
• How to Use It

Bloom’s Taxonomy in Online Learning

• Limitations

Bloom's taxonomy is an educational framework that classifies learning in different levels of cognition. This model aims to help educators better understand and evaluate the different types of complex mental skills needed for effective learning .

The taxonomy is often characterized as a ladder or pyramid. Each step on the taxonomy represents a progressively more complex level of learning. The lower levels of learning serve as a base for the subsequent levels that follow.

Bloom’s taxonomy was developed by a committee of educators through a series of conferences held between 1949 to 1953. It was published in “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals” and is named after Benjamin Bloom, the educational psychologist who chaired the committee and edited the book.

The Six Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

There are six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. The original six levels were: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

In 2001, the original Bloom's taxonomy was revised by a group of instructional theorists, curriculum researchers, and cognitive psychologists. The goal was to move away from the more static objectives that Bloom described to utilize action works that better capture the dynamic, active learning process. The six levels of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy:

At the lowest level of the taxonomy, learners recognize and recall the information they have learned. This level focuses on memorizing information and recalling the concepts and facts learned.

This level of the taxonomy involves demonstrating a comprehension of what has been learned. People are able to explain the ideas in their own words and explain what the concepts mean.

At this level of Bloom's taxonomy, learners are able to use the information and knowledge they have acquired in new situations. For example, they can apply a skill they have learned in order to solve a different problem or complete a new task.

At this level, learners are able to break down information in order to analyze the components and examine their relationships. Here, learners are able to compare and contrast to spot similarities and differences. They can also make connections and spot patterns.

This level involves being able to make an assessment of the quality of information that has been presented. Learners are able to evaluate arguments that have been presented in order to make judgments and form their own opinions.

This represents the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy. Learners who reach this point are able to form ideas by utilizing the skills and knowledge they have obtained. This level involves the generation of creative, original ideas.

How Bloom's Taxonomy Works

Understanding and utilizing Bloom's taxonomy allows educators and instructional designers to create activities and assessments that encourage students to progress through the levels of learning. These activities allow students to go from the acquisition of basic knowledge and work their way through the levels of learning to the point where they can think critically and creatively.

The progression of knowledge matters because each level builds on the previous ones. In other words, it is important to remember that students must have a solid foundation before continuing to build higher-order thinking skills.

The basic knowledge they learn at the beginning of the process allows them to think about this knowledge in progressively more complex ways.

"To successfully use Bloom’s taxonomy, it’s essential to follow the steps in the correct order because the taxonomy's steps naturally progress and reinforce learning at every level," explains Marnix Broer, co-founder and CEO of Studocu .

While the foundational stages of learning provide a solid base, it is essential to keep building on those skills. Challenge yourself to learn in new ways and hone those high-level skills that are so critical to cognitive flexibility and critical thinking

Marnix Broer, Co-Founder and CEO, Studocu

While you can review a set of study notes repeatedly, you’re really only hitting the 'remember' and 'understand' stages and limiting your skills and retention. Seeking out opportunities to analyze, evaluate, and create based on the subject matter will help you solidify your knowledge beyond being able to regurgitate it on a test.

The purpose of Bloom's taxonomy is to guide educators as they create instruction that fosters cognitive skills. Instead of focusing on memorization and repetition, the goal is to help students develop higher-order thinking skills that allow them to engage in critical, creative thinking that they can apply in different areas of their lives.

3 Domains of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy targets three key learning domains. These domains are focused on a number of desired educational outcomes.  

Cognitive Domain

This domain is focused on the development of intellectual skills. It involves the acquisition of knowledge and the development of problem-solving , decision-making , and critical-thinking abilities. 

Affective Domain

This domain is centered on developing emotional abilities, values, and attitudes. It's focus is on helping learners develop perspectives on different subjects as well as cultivating motivation, empathy , and social abilities.

Psychomotor Domain

This domain focuses on the physical skills that are needed to carry out different activities. This includes physical coordination and the ability to control and manipulate the body. Using the proper technique to hold a pencil while writing is an example of a psychomotor skills that is important in the learning process.

Applications for Bloom’s Taxonomy

Teachers utilize Bloom's taxonomy to design instruction that maximizes learning and helps students learn more effectively. For example:

• An educator would create a lesson that teaches students basic knowledge about a subject.
• Next, students would summarize and explain these ideas in their own words.
• Then, learners would take this knowledge and use it to solve problems.
• The educator would then provide activities where students must break down, compare, and connect different ideas.
• Next, educational activities would focus on giving students critical assessments of the quality, value, or effectiveness of what they have learned.
• Finally, at the end of this process, students would use what they have learned to create something independently.

One of the benefits of using this approach is that it can lead to deeper learning that allows skills to be transferred to various domains and situations. One study found that teaching Bloom's taxonomy helped improve learners' ability to learn independently. This approach also helped better stimulate critical thinking skills and boosted student motivation and interest in learning.

Uses for Bloom’s Taxonomy

The taxonomy is widely used today for a variety of purposes, including to:

• Develop classroom instruction and lesson plans
• Create instructional strategies
• Design and develop curricula
• Assess courses
• Identify assessment objectives
• Create effective written assessments
• Measure learning outcomes

How Can You Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

Bloom’s taxonomy is also something you can use to make learning new information and acquiring new skills easier. Understanding and applying the taxonomy can enhance learning efficacy to develop a richer understanding of the subject matter.

Utilizing different learning strategies at each level of the taxonomy can help you get the most out of your learning experiences:

Improving Remembering

Strategies that can be helpful during the first level of learning include:

• Making flashcards and repeating the information regularly to help reinforce your memory
• Quizzing yourself on what you have learned
• Using mnemonic devices to help improve your recall
• Reviewing your notes and readings often to help improve your retention of the information

Improving Understanding

At the second level of the taxonomy, you can enhance your understanding of the material by:

• Having discussions with others to help reinforce the ideas and clarify points you are confused about
• Writing down questions you might have about the material
• Teaching what you have learned to someone else
• Summarizing key points in your own words to ensure understanding

Improving Application

To apply knowledge more effectively, it can be helpful to:

• Work on projects that require you to solve real-world problems
• Solve practice problems that rely on the information you have learned
• Role-play different scenarios in groups
• Do lab experiments that require applying what you've learned

Improving Analysis

Activities that can help improve your analytical skills at this level of Bloom's taxonomy include:

• Creating mind maps to make connections between different ideas
• Comparing and contrasting different ideas or theories using tables, Venn diagrams, and charts
• Debating the topic with peers
• Writing your critical analysis of the topic

Improving Evaluation

You can help enhance your evaluation skills by:

• Utilizing peer review to give feedback on what other learners have written
• Listing the pros and cons of a concept
• Writing in a journal to track your thoughts
• Writing a review paper or giving a presentation on the subject
• Writing a persuasive or argumentative essay

Improving Creation

At the final level of Bloom's taxonomy, the goal is to take what you have learned as use that knowledge to produce original work. This might involve:

• Brainstorming new ideas
• Making decisions based on your knowledge
• Developing recommendations and presenting them to your peers
• Asking open-ended questions to encourage creative thought
• Integrating multiple ideas and perspectives into a new product or idea
• Designing a creative work based on your ideas

Use of the taxonomy may of course differ amongst individuals at different age levels.

How can online, self-directed learners utilize Bloom’s taxonomy to enhance their educational experience? Broer recommends looking for ways to mentally, physically, and emotionally connect to educational material.

“If online learning resources don’t offer opportunities to apply the knowledge, you may need to find those opportunities yourself,” he suggests. “Completing mock assignments or creating flow charts can help you shift from the learning to the application stage quickly, especially with quick access to online forums, apps, and social media.” 

What Are the Limitations of Bloom's Taxonomy?

While Bloom's taxonomy is still an influential theory and continues to influence classroom education and instructional design, it has limitations. Some of the primary criticisms of the framework:

Simplistic Hierarchy

One of the main complaints about the taxonomy is that the hierarchical structure oversimplifies the learning process. By breaking down thinking skills into discrete levels, it fails to capture the complexity of the learning process and how these different skills overlap and interact.

The taxonomy is typically framed as a hierarchy in which higher-level learning depends on foundational knowledge. However, learning often doesn't occur in distinct, separate steps. Learning experiences are often dynamic, involving many levels at the same time.

Rigid Structure

The taxonomy's lack of flexibility is another common critique. By suggesting that learning follows a fixed progression that starts with lower-order skills before progressing to higher-level thinking skills, it ignores the fact that learning is complex, dynamic, and frequently involves engaging multiple cognitive skills simultaneously.

Some critics suggest that the taxonomy may stifle creativity when designing instruction, limiting an educator's ability to develop effective learning strategies.

Cultural Bias

Because Bloom's taxonomy was developed from a Western perspective and educational context, it may not reflect learning methods from other cultural backgrounds. Educators should consider this factor when developing culturally-inclusive instruction.

Bloom's taxonomy was originally introduced during the 1950s as a framework for categorizing cognitive skills and understanding the learning process. While Bloom’s taxonomy has limitations, it is still a helpful framework for developing educational materials. Teachers, instructional designers, and curriculum developers can utilize the framework and incorporate other educational perspectives to create well-rounded instruction that benefits all students.

Bloom BS. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals . New York, NY: Longmans, Green; 1956.

Anderson LW, Krathwohl DR, eds.  A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives . Complete ed. Longman; 2001.

Adams NE. Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives . J Med Libr Assoc . 2015;103(3):152-153. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.103.3.010

Zheng J, Tayag J, Cui Y, Chen J. Bloom's classification of educational objectives based on deep learning theory teaching design of nursing specialty . Comput Intell Neurosci . 2022;2022:3324477. doi:10.1155/2022/3324477

Larsen TM, Endo BH, Yee AT, Do T, Lo SM. Probing internal assumptions of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy . CBE Life Sci Educ . 2022;21(4):ar66. doi:10.1187/cbe.20-08-0170

Newton PM, Da Silva A, Peters LG. A pragmatic master list of action verbs for Bloom’s taxonomy . Front Educ . 2020;5:107. doi:10.3389/feduc.2020.00107

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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Learn How to Learn with Bloom's Taxonomy and Critical Thinking

Bloom’s Taxonomy represents the various categories of thinking you may engage in when you are a college student. There are many questions that you can ask yourself to check your learning and make sure you are understanding content in a deep way. When you have a complete understanding of a concept, you will feel more confident and be more prepared when you are tested on the material, which will help you learn future content in your coursework.

Below, we provide a list of each of the categories of thinking along with questions you can ask yourself in each of the areas to check for your understanding. The first steps will be simple and help you consider your learning at the most foundational levels. As the article progresses, the steps will require more critical thinking and deepen your learning. 

The first category is Remembering. Remembering is described as retrieving information from your memory.  Some words that are frequently used to describe this type of learning are: recognize, recall or repeat. Questions that are common for this type of learning are: who, what, where and when questions. Often, flash cards are used to facilitate the memorization of the definitions of concepts. 

The next category is Understanding. Understanding is described as being able to recall information but in your own words. When you fully understand a concept, you are able to describe it in your own words. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning are: summarize, paraphrase, interpret or explain. Questions that are common for this type of learning include: What is the main idea of the concept? Describe the concept. Explain in your own words. 

The next category is called Apply. Application is described as being able to apply what you know to the new concept(s) you are learning. You can think about how you can apply new concepts to the real world. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning are asking for examples, clarification or illustration of a concept(s). Questions that are common for application include: Why is this concept significant? How is this an example of something in the real world? How does this relate to another concept you are learning? 

The next category is Analyze. Analyzing is described as breaking down the concept into smaller parts. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning include: contrast, diagram, classify, examine or debate. Questions that are common for analyzing include: What are the parts of this concept? How would you break this concept into smaller parts? Where does the concept come from? Create a way to make connections between ideas and concepts in all of your classes. 

The next category is Evaluate. Evaluation is where judgments and/or decisions are based on criteria. Some words that are used to describe this type of learning include: critique, revise, predict, rank, assess and conclude. Questions that are common for evaluation include: What is most important? Do you agree with this? Why? Provide evidence to support this concept. What assumptions are in this argument?

The final category is Create. Creating new ideas, arguments, content, platforms, systems, or models are when ideas are recombined into a coherent whole. some words that are used to describe this type of learning include: diagram, ideate, plan, design, compose and actualize. Questions that are common for creating include: What ideas can you add to this? What if this were true? What patterns can you find? How would you design this?

During your time in college, while remembering and memorization are important, they are simply the foundation to learning. To incorporate deeper levels of learning and knowing, choose a concept you are learning about in class and see if you can remember the definition (remember), demonstrate your understanding (understanding), give some examples of the concept and apply it to the real world (application), and break it down into smaller components (analyze). This will help you determine how much you know, and how much you may still need to learn.

Adapted from: 1) David R. Krathwohl (2002) A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: An Overview, Theory Into Practice, 41:4, 212-218; and 2) Staff, TeachThought. “25 Question Stems Framed Around Bloom’s Taxonomy.” TeachThought. N.p., 15 Nov. 2015. Web.

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Benjamin Bloom: Critical Thinking and Critical Thinking Models

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Benjamin Bloom was a U.S. psychiatrist who made several significant contributions to education, mastery learning, and talent development. Born in 1913 in Lansford, Pennsylvania, he exhibited a passion for reading and research from an early age.

Bloom attended Pennsylvania State University and earned a bachelor’s degree and a master's degree, then he became a member of the University of Chicago’s Board of Examinations in 1940. He also served internationally as an educational adviser, working with Israel, India and several other nations. The Ford Foundation sent him to India in 1957 where he ran workshops on educational evaluation. 

Model of Critical Thinking

Bloom's taxonomy , in which he describes the major areas in the cognitive domain, is perhaps the most familiar of his work. This information is drawn from the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain (1956).

The taxonomy begins by defining knowledge as remembering previously learned material. According to Bloom, knowledge represents the lowest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain.

Knowledge is followed by comprehension, or the ability to grasp the meaning of material. This goes just beyond the knowledge level. Comprehension is the lowest level of understanding.

Application is the next area in the hierarchy. It refers to the ability to use learned material in new and concrete principles and theories. Application requires a higher level of understanding than comprehension.

Analysis is the next area of the taxonomy in which the learning outcomes require an understanding of both the content and the structural form of material.

Next is synthesis , which refers to the ability to put parts together to form a new whole. Learning outcomes at this level stress creative behaviors with a major emphasis on the formulation of new patterns or structures.

The last level of the taxonomy is evaluation , which concerns the ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose. The judgments are to be based on definite criteria. Learning outcomes in this area are the highest in the cognitive hierarchy because they incorporate or contain elements of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, and synthesis. In addition, they contain conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria.

Inventing encourages the four highest levels of learning—application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—in addition to knowledge and comprehension.

Bloom's Publications

Bloom’s contributions to education have been memorialized in a series of books over the years. 

• Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain . Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Bloom, Benjamin S. 1956. 
• Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals . Longman. Bloom, Benjamin S. 1956. 
• All Our Children Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. Bloom, Benjamin S. 1980. 
• Developing Talent in Young People. New York: Ballantine Books. Bloom, B. S., & Sosniak, L.A. 1985. 

One of Bloom’s last studies was conducted in 1985. It concluded that recognition in a respected field requires 10 years of dedication and learning at a minimum, regardless of IQ, innate abilities or talents. Bloom died in 1999 at the age of 86.

• Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Education
• Bloom's Taxonomy in the Classroom
• How to Construct a Bloom's Taxonomy Assessment
• Asking Better Questions With Bloom's Taxonomy
• The 6 Most Important Theories of Teaching
• Using Bloom's Taxonomy for Effective Learning
• Bloom's Taxonomy - Application Category
• Question Stems for Each Level of Bloom's Taxonomy
• Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking Skills
• Critical Thinking in Reading and Composition
• Bloom's Taxonomy - Evaluation Category
• 7 Ways Teachers Can Improve Their Questioning Technique
• Creating Effective Lesson Objectives
• Project Based Learning for Special Education and Inclusion
• Curriculum Mapping: Definition, Purpose, and Tips
• Higher Level Thinking: Synthesis in Bloom's Taxonomy

Higher Order Thinking: Bloom’s Taxonomy

Many students start college using the study strategies they used in high school, which is understandable—the strategies worked in the past, so why wouldn’t they work now? As you may have already figured out, college is different. Classes may be more rigorous (yet may seem less structured), your reading load may be heavier, and your professors may be less accessible. For these reasons and others, you’ll likely find that your old study habits aren’t as effective as they used to be. Part of the reason for this is that you may not be approaching the material in the same way as your professors. In this handout, we provide information on Bloom’s Taxonomy—a way of thinking about your schoolwork that can change the way you study and learn to better align with how your professors think (and how they grade).

Why higher order thinking leads to effective study

Most students report that high school was largely about remembering and understanding large amounts of content and then demonstrating this comprehension periodically on tests and exams. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework that starts with these two levels of thinking as important bases for pushing our brains to five other higher order levels of thinking—helping us move beyond remembering and recalling information and move deeper into application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and creation—the levels of thinking that your professors have in mind when they are designing exams and paper assignments. Because it is in these higher levels of thinking that our brains truly and deeply learn information, it’s important that you integrate higher order thinking into your study habits.

The following categories can help you assess your comprehension of readings, lecture notes, and other course materials. By creating and answering questions from a variety of categories, you can better anticipate and prepare for all types of exam questions. As you learn and study, start by asking yourself questions and using study methods from the level of remembering. Then, move progressively through the levels to push your understanding deeper—making your studying more meaningful and improving your long-term retention.

Level 1: Remember

This level helps us recall foundational or factual information: names, dates, formulas, definitions, components, or methods.

Level 2: Understand

Understanding means that we can explain main ideas and concepts and make meaning by interpreting, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.

Level 3: Apply

Application allows us to recognize or use concepts in real-world situations and to address when, where, or how to employ methods and ideas.

Level 4: Analyze

Analysis means breaking a topic or idea into components or examining a subject from different perspectives. It helps us see how the “whole” is created from the “parts.” It’s easy to miss the big picture by getting stuck at a lower level of thinking and simply remembering individual facts without seeing how they are connected. Analysis helps reveal the connections between facts.

Level 5: Synthesize

Synthesizing means considering individual elements together for the purpose of drawing conclusions, identifying themes, or determining common elements. Here you want to shift from “parts” to “whole.”

Level 6: Evaluate

Evaluating means making judgments about something based on criteria and standards. This requires checking and critiquing an argument or concept to form an opinion about its value. Often there is not a clear or correct answer to this type of question. Rather, it’s about making a judgment and supporting it with reasons and evidence.

Level 7: Create

Creating involves putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole. Creating includes reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through planning. This is the highest and most advanced level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Pairing Bloom’s Taxonomy with other effective study strategies

While higher order thinking is an excellent way to approach learning new information and studying, you should pair it with other effective study strategies. Check out some of these links to read up on other tools and strategies you can try:

• Study Smarter, Not Harder
• Simple Study Template
• Using Concept Maps
• Group Study
• Evidence-Based Study Strategies Video
• Memory Tips Video
• All of our resources

Other UNC resources

If you’d like some individual assistance using higher order questions (or with anything regarding your academic success), check out some of your UNC resources:

• Academic Coaching: Make an appointment with an academic coach at the Learning Center to discuss your study habits one-on-one.
• Office Hours : Make an appointment with your professor or TA to discuss course material and how to be successful in the class.

Works consulted

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Wittrock, M.C (2001). A taxonomy of learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York, NY: Longman.

“Bloom’s Taxonomy.” University of Waterloo. Retrieved from https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/planning-courses-and-assignments/course-design/blooms-taxonomy

“Bloom’s Taxonomy.” Retrieved from http://www.bloomstaxonomy.org/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf

Overbaugh, R., and Schultz, L. (n.d.). “Image of two versions of Bloom’s Taxonomy.” Norfolk, VA: Old Dominion University. Retrieved from https://www.odu.edu/content/dam/odu/col-dept/teaching-learning/docs/blooms-taxonomy-handout.pdf

If you enjoy using our handouts, we appreciate contributions of acknowledgement.

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Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

• Critical Thinking and other Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Critical thinking is a higher-order thinking skill. Higher-order thinking skills go beyond basic observation of facts and memorization. They are what we are talking about when we want our students to be evaluative, creative and innovative.

When most people think of critical thinking, they think that their words (or the words of others) are supposed to get “criticized” and torn apart in argument, when in fact all it means is that they are criteria-based. These criteria require that we distinguish fact from fiction; synthesize and evaluate information; and clearly communicate, solve problems and discover truths.

Why is Critical Thinking important in teaching?

According to Paul and Elder (2007), “Much of our thinking, left to itself, is biased, distorted, partial, uninformed or down-right prejudiced.  Yet the quality of our life and that of which we produce, make, or build depends precisely on the quality of our thought.”  Critical thinking is therefore the foundation of a strong education.

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy of thinking skills, the goal is to move students from lower- to higher-order thinking:

• from knowledge (information gathering) to comprehension (confirming)
• from application (making use of knowledge) to analysis (taking information apart)
• from evaluation (judging the outcome) to synthesis (putting information together) and creative generation

This provides students with the skills and motivation to become innovative producers of goods, services, and ideas.  This does not have to be a linear process but can move back and forth, and skip steps.

How do I incorporate critical thinking into my course?

The place to begin, and most obvious space to embed critical thinking in a syllabus, is with student-learning objectives/outcomes.  A well-designed course aligns everything else—all the activities, assignments, and assessments—with those core learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes contain an action (verb) and an object (noun), and often start with, “Student’s will....” Bloom’s taxonomy can help you to choose appropriate verbs to clearly state what you want students to exit the course doing, and at what level.

• Students will define the principle components of the water cycle. (This is an example of a lower-order thinking skill.)
• Students will evaluate how increased/decreased global temperatures will affect the components of the water cycle. (This is an example of a higher-order thinking skill.)

Both of the above examples are about the water cycle and both require the foundational knowledge that form the “facts” of what makes up the water cycle, but the second objective goes beyond facts to an actual understanding, application and evaluation of the water cycle.

Using a tool such as Bloom’s Taxonomy to set learning outcomes helps to prevent vague, non-evaluative expectations. It forces us to think about what we mean when we say, “Students will learn…”  What is learning; how do we know they are learning?

The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom by Larry Ferlazzo

Consider designing class activities, assignments, and assessments—as well as student-learning outcomes—using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide.

The Socratic style of questioning encourages critical thinking.  Socratic questioning  “is systematic method of disciplined questioning that can be used to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don’t know, and to follow out logical implications of thought” (Paul and Elder 2007).

Socratic questioning is most frequently employed in the form of scheduled discussions about assigned material, but it can be used on a daily basis by incorporating the questioning process into your daily interactions with students.

In teaching, Paul and Elder (2007) give at least two fundamental purposes to Socratic questioning:

• To deeply explore student thinking, helping students begin to distinguish what they do and do not know or understand, and to develop intellectual humility in the process
• To foster students’ abilities to ask probing questions, helping students acquire the powerful tools of dialog, so that they can use these tools in everyday life (in questioning themselves and others)

How do I assess the development of critical thinking in my students?

If the course is carefully designed around student-learning outcomes, and some of those outcomes have a strong critical-thinking component, then final assessment of your students’ success at achieving the outcomes will be evidence of their ability to think critically.  Thus, a multiple-choice exam might suffice to assess lower-order levels of “knowing,” while a project or demonstration might be required to evaluate synthesis of knowledge or creation of new understanding.

Critical thinking is not an “add on,” but an integral part of a course.

• Make critical thinking deliberate and intentional in your courses—have it in mind as you design or redesign all facets of the course
• Many students are unfamiliar with this approach and are more comfortable with a simple quest for correct answers, so take some class time to talk with students about the need to think critically and creatively in your course; identify what critical thinking entail, what it looks like, and how it will be assessed.

Additional Resources

• Barell, John. Teaching for Thoughtfulness: Classroom Strategies to Enhance Intellectual Development . Longman, 1991.
• Brookfield, Stephen D. Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions . Jossey-Bass, 2012.
• Elder, Linda and Richard Paul. 30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living through Critical Thinking . FT Press, 2012.
• Fasko, Jr., Daniel, ed. Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Current Research, Theory, and Practice . Hampton Press, 2003.
• Fisher, Alec. Critical Thinking: An Introduction . Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Paul, Richard and Linda Elder. Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use . Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.
• Faculty Focus article, A Syllabus Tip: Embed Big Questions
• The Critical Thinking Community
• The Critical Thinking Community’s The Thinker’s Guides Series and The Art of Socratic Questioning

Quick Links

• Developing Learning Objectives
• Creating Your Syllabus
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• Integrating Technology in the Classroom
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Critical Thinking

• Bloom's Taxonomy
• How can I apply it to my study?
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Bloom and Critical Thinking

Bloom's Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analyzing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning). Students exhibiting cognitive skills of this level can categorize or classify information, comparing and contrasting it in order to make a decision thereby enhancing their critical thinking skills.

Other characteristics of higher order thinking include: combining, creating, designing, developing, evaluating, justifying, and measuring. A student undertaking a university course should be able to progressively demonstrate these cognitive skills when thinking and reasoning through assignments and problems. Some examples of these include:

• Understanding the links between ideas.
• Determining the importance and relevance of arguments and ideas.
• Recognizing, creating and evaluating arguments.
• Identifying inconsistencies and errors in reasoning.
• Approaching problems in a consistent and systematic way.
• Reflecting on the justification of their own assumptions, beliefs and values.

Applying Bloom's Taxonomy

Image credit: Jessica Shabatura. For more information see  https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/

Bloom and Critical Thinking actions

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Bloom's Taxonomy

Climbing the cognitive ladder: a deep dive into bloom's taxonomy, level 3: application, benefits of mastering this level, level 4: analysis, level 5: synthesis, level 6: evaluation.

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Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives

Information professionals who train or instruct others can use Bloom’s taxonomy to write learning objectives that describe the skills and abilities that they desire their learners to master and demonstrate. Bloom’s taxonomy differentiates between cognitive skill levels and calls attention to learning objectives that require higher levels of cognitive skills and, therefore, lead to deeper learning and transfer of knowledge and skills to a greater variety of tasks and contexts.

As learners, we know from experience that some learning tasks are more difficult than others. To take an example from elementary school, knowing our multiplication tables by rote requires a qualitatively different type of thinking than does applying our multiplication skills through solving “word problems.” And in both cases, a teacher could assess our knowledge and skills in either of these types of thinking by asking us to demonstrate those skills in action, in other words, by doing something that is observable and measurable. With the publication in 1956 of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals , an educational classic was born that powerfully incorporated these concepts to create a classification of cognitive skills [ 1 ]. The classification system came to be called Bloom’s taxonomy, after Benjamin Bloom, one of the editors of the volume, and has had significant and lasting influence on the teaching and learning process at all levels of education to the present day.

Bloom’s taxonomy contains six categories of cognitive skills ranging from lower-order skills that require less cognitive processing to higher-order skills that require deeper learning and a greater degree of cognitive processing ( Figure 1 ). The differentiation into categories of higher-order and lower-order skills arose later; Bloom himself did not use these terms.

Bloom’s taxonomy

Knowledge is the foundational cognitive skill and refers to the retention of specific, discrete pieces of information like facts and definitions or methodology, such as the sequence of events in a step-by-step process. Knowledge can be assessed by straightforward means, for example, multiple choice or short-answer questions that require the retrieval or recognition of information, for example, “Name five sources of drug information.” Health professionals must have command of vast amounts of knowledge such as protocols, interactions, and medical terminology that are committed to memory, but simple recall of facts does not provide evidence of comprehension, which is the next higher level in Bloom’s taxonomy.

Learners show comprehension of the meaning of the information that they encounter by paraphrasing it in their own words, classifying items in groups, comparing and contrasting items with other similar entities, or explaining a principle to others. For example, librarians might probe a learner’s understanding of information sources by asking the learner to compare and contrast the information found in those sources. Comprehension requires more cognitive processing than simply remembering information, and learning objectives that address comprehension will help learners begin to incorporate knowledge into their existing cognitive schemas by which they understand the world [ 2 ]. This allows learners to use knowledge, skills, or techniques in new situations through application, the third level of Bloom’s taxonomy. An example of application familiar to medical librarians is the ability to use best practices in the literature searching process, such as using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms for key concepts in a search.

Moving to higher levels of the taxonomy, we next see learning objectives relating to analysis . Here is where the skills that we commonly think of as critical thinking enter. Distinguishing between fact and opinion and identifying the claims upon which an argument is built require analysis, as does breaking down an information need into its component parts in order to identify the most appropriate search terms.

Following analysis is the level of synthesis, which entails creating a novel product in a specific situation. An example of an evidence-based medicine–related task requiring synthesis is formulating a well-built clinical question after analyzing a clinician’s information gaps [ 3 ]. The formulation of a management plan for a specific patient is another clinical task involving synthesis.

Finally, the pinnacle of Bloom’s taxonomy is evaluation , which is also important to critical thinking. When instructors reflect on a teaching session and use learner feedback and assessment results to judge the value of the session, they engage in evaluation. Critically appraising the validity of a clinical study and judging the relevance of its results for application to a specific patient also require evaluative skills. It is important to recognize that higher-level skills in the taxonomy incorporate many lower-level skills as well: to critically appraise the medical literature ( evaluation) , one must have knowledge and comprehension of various study designs, apply that knowledge to a specific published study to recognize the study design that has been used, and then analyze it to isolate the various components of internal validity such as blinding and randomization. For an illustrative list of learning objectives from evidence-based medicine curricula at US and Canadian medical schools categorized according to Bloom’s taxonomy, refer to the 2014 Journal of the Medical Library Association article by Blanco et al. [ 3 ].

CHANGES IN BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Based on findings of cognitive science following the original publication, a later revision of the taxonomy changes the nomenclature and order of the cognitive processes in the original version. In this later version, the levels are remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. This reorganization places the skill of synthesis rather than evaluation at the highest level of the hierarchy [ 2 ]. Furthermore, this revision adds a new dimension across all six cognitive processes. It specifies the four types of knowledge that might be addressed by a learning activity: factual (terminology and discrete facts) ; conceptual (categories, theories, principles, and models) ; procedural (knowledge of a technique, process, or methodology); and metacognitive (including self-assessment ability and knowledge of various learning skills and techniques).

It is important to note that the most common usage of Bloom’s taxonomy focuses on cognitive learning skills rather than psychomotor or affective skills, two domains that are crucial to the success of health professionals. Examples of psychomotor and affective skills are knot tying in surgery and empathy toward patients, respectively.

Information professionals who train or instruct others can use Bloom’s taxonomy to write learning objectives that describe the skills and abilities that they desire their learners to master and demonstrate.

The taxonomy is useful in two important ways. First, use of the taxonomy encourages instructors to think of learning objectives in behavioral terms to consider what the learner can do as a result of the instruction. A learning objective written using action verbs will indicate the best method of assessing the skills and knowledge taught. Lists of action verbs that are appropriate for learning objectives at each level of Bloom’s taxonomy are widely available on the Internet [ 4 ]. Second, considering learning goals in light of Bloom’s taxonomy highlights the need for including learning objectives that require higher levels of cognitive skills that lead to deeper learning and transfer of knowledge and skills to a greater variety of tasks and contexts.

Today’s health professions educators wish to develop learners’ skills at the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy that require demonstration of deeper cognitive processing such as critical thinking and evaluative judgments, but studies have shown that learning objectives in many training programs and curricula focus overwhelmingly on the lower levels of the taxonomy, knowledge and comprehension [ 3 , 5 ]. This shortcoming must be considered by educators if health professionals are to achieve increasing levels of skill and function.

Nancy E. Adams, MLIS, ude.usp.cmh@smadan , Associate Director and Coordinator of Education and Instruction, George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library, Penn State Hershey Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive, Mail Code H127, Hershey, PA 17033-0850

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The trouble with Bloom’s taxonomy in an age of AI

When using large language models to create learning tasks, educators should be careful with their prompts if the LLM relies on Bloom’s taxonomy as a supporting dataset. Luke Zaphir and Dale Hansen break down the issues

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Educators have always faced the challenge of how to determine if their students are thinking. Since the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives has been one of the most influential pieces of educational psychology (see Figure 1). However, in an age where teachers may be using AI as tools to assist them in task creation, we need to reconsider how we design teaching for thinking. 

Large language models (LLMs) and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini use Bloom’s taxonomy as one of the most significant influences on how critical thinking is defined. In this article, we explore the challenge of integrating AI into teaching, learning and assessment while Bloom’s taxonomy is a significant part of its training model.

What is Bloom’s taxonomy?

Bloom’s taxonomy, a six-category framework of educational goals, has been highly influential for educators for nearly 70 years because it creates a clear structure for learning, is highly versatile across contexts, and facilitates the creation of critical-thinking activities. 

It’s versatile but is Bloom’s accurate?

Criticisms of Bloom’s taxonomy have also been around for more than half a century, and many are well known. One of the major issues is that the taxonomy does not capture the complexity of cognitive skills. It can be seen as inaccurate as cognitive processes interrelate with each other rather than building on each other. 

To illustrate, let’s look at an “understanding” task (see Figure 2): “Define life .”

This is a deceptively complex task. Not only would it require a standard understanding of respiration, response to stimuli and reproduction, but it also merits discussion of more spiritual or existential issues. Ecosystems and stars may fit a definition of life. Any definition will be incomplete and debatable. A student would demonstrate high levels of critical thinking and insight if discussing the foundations of our understanding rather than merely explaining our definitions.

The taxonomy has seen revisions over time ( notably by David R. Krahwohl in 2002 ), but these still don’t fully capture the interrelated and interdependent nature of thinking processes. Alternatives such as cognitive web models (as proposed by Peter Ellerton and co-authors from the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project in 2022) argue that cognitive skills often require a host of related skills and tasks (see Figure 3), and this may be more useful in designing for learning objectives.

Prompting AI for assistance with teaching thinking

To illustrate, we prompted ChatGPT to create questions that demand increasing amounts of critical thinking on the following task: “Describe the structure of a cell.” It responded with:

• Basic understanding: Describe the basic structure of a cell, including its main components.
• Comparing cell types: Compare and contrast the structures of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, highlighting their key differences and similarities.
• Specialised cell structures: Explain how the structure of a plant cell differs from that of an animal cell, emphasising the unique organelles found in each type.
• Cellular functions: How do the various organelles within a eukaryotic cell contribute to its overall function and survival?
• Cellular adaptations: Analyse how the structure of cells in different organisms reflects their specialised functions and adaptations to their environments. Provide examples.
• Theoretical cell modifications: If you were to design a hypothetical cell with a specific function, how would you modify its structure to optimise its performance? Explain your reasoning.

When asked how  it increased the critical thinking, ChatGPT responded that it incorporated elements of Bloom’s taxonomy in designing to promote higher-order thinking, then demonstrated how each question aligned to the taxonomy. Generative AI still “believes” that cognitive skills are hierarchical.

This is a problem for educators in two significant ways. 

First, the questions are wildly inconsistent in their level of difficulty. The sixth question (creating) is so challenging that it’s likely only a biology expert would be able to answer it. This might be addressed through using better prompting practices, but this leads to the second problem.

When asking AI for greater levels of critical thinking, it struggles to discern among levels. “Comparing and contrasting” is an “analysis” skill, yet ChatGPT has treated this as an “understanding” skill. We’d likely use both, too, further demonstrating that these skills are interrelated rather than hierarchical.

Create AI prompts that widen perspective or engage with ambiguity

The obvious conclusion is that educators need to be careful with their prompting when it comes to using AI as a design tool. More than that, we need to recognise that the AI may create hierarchies (which are potentially inaccurate to boot) whenever prompted for suggestions or during brainstorming. 

Educators will need to consider the specific cognitive skill they want to teach or assess (when analysing, do they really mean classifying?), along with the qualities of that thinking (do they care about having coherent classifications or broad classifications, for example).

Consider prompting AI for activities that require broader perspectives or engage with the ambiguities of the issue. “Create an activity that explores the many ways life can be defined” is going to produce greater variety and complexity than asking it to “add critical thinking or difficulty to this question”. Given that contemporary critical-thinking pedagogy recognises the interrelatedness of thinking skills as well as the different qualities of thinking, it’s essential that we exercise care when designing critical-thinking tasks.

Luke Zaphir and Dale Hansen are learning designers in the Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation at the University of Queensland.

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For more on qualities of thinking, see “ The Values of Inquiry: explanations and supporting questions ” by Peter Ellerton of the UQ Critical Thinking Project.

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