What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
In 2001, a group of psychology, education, and assessment experts revised “Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” (Complete edition). The new version focuses on dynamic classification using verbs to describe cognitive processes. This revised taxonomy provides a common language for discussing learning goals and assessment methods. It is valuable for creating effective instruction, planning curricula, and developing authentic assessments.
Why Use Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Bloom’s Taxonomy can be useful for course (re)design because the levels can help you move students through the learning process. It starts with the foundational learning tasks of remembering and understanding and moves to more complex tasks, such as evaluating and creating.
The taxonomy can also help develop assessments by aligning course objectives with different levels of mastery. For lower-division courses, objectives can be assessed at the lower levels of the taxonomy, while for upper-division courses, students’ abilities can be assessed at the higher levels.
