Benjamin Bloom (1956) created this taxonomy for categorizing
"competencies" in educational settings, as defined by skills demonstrated by
learner type or intelligence.This breakdown provides a useful, incremental
framework of complexity in demonstrating mastery of a subject or topic. The
verbs include the skills that demonstrate each:
Knowledge:
To know something means to be able to remember or recall facts or bits of
information, though one can "know" something without understanding it or being
able to put it into a higher context.
This process is illustrated by recall of sequences and lists, of
events and dates; landmarks on a route; pictures and their graphic details;
songs and lyrics; titles and names; even memorized definitions and
explanations. It includes being able to remember to move a certain way,
as for an athlete or dancer, or ritualized procedures for greeting and meeting
people.
Verbs include: choose, define, describe, enumerate, identify,
label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, quote, recall, recite,
recognize, reproduce, select, show, state
Comprehension:
To comprehend a fact or piece of information is to understand what it means,
and be able to provide new examples or instances of the concept. The key
is that the learner demonstrate a subject from a personal, internalized
perspective, rather than a formal externally driven one.
This process is illustrated by describing or defining words or situations
in one's own words, or perhaps illustrating a concept with pictures or words
or actions, or describing a main theme or best answer, or rephrasing an idea.
Verbs include: associate, convert, classify, create analogies,
diagram, distinguish, draw out, estimate, generalize, graph, explain,
illustrate, map, match, outline, predict, relate, paraphrase, relate,
restate, summarize, systematize
Application:
To apply information means to use it according to principles and rules.
This process is illustrated by being able to derive new examples from
principles, as in answering "How" a person would apply what they have learned.
For example, being able to add examples from your own life or experience to
those studied that demonstrate a principle, or even being able to change a
condition and give an example that fits the new situation.
Verbs include: apply, assemble and construct, calculate,
change, collect and organize, complete, defend, demonstrate, diagram,
discover, dramatize, forecast, illustrate, interpret, make, prepare,
produce, relate, show, solve, translate
Analysis:
To analyze means to break information down into the sum of its parts and to
see how those parts work together, and be able to organize or place it into
meaningful and new patterns or relationships.
This process can be illustrated a number of ways, as in making
illustrations that reinforce or detail a story or concept; or acting out a
story. A researcher might exemplify with an outline or apply the
scientific method to a study, or create a model or plan of an object or
building. A writer might detail motives or relationships, or make a
distinction between parts or examples.
Verbs include: analyze; arrange, compare, categorize and
differentiate, connect, distinguish and contrast; examine, explain,
role-play, subdivide, research, disassemble, separate, investigate,
subdivide, infer,
Synthesis:
To synthesize means to take the knowledge you have and connect it with other
knowledge, or putting parts together to form a new and original whole.
Application of this process could research new applications, adapt routine
or studied movements into new applications, make stereotypes new and exciting,
adapt conventions and rules into new products, take chance occurrences and
recognize new applications, see possibilities that skirt dead-ends, draw out
incites from people to encourage new ways of thinking and doing.
Verbs include: adapt, create, combine, compile, compose, design,
develop, experiment, forecast, formulate, hypothesize, imagine, integrate,
invent, originate, plan, predict, speculate, synthesize
Evaluation: To evaluate means to be able to
judge whether information or an argument is good or bad? Sound or unsound?
This process is illustrated by defining a set of standards or criteria and
applying a situation or instance to them to evaluate whether or not it fits,
or detail how it does not.
Verbs include: assess, award, commend, conclude, criticize,
critique, debate, discuss, estimate, evaluate, judge, justify, opine,
prioritize, rank, recommend, self-evaluate, standardize, support, weigh,
value
Website overview: Since 1996 the
Study Guides and Strategies web site
has been researched, authored, maintained and supported by Joe Landsberger
as an international, learner-centric, educational public service. Permission is granted to freely copy, adapt,
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