Bloom’s Taxonomy Custom Essay

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Benjamin Bloom created his taxonomy for categorizing the level of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize

questions and measure the extent to which those questions challenge a student to critically think. By devising your inquiry series in accordance with such a structure, you ensure that all of your students have the

opportunity to demonstrate the degree to which they understand a particular event or general content topic.
Much has been written on the subject of Bloom’s Taxonomy and there are many helpful sites on the internet that explain Bloom in great detail and have a great variety of tables and charts designed to help

teachers apply the taxonomy to their lessons.
Below is a table that simplifies Bloom’s Taxonomy and provides “Question Cues” to help establish questions designed to help the student consider issues ever more deeply.

Bringing Bloom Into Your Classroom

Competence Skills Demonstrated
Level 1 – Knowledge – To Recall • Observation and recall of information
• Knowledge of dates, events, places
• Knowledge of major ideas
• Mastery of subject matter
• Question cues – list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where

Level 2 – Comprehension – To Understand • Understanding information
• Grasp meaning
• Translate knowledge into new context
• Interpret facts, compare, contrast
• Order, group, infer causes
• Predict consequences
• Question cues – summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

Level 3 – Application – To Utilize • Use information
• Use methods, concepts, theories in new situations
• Solve problems using required skills or knowledge
• Question cues – apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

Level 4 – Analysis – To Break Down • Seeing patterns
• Organization of parts
• Recognition of hidden meanings
• Identification of components
• Question cues – analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer
•
Level 5 – Synthesis – To Create • Use old ideas to create new ones
• Generalize from given facts
• Relate knowledge from several areas
• Predict, draw conclusions
• Question cues – combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite

Level 6 – Evaluation – To Judge • Compare and discriminate between ideas
• Assess value of theories, presentations
• Make choices based on reasoned argument
• Verify value of evidence
• Recognize subjectivity or bias
• Question cues – assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize