In 1956, a team of cognitive psychologists from the University of Chicago published the first version of Bloom’s taxonomy. It is named after the committee’s chairman, Benjamin Bloom (1913–1999). The original taxonomy was organized into three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Educators have primarily focused on the cognitive model, which includes six different classification levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Bloom’s taxonomy was developed to provide a common language for teachers to discuss and exchange learning and assessment methods. Specific learning outcomes can be derived from the taxonomy, though it is most commonly used to assess learning on a variety of cognitive levels.

• Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”
• Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.”
• Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”
• Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”
• Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”
• Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, a 2001 update to Bloom’s Taxonomy, was released by a team of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists, instructional researchers, and testing and assessment experts. This title alludes to a more dynamic understanding of classification and detracts from Bloom’s original title’s somewhat static notion of “educational objectives.”

By designating their categories and subcategories with verbs and gerunds (instead of the nouns of the original taxonomy), the authors of the revised taxonomy highlight this dynamism. The cognitive processes that thinkers use to encounter and process knowledge are described by these “action words.”.

How is Bloom’s Taxonomy used in the classroom?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is frequently employed as a more precise gauge of how well students assimilate and comprehend the material presented in the classroom. Students can demonstrate their understanding of a subject by answering questions about basic facts, outlining the main ideas and concepts at play, applying this knowledge, drawing comparisons and contrasts between the ideas, providing evidence for their claims, and producing original work.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy and its purpose?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is an educational framework designed to assist teachers in determining the extent to which their students have grasped a specific subject. In order to help educators and researchers better understand how people, students in particular, acquire new skills, knowledge, and an overall understanding of educational objectives, Bloom’s Taxonomy was created.

Taxonomy in legal

The learner and the behaviors students display while they learn are the only subjects covered by the taxonomy. The Taxonomy gives legal educators a suitable foundation to use in all facets of the teaching-learning process since it defines a large portion of what legal education aims to accomplish in terms of the behavior of the learners. In order to ensure that we test for the kinds of behaviors that reflect the types and levels of learning we have established as our goals, this session will offer suggestions on how Bloom’s Taxonomy can be used to design objectives and goals for courses, structure individual classes, including the kinds of questions to use to determine the level of student learning.