A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Abridged Edition [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Until the 1950's the educational system within the United States had no consensus or continuity in its approach to learning. "Knowledge" by interpretation meant different things to different people and professional educators had no basis by which to tie together the cornucopia of theories. By definition, taxonomy is in its widest sense, the classification of any group of likened things to include principles and ideas. Benjamin Bloom designed a hierarchical taxonomy of cognitive skills for the educator who is designing curriculum and formatting educational standards and objectives. This cognitive domain is laid out in six areas now quite familiar to teachers: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge is memorization, the ability of the student to recall information. The concept can be found in lesson plans that require the student to define, recall, or label. Examples of knowledge as a cognitive skill include learning the alphabet or memorizing important dates in history. Once the ability to gather information at the knowledge stage is mastered the student proceeds to comprehension. At this stage the student begins to see word clues such as "estimate", "explain", and "summarize". The student is not generating anything new but is putting learned knowledge into his / her own words. At the application stage the student learns to use the knowledge. Key words appear such as "apply", "compute", or "demonstrate". At the analysis stage the student begins to generalize information to new or different situations. The student has yet to create anything wholly new, however, the cognitive process has sequenced from basic recognition and memory skills to those tools needed for abstract thought and creation. In the next stage, synthesis, the student begins to see key words such as "compose", "create", and "modify". The pre-schooler has gone from recognizing a Lego toy to using the toys to create something new. In the final cognitive stage, evaluation, the student gains the ability to judge or critique. He / she can now compare the creations of others and validly support, explain, or defend the work.

The educator could now function in agreement with his / her fellows in designing curriculum in an environment of consensus. Why then did Drs. Anderson and Krathlwohl feel the need to revise Blooms work? The authors answered this question in the book's Preface by stating that there were two primary reasons: first, to refocus the attention of educators on the original Bloom's Taxonomy as a document not only historical in nature but valid in context of today's standards, and, secondly, to incorporate new knowledge and thought into Bloom's framework. Though it is not so stated in the Preface, much of this new knowledge and thought is in dealing with an ever-growing populace of divergent learners and likewise with an eye toward the population of children in low socio economic situations.

The revised Bloom's Taxonomy incorporates a framework that is no longer simply linear but a grid. In Anderson & Krathwohl's revision the original six components are renamed so that they still relate directly to the original taxonomy but in terms that are both more relevant to today and simplified. "Knowledge" becomes "remember", "comprehension" becomes "understand", "application" is simplified to "apply", "analysis" to "analyze", and "synthesis" becomes somewhat confusingly "evaluate" as "evaluation" changes to the more descriptive "create". This revision allows for the discrimination of higher order thinking even within the lower cognitive levels of Bloom's. For the teacher of special needs or struggling learners, this is especially useful. Simply put, you can go more places on a grid than you can on a straight line.

Anderson and Krathwohl subdivide the x-axis consisting of the renamed Bloom cognitive dimensions into a y-axis of four knowledge dimensions. These four dimensions are, like the cognitive dimensions, hierarchical. At the base is found factual knowledge; knowledge of terms, details, symbols, etc. Conceptual knowledge; classification, categorization, structures, etc follow this. From there the hierarchy advances to application with the dimension of procedural knowledge. At this level the student applies the facts and concepts. Here, for example, the student learns not only to recognize math symbols but also to apply them to an equation. The peak of this hierarchy is meta-cognitive knowledge. At this level the student applies strategies and self-awareness of his or her skills to the lesson.

This revision ranges then from remembering factual knowledge as the lowest cognitive function to creating something new with the application of meta-cognition to truly understand what has been created. The teacher can put this taxonomy to its fullest advantage by dissecting his / her exams and lesson plans to fully realize the potential of the student. It is the opinion of this reviewer that the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy is of particular use when dealing with the two extremes of the learning spectrum, the mentally disabled or struggling student and the student who excels academically. In the case of the student with cognitive deficits, the instructor who recognizes that his / her students may never pass beyond the lower processes of "remember" and "understand" in Bloom may still challenge and properly assess those students in both academic and adaptive areas by progressing from the factual knowledge dimension to procedural and meta-cognitive knowledge. With the latter, the student who is excelling and most likely placed in the school's gifted and talented program, the instructor may use Anderson and Krathwohl's revised taxonomy to insure that the student is not evaluating and creating based on memorization of facts and concepts but on using appropriate procedures and meta-cognitive skills to create something that is unique to that student's abilities.

This text is complete with examples of the taxonomy in practical application with the standards and objectives the teacher is familiar with. I am confident that once the basics of this revision are understood by the educational professional, the book will become a well-used tool in the real world of teaching today's students.

In an era of state-mandated standards, this book is an essential tool for teachers. Anderson et. al. show how to cut through the jargon and get down to what your students really need to learn. Finally someone has created a book that connects theory and practice, expectations and reality! This book is definitely worth reading.

As an educator, I was originally one of the countless victims of the Bloom verb-list mythology. I eventually read the original handbook and was empowered with the true model - an amazing work.

The revision makes the original work two-dimensional. There is now a knowledge dimension as well as a cognitive dimension. Configured into a table or grid pattern, it can be used to categorize learning objectives into one of 24 categories. For each category there are explanations and examples of not only objectives and testing strategies as in the original work, but also teaching stragegies as well.

Unlike the original, it is written for teachers instead of other academics. This is a powerful tool that can be used to both develop and evaluate curriculums. Be warned, however, that the paperback version is abridged, missing a few chapters. I recommend the hardbound edition.