Bloom’s Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives
Instructor: Glenda H. Easter
ITSW 1410
Presentation Media Software
Writing Objectives and
Assessments
• In writing objectives and assessments, it is
important to consider different levels of
understanding.
– For example, in teaching a lesson on topic
sentences in reading, you might have students
first repeat a definition of “topic sentence,” then
identify the topic sentences in paragraphs, and
finally write their own sentences for original
paragraphs.
Bloom's Taxonomy
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Writing Objectives and
Assessments (Continued)
– Each of these activities demonstrates a
different kind of understanding of the concept
“topic sentence,” and we could not consider this
concept adequately taught if students could do
only one of these activities.
Bloom's Taxonomy
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Background on Bloom’s
Taxonomy
• In 1956 Benjamin Bloom and some fellow
researchers published a taxonomy of
educational objectives that has been
extremely influential in the research and
practice of education ever since.
Bloom's Taxonomy
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Background on Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• A taxonomy is a system of classification.
Bloom and his colleagues categorized
objectives from simple to complex, or from
factual to conceptual.
• These key elements are commonly known
as Bloom’s taxonomy.
Bloom's Taxonomy
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy
• Knowledge (recalling information):
– This is the lowest level of objectives in
Bloom’s hierarchy, knowledge refers to such
objectives as memorizing math facts or
formulas, scientific principles, or verb
conjugations.
Bloom's Taxonomy
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Comprehension (translating, interpreting,
or extrapolating information):
– Comprehension is showing that you have an
understanding of the information, as well as
the ability to use it.
– Examples are interpreting the meaning of a
diagram, graph, or parable, inferring the
principle underlying a science experience, and
predicting what might happen next in a story.
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Application (using principles or
abstractions to solve novel or real-life
problems):
– Application objectives require students to use
or apply the knowledge or principles to solve
practical problems.
Bloom's Taxonomy
8
The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Application (using principles or
abstractions to solve novel or real-life
problems): (Continued)
– Examples include using geometric principles
and knowledge to figure out how many gallons
of water to put into a swimming pool of given
dimensions, and using knowledge of the
relationship between temperature and pressure
to explain why a balloon is larger on a hot day
than on a cold day.
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Analysis (breaking down complex
information or ideas into simpler parts to
understand how the parts relate or are
organized):
– Analysis objectives involve having students see
the underlying structure of complex
information or ideas.
Bloom's Taxonomy
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Analysis (Continued):
– Analysis objectives might be contrasting
schooling in Western societies with informal
education in primitive societies, understanding
how the functions of the carburetor and
distributor are related in an automobile engine,
or identifying the main idea of a short story.
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Synthesis (creation of something that did
not exist before):
– Synthesis objectives involve using skills to
create completely new products. This is the
creation of a new idea or higher learning.
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Synthesis (Continued):
– Examples would include writing a composition,
deriving a mathematical rule, designing a
science experience to solve a problem, and
making up a new sentence in a foreign
language.
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The Key Elements of Bloom’s
Taxonomy (Continued)
• Evaluation (judging something against a
given standard):
– Determining pros and cons about a particular
subject.
– Evaluation objectives require making a value
judgments against some criterion or standard.
– For example, students might be asked to
compare the strengths and weaknesses of two
home computers in terms of flexibility, power
and available software.
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