Blooms Taxonomy

In the 1950s, Benjamin Bloom – an American educational phsycologist – devised a taxonomy of cognitive objectives.

The word taxonomy is derived from the greek word ‘taxis’ (meaning arrangement) and ‘nomina’ (meaning distribution), so in a literal sense ‘taxonomy’ means arrangement distribution.

However, in modern terms it can mean several different things:

• The branch of science concerned with classification.
• The classification of something in particular.
• The scheme of classification.

In Bloom’s case, it refers to the scheme of classification as it is a structured list of thinking skills that is applied to daily tasks, both common and academic. The taxonomy is taught throughout the educational community as an essential foundational element. The taxonomy is relatively straight forward and self-explanatory, beginning with the basic understanding of a concept and leading to analysis and evaluation.

The main difference between Blooms’ Taxonomy and the revised taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl in the 1950’s is not only the change in language but the change between the top two steps. Whereas Bloom believed that creation should come before evaluation, Anderson and Krathwohl believe it is necessary to evaluate before creating.