be relevant to the understanding and development of people and organisations.
bloom's taxonomy definitions
Bloom's Taxonomy model is in three parts, or 'overlapping domains'. Again, Bloom used rather academic language, but the meanings are simple to understand:
- Cognitive domain (intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or 'think')
- Affective domain (feelings, emotions and behaviour, ie., attitude, or 'feel')
- Psychomotor domain (manual and physical skills, ie., skills, or 'do')
This has given rise to the obvious short-hand variations on the theme which summarise the three domains; for example, Skills-Knowledge-Attitude, KAS, Do-Think-Feel, etc.
Various people have since built on Bloom's work, notably in the third domain, the 'psychomotor' or skills, which Bloom originally identified in a broad sense, but which he never fully detailed. This was apparently because Bloom and his colleagues felt that the academic environment held insufficient expertise to analyse and create a suitable reliable structure for the physical ability 'Psychomotor' domain. While this might seem strange, such caution is not uncommon among expert and highly specialised academics - they strive for accuracy as well as innovation. In Bloom's case it is as well that he left a few gaps for others to complete the detail; the model seems to have benefited from having several different contributors fill in the detail over the years, such as Anderson, Krathwhol, Masia, Simpson, Harrow and Dave (these last three having each developed versions of the third 'Psychomotor' domain).
In each of the three domains Bloom's Taxonomy is based on the premise that the categories are ordered in degree of difficulty. An important premise of Bloom's Taxonomy is that each category (or 'level') must be mastered before progressing to the next. As such the categories within each domain are levels of learning development, and these levels increase in difficulty.
The simple matrix structure enables a checklist or template to be constructed for the design of learning programmes, training courses, lesson plans, etc. Effective learning - especially in organisations, where training is to be converted into organisational results - should arguably cover all the levels of each of the domains, where relevant to the situation and the learner.
The learner should benefit from development of knowledge and intellect (Cognitive Domain); attitude and beliefs (Affective Domain); and the ability to put physical and bodily skills into effect - to act (Psychomotor Domain).
bloom's taxonomy overview
Here's a really simple adapted 'at-a-glance' representation of Bloom's Taxonomy. The definitions are intended to be simple modern day language, to assist explanation and understanding. This simple overview can help you (and others) to understand and explain the taxonomy. Refer back to it when considering and getting to grips with the detailed structures - this overview helps to clarify and distinguish the levels.
For the more precise original Bloom Taxonomy terminology and definitions see the more detailed domain structures beneath this at-a-glance model. It's helpful at this point to consider also the 'conscious competence' learning stages model, which provides a useful perspective for all three domains, and the concept of developing competence by stages in sequence.
|1. Recall data||1. Receive (awareness)||1. Imitation (copy)|
|2. Understand||2. Respond (react)||2. Manipulation (follow instructions)|
|3. Apply (use)||3. Value (understand and act)||3. Develop Precision|
|4. Analyse (structure/elements)||4. Organise personal value system||4. Articulation (combine, integrate related skills)|
|5. Synthesize (create/build)||5. Internalize value system (adopt behaviour)||5. Naturalization (automate, become expert)|
|6. Evaluate (assess, judge in relational terms)|
N.B. In the Cognitive Domain, levels 5 and 6, Synthesis and Evaluation, were subsequently inverted by Anderson and Krathwhol in 2001. Anderson and Krathwhol also developed a complex two-dimensional extension of the Bloom Taxonomy, which is not ex