Teaching and Educational Development Institute Teaching and Educational Development Institute Bloom S Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Teaching and Educational Development Institute Teaching and Educational Development Institute Bloom S Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Teaching and Educational Development Institute Teaching and Educational Development Institute Bloom S Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Institute
Bloom�s taxonomy of
educational objectives
Teaching and Educational Development Institute Teaching and Educational Development
Institute
Bloom�s taxonomy of
educational objectives
This material is largely drawn from a handout from Dr Robert Kleinsasser (School
of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, UQ). He acknowledges that the
verb lists come from the Washington State Board of Vocational Education. The
verb lists will be very useful when you write your own learning goals (which are a
kind of educational objective).
Bloom�s domains
Three domains:
�
cognitive (about knowing)
�affective (about attitudes, feelings)
�
psychomotor (about doing)
Formulated by Bloom and coworkers. Cognitive and affective domains were
completed and published in the 1950s. Psychomotor was never published,
although others have tried. It is arguably a bit out of date (from the mid �50s and
Cognitive domain
�
knowledge: the recall of specific items
�
comprehension: can recall, but can do a little more (e.g. paraphrase, define,
discuss to some extent)
�
application: all of the above, but can take information of an abstract nature and
use it in concrete situations
�
analysis: can break down a communication into its constituent parts, revealing
the relationships among them
�
synthesis: can pull together many disorganised elements or parts so as to
form a whole
�
evaluation: makes judgements about the value of materials or methods.
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Verbs to help in writing objectives in the cognitive domain
Affective domain
�
receiving: is willing to notice a particular phenomenon
�
responding: makes response, at first with compliance, later willingly and with
satisfaction
�
valuing: accepts worth of a thing
�
organisation: organises values; determines interrelationships; adapts
behaviour to value system
�
characterisation: generalises certain values into controlling tendencies;
emphasis on internal consistency; later integrates these into a total philosophy
of life or world view.
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Some verbs to help in writing objectives in the affective domain
Psychomotor domain
The psychomotor domain concerns things students might physically do. Although
no taxonomy of this domain was compiled by Bloom and his coworkers, several
competing taxonomies have been created over the years since Bloom�s original
books. The one summarised here is based on work by Harrow [Harrow, A.
(1972). A Taxonomy of the Psychomotor Domain: A Guide for Developing
Behavioral Objectives. New York: McKay], as summarised in Barry, K. and King,
�
reflex: objectives not usually written at this �low� level
�
fundamental movements: applicable mostly to young children (crawl, run,
jump, reach, change direction)
�
perceptual abilities: catch, write, balance, distinguish, manipulate
�
physical abilities: stop, increase, move quickly, change, react
�
skilled movements: play, hit, swim, dive, use
�
non-discursive communication: express, create, mime, design, interpret.
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The last two categories seem likely to be well applicable to programs in
the creative and professional areas. Clinical skills such as palpation
arguably legitimately qualify as psychomotor skills in the skilled movement
category, while painting, drawing and acting, for example, will at least in
part fall into the non-discursive communication category.
The psychomotor domain and its relevant verbs and categories have been
less well articulated, at all levels of education, than the cognitive and
affective domains. However, it is important that you do not ignore
objectives in this area should there be relevant skills in your course.
Reference
This reference contains the original two volumes detailing the taxonomies
for the cognitive and affective domains (see below).
Note
This material is presented as a source of ideas. It is not intended as the only way
to write objectives nor even a completely valid one. Bloom�s taxonomy dates from
the 1950' and has been under debate ever since.
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