Design Models
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Move from remembering to creating.
Definition
A framework for classifying cognitive skills into six levels, from basic recall to complex creation, helping educators design objectives, activities, and assessments with the right depth.
💡 Core Idea
Bloom’s Taxonomy organizes thinking skills from lower to higher order, guiding educators to scaffold learning and ensure assessments match intended outcomes.
🔍 How It Works
- Remember – Recall facts and basic concepts.
- Understand – Explain ideas or concepts.
- Apply – Use information in new situations.
- Analyze – Break down information into components and see relationships.
- Evaluate – Make judgments based on criteria.
- Create – Produce original work or ideas.
🎯 How to Apply
- Use action verbs aligned with each cognitive level when writing objectives.
- Match activities and assessments to the targeted level.
- Scaffold lessons to move learners from lower to higher-order skills.
- Mix levels to encourage deeper thinking and application.
📌 Quick Example
Instead of just “Understand Python loops,” a higher-order objective might be “Create a Python program that solves a real-world scheduling problem using loops.”
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Writing objectives that are too vague or not measurable.
- Overemphasizing lower levels without progressing to higher-order thinking.
- Misaligning assessments with the cognitive level intended.
Key Takeaway
Use Bloom’s levels to clarify the kind of thinking you expect—then design learning to match.
📚 Resources
- Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing. Pearson.
- Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Longmans, Green.
- Vanderbilt University – Bloom’s Taxonomy