BENJAMIN BLOOM'S TAXONOMY ON COGNITIVE BEHAVIORS

CONTENTS: Article on applying Bloom's six-level taxonomy to understand and develop appropriate student-centered learning activities.
SOURCE: The National Teaching and Learning Forum newsletter, Vol. 8, No. 4. From online sample articles (http://www.ntlf.com/html/ti/blue_1.htm) Adapted June 1999.

…According to an educational model developed by Bob Gowin, knowledge construction begins with current knowledge represented as concepts, principles, and theories. Through a process of inquiry (formalized in academic disciplines as methods of inquiry), we transform empirical evidence (e.g., natural phenomena, historical events, human behavior) into revised and new knowledge structures. The six levels of Bloom's taxonomy reflect not only the importance of acquiring information (i.e., Level 1: Knowledge) but also the intellectual processes of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation by which we transform raw data into formalized knowledge structures. Utilizing the taxonomy during the instructional planning stage, teachers can establish the ability to construct knowledge as a meaningful student learning outcome and embed its practice explicitly into the essential components of their courses (e.g., classroom instruction, evaluation).