Bloom’s Taxonomy is an educational framework that classifies different objectives and skills to help students and employees learn. It involves six levels of learning that provide structure to the objectives, lessons and assessments. These levels include:
- Remembering and retaining relevant information.
- Understanding and interpreting messaging.
- Applying a learned procedure.
- Analyzing the material and determining each component’s relation to another.
- Evaluating criteria and coming to conclusions.
- Creating patterns or structures with various elements.
Like Kirkpatrick’s Learning Evaluation model (1959), SWOT analysis theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Bloom’s Taxonomy remains a classic tool, often referenced in shorthand as Skills, Knowledge, Attitude, KASs, etc. but still retaining its relevance to 21st century learners today. The model serves as a checklist instructional systems designers can use to make sure all training is designed to cover different levels of learning. Recent studies have shown many instructors still focus the final exam (the single assessment the majority of students spend time working on) on memorization rather than higher level thinking skills. Blooms gives all a timely reminder to add opportunities to apply new knowledge into the final assessment.
If you read this previous blog, you may recall that I covered the good, the bad and the ugly of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In this blog, I will dive a little deeper into the purpose of this framework and who receives the most value from it.
Who uses it the most?
Bloom’s Taxonomy has been used by grade teachers and college instructors alike since the 1950s. Now it is widely used for corporate and industry training as well. It allows students and employees to create and obtain achievable learning goals that are clearly defined. Bloom’s Taxonomy primarily focuses on cognitive learning skills rather than psychomotor or affective skills.
Bloom’s Taxonomy helps students and employees better understand what their current level of knowledge is, and helps them visualize what they still need to learn in order to reach their goals. Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a clear structure, allowing participants to mainly focus on attaining a new level of knowledge.
In a corporate and industry setting, Bloom’s Taxonomy helps create sustained behavioral changes and ensures the individual is able to apply what they are learning back on the job. They are also provided skills to continuously develop their knowledge and learn on the job.
What do you learn?
It may not be necessary to include all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy into your training programs, but rather the aspects that are appropriate to your learning goals and objectives. In addition, Bloom’s Taxonomy can serve as a helpful checklist for planning, designing, assessing and evaluating your training program and its effectiveness.
Here are more descriptive examples of the Bloom Taxonomy activities that learners engage in at each level:
Remember
Activities at the Remembering level may include memorizing a poem, recalling state capitals, remembering math formulas, etc. When it comes to corporate and industry training, activities may include reciting policies, and quoting prices and product information from memory.
Understand
Activities at the Understanding level may include organizing the animal kingdom based on a given framework, illustrating the difference between a rectangle and square, summarizing the plot of a simple story, etc. When it comes to corporate and industry training, activities may include explaining the specific safety model learned in safety training in your own words.
Apply
Example activities at the Application level may include using a formula to solve a problem, selecting a design to meet a purpose, reconstructing the passage of a new law through a given government/system, etc. When it comes to corporate and industry training, activities may include choosing attributes that make up a product or process.
Analyze
Example activities at the Analysis level may include identifying the ‘parts of’ democracy, explaining how the steps of a scientific process work together, identifying why a machine isn’t working, etc. When it comes to corporate and industry training, activities may include comparing and contrasting the “do’s” and “don’ts” of effective training programs.
Evaluate
Example activities at the Evaluation level may include making a judgment regarding an ethical dilemma, interpreting the significance of a given law of physics, illustrating the relative value of a technological innovation in a specific setting, etc. When it comes to corporate and industry training, activities may include being able to select the most effective solution.
Create
Example activities at the Creation level may include designing a new solution to an ‘old’ problem that honors/acknowledges the previous failures, deleting the least useful arguments in a persuasive essay, writing a poem based on a given theme and tone, etc. When it comes to corporate and industry training, activities may include writing an operations or processes manual.
Why does it matter?
Various Bloom’s Taxonomy authors suggest that this structure of learning plays an important role in helping participants understand the purpose of their learning objectives. This understanding allows instructors and bosses to “plan and deliver appropriate instruction, design valid assessment tasks and strategies, and ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives.”
By involving different methods of learning in workplace training, your learners will be able to retain and apply knowledge in a more efficient and effective way.