Which one of the following statements best describes how learners often acquire procedural knowledge?

Revised Bloom's Taxonomy

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of “educational objectives” (in Bloom’s original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

Overview

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These “action words” describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge.

A statement of a learning objective contains a verb (an action) and an object (usually a noun).

• The verb generally refers to [actions associated with] the intended cognitive process.
• The object generally describes the knowledge students are expected to acquire or construct. (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001, pp. 4–5)

The cognitive process dimension represents a continuum of increasing cognitive complexity—from remember to create. Anderson and Krathwohl identify 19 specific cognitive processes that further clarify the bounds of the six categories (Table 1).

Table 1. The Cognitive Process Dimension – categories, cognitive processes (and alternative names)

Remember

recognizing (identifying)

recalling (retrieving)

Understand

interpreting (clarifying, paraphrasing, representing, translating)

exemplifying (illustrating, instantiating)

classifying (categorizing, subsuming)

summarizing (abstracting, generalizing)

inferring (concluding, extrapolating, interpolating, predicting)

comparing (contrasting, mapping, matching)

explaining (constructing models)

Apply

executing (carrying out)

implementing (using)

Analyze

differentiating (discriminating, distinguishing, focusing, selecting)

organizing (finding, coherence, integrating, outlining, parsing, structuring)

attributing (deconstructing)

Evaluate

checking (coordinating, detecting, monitoring, testing)

critiquing (judging)

Create

generating (hypothesizing)

planning (designing)

producing (construct)

The knowledge dimension represents a range from concrete (factual) to abstract (metacognitive) (Table 2). Representation of the knowledge dimension as a number of discrete steps can be a bit misleading. For example, all procedural knowledge may not be more abstract than all conceptual knowledge. And metacognitive knowledge is a special case. In this model, “metacognitive knowledge is knowledge of [one’s own] cognition and about oneself in relation to various subject matters . . . ” (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001, p. 44).

Table 2. The Knowledge Dimension

Factual

• knowledge of terminology
• knowledge of specific details and elements

Conceptual

• knowledge of classifications and categories
• knowledge of principles and generalizations
• knowledge of theories, models, and structures

Procedural

• knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms
• knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods
• knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures

Metacognitive

• strategic knowledge
• knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge
• self-knowledge

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Model (Responsive)

Note: These are learning objectives – not learning activities. It may be useful to think of preceding each objective with something like, “students will be able to…:

The Knowledge Dimension

Factual

The basic elements a student must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems in it.

The Knowledge Dimension

Conceptual

The interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together.

The Knowledge Dimension

Procedural

How to do something, methods of inquiry, and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods.

The Knowledge Dimension

Metacognitive

Knowledge of cognition in general as well as awareness and knowledge of one’s own cognition

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Remember

Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory.

List primary and secondary colors.

Recognize symptoms of exhaustion.

Recall how to perform CPR.

Identify strategies for retaining information.

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Understand

Construct meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written and graphic communication.

Summarize features of a new product.

Classify adhesives by toxicity.

Clarify assembly instructions.

Understand + Metacognitive

Predict one’s response to culture shock.

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Apply

Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation.

Respond to frequently asked questions.

Provide advice to novices.

Carry out pH tests of water samples.

Use techniques that match one's strengths.

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Analyze

Break material into foundational parts and determine how parts relate to one another and the overall structure or purpose

Select the most complete list of activities.

Differentiate high and low culture.

Integrate compliance with regulations.

Deconstruct one's biases.

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Evaluate

Make judgments based on criteria and standards.

Check for consistency among sources.

Determine relevance of results.

Judge efficiency of sampling techniques.

Reflect on one's progress.

The Cognitive Process Dimension

Create

Put elements together to form a coherent whole; reorganize into a new pattern or structure.

Generate a log of daily activities.

Assemble a team of experts.

Design efficient project workflow.

Create a learning portfolio.

Recommended resources

• Developing Student Learning Outcome Statements (Georgia Tech) page
• Churches, A. (2008). Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.  A thorough orientation to the revised taxonomy; practical recommendations for a wide variety of ways mapping the taxonomy to the uses of current online technologies; and associated rubrics
• Download the Blooms Digital Taxonomy of Verbs poster (Wasabi Learning)
• Bloom et al.’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain (Dr. William G. Huitt, Valdosta State University)
• Stanny, C. J. (2016). Reevaluating Bloom’s Taxonomy: What measurable verbs can and cannot say about student learning. Education Sciences, 6(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci6040037
• The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom (Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…)

*Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.

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