Where did that taxonomy come from?

Benjamin Bloom was born in Lansford, Pennsylvania, on February 21, 1913. His academic credentials include a Bachelor of Arts from Pennsylvania State University in 1935, a Master's of Science from Pennsylvania State in 1935, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1942. Bloom also served at the University of Chicago as a university examiner from 1943 to 1959 and professor of education from 1943 to 1970. He was a researcher for the Pennsylvania State Relief Organization from 1935 to 1936, the American Youth Commission from 1936 to 1938, and the Cooperative Study in General Education from 1939 to 1940. Bloom is associated with several publications, including Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), Stability and Change in Human Characteristics (1964), Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976), All Our Children Learning (1981), and Developing Talent in Young People (1985). His major contributions to the field of education are mastery learning, his model of talent development, and Bloom's Taxonomy (Funderstanding, 1998, October 31).

Huitt (October 1998) relates that

Beginning in 1948, a group of educators undertook the task of classifying education goals and objectives. The intention was to develop a classification system for three domains: the cognitive, the affective, and the psychomotor. Work on the cognitive domain was completed in 1956 and is commonly referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain, although the full title is Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain, and the text has four other authors (M. Englehart, E. Furst, W. Hill, and D. Krathwohl). The major idea of the taxonomy is that what educators want students to know (and therefore statements of educational objectives) can be arranged in a hierarchy from less to more complex.

Cross (1988) writes, "The assumption underlying what has become known as the ‘Bloom Taxonomy' is that cognitive abilities can be measured along a continuum from simple to complex."

In 1968, Bloom developed a practical application of the taxonomy, which he called "Benjamin Bloom's Learning for Mastery," subsequently referred to as mastery learning, based on the concept that all children can learn given individualized rewards as they progress through a sequentially structured program of performance objectives derived, of course, from the Bloom taxonomy.

Activity

Using the links below, find out more about how the taxonomy has been used in instruction. Summarize your findings to share with your class.

Want to know more? Check out these sites:

http://www.wssu.edu/education/Support/earlychildhood/classenvir.htm

http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6506.html

http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/futureteachers/classroom_organization.htm

http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~jamesa/teaching/layout.htm

http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/le.html

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jflake/learningEnvir.html

http://www.coe.uga.edu/sdpl/archives.html

Sources

Bloom, B. 1976. Human characteristics and school learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Bloom, B., Englehart, M., Furst, E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl, D. 1956. Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain (1st ed.). New York: David McKay.

Cross, K. P., & Angelo, T. A. 1998. Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for faculty. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan.

Huitt, W. 1998, October. "Bloom et al.'s taxonomy of the cognitive domain. Educational psychology interactive: The cognitive domain." Retrieved January 23, 2000, from http://www.valdosta.peachnet.edu/~whuitt/psy702/cogsys/bloom/html. Reprinted by permission.

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