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Saturday, May 15, 2021

Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Introductory Note

 

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives – Benjamin S Bloom

 

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom. An American educational psychologist had detailed his concept on instructional objectives all teaching learning processes.  Bloom (with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl) published a title on categorizing educational goals - Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Taxonomy simple means classification of learning outcomes and objectives

The framework of instruction objectives explained by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories in a cognitive domain: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

There are three major categories of instructional goals or objectives – concept/ knowledge-based goals, skills-based goals, and affective goals (affective: values, attitudes, and interests); Under these three major categories there is categorization for each.

Domains (objective or goal dimensions)

As it is mentioned above, Bloom has categorised instructional/educational objectives in to three major categories- conceptual/ knowledge objectives, skill objectives and affective objectives. Based on these, he observed that the out come of the achievement of objectives may be in three domains. Hence, he categorised the achievement level of objectives in three domains, they ae cognitive domain, affective domain and psycho motor domain. All the educational objectives are classified in to these three domains.

The domains are not separate entities. They are sharing variants at many contexts. These domains loosely described thus: cognitive for knowing/head, affective for feeling/heart and psychomotor for doing/ hands.

Cognitive Domain

Bloom classified certain conceptual/knowledge objectives under this domain. This domain includes those objectives which deal with the development of intellectual and cognitive abilities- acquisition, processing and mastery of knowledge.  The objectives in this domain are categorized to sis levels. The levels are:

1.     Knowledge

2.     Comprehension

3.     Application

4.     Analysis

5.     Synthesis

6.     Evaluation

Bloom in Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Handbook One, pp. 201-207) explain the levels as follows;

Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”” Knowledge of can be specifically recalling the years, places terminology, specific fact and so on.

Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.” Comprehension involves representing an understanding of facts and ideas by organizing, summarizing, translating, generalizing, giving descriptions, and stating the main ideas.

Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.” Application means applying or using acquired knowledge. It is the ability for solving problems in different situations by applying acquired knowledge, facts, techniques and rules. Learners should be able to use prior knowledge to solve problems, identify connections and relationships and how they apply in new situations.

Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.” Analysis means examining and breaking information into component parts. It also involves determining how the parts relate to one another, identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and finding evidence to support generalizations. It can be analysis of elements, or relationships or organizations

 

Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.” Synthesis involves building a structure from diverse elements. It is a process of building a pattern from the scattered elements. It also refers to the act of putting parts together to form a whole. Its can be production of a unique communication or  of a plan, or proposed set of operations or derivation of a set of abstract relations

Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes. The specific outcome of the objectives in this level are evaluating, adjudicating, assessing, estimating and judging. Evaluation involves presenting and defending opinions by making judgments about information, ideas, or assessing quality of work based on a set of criteria. It can be judging in terms of internal evidence, external and evidences or judgments in terms of external criteria.

 

Visit this website for further details https://teaching.uncc.edu/

 

Objectives on other domains also taxonomized in to different levels. They are given under;

Affective Domain (affective objectives)

Affective domain includes those objectives which are concerned with desirable modifications in the emotional pattern related to attitude, interest, appreciation, values and so on.  Levels in this domain are;

1.     Receiving:      Reveals willingness to participate in the activity

2.     Responding:    Shows interest in the objects, phenomena, or activity by seeking it out or pursuing it for pleasure

3.     Valuing:          in this level individual adopts an appreciation for the objectives, phenomena, or activity. In other words, individual begins to value these things.

4.     Organizing:     Begins to compare different values/ attitudes/behaviours, and resolves conflicts between them to form an internally consistent system of values

5.     Characterizing: Adopts a long-term value system that is "universal, consistent, and predictable." In other words, individual adopts desirable changes in values or attitude to his behaviour/character.

In this domain the objectives are categorized to the above said five levels.

 

Psycho motor Domain (skill-based objectives)

This domain includes the development of individual capacity in manipulating the motor skills. The objectives that are set with desirable motor activities are coming under this head. There are seven levels in this domain:

1.     Perception:      Uses sensory cues to guide action

2.     Set:                  Reveals readiness to take action to perform the task or objective

3.     Guided response:        Knows steps required to complete the task or objective

4.     Mechanism:    Performs task or objective in a somewhat confident, proficient, and habitual manner

5.     Complex overt response:        Performs task or objective in a confident, proficient, and habitual manner

6.     Adaptation:     Performs task or objective as above, but can also modify actions to account for new or problematic situations.

7.     Origination:    Creates new tasks or objectives incorporating with the learned ones

 

Blooms described the instructional objectives or educational goal in the above mentioned three objective areas or domains. In formal classroom situation, we give importance to the cognitive domain. A lesson should be planned accordingly to achieve these objectives by the learner and learner has to perform with the proper learning out comes.

 

 

This is a brief note only to have a preliminary understanding on Blooms Taxonomy.

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