Bloom’s taxonomy is developed by a committee of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues introduced in the publication Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The classification of Educational Goals. They have developed a taxonomy of different kinds of thinking and learning. The taxonomy divides learning into three broad domains: cognitive (knowledge based), affective (emotion-based) and psychomotor (action-based), each with a hierarchy of skills and abilities. These domains are used by educators to structure curriculum, teaching methods and assessments to adopt different types of learning.
Cognitive Domain – Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation
Affective Domain – Attitudes, values, emotions
Psychomotor Domain – Physical skills and actions
Evolution of the Taxonomy
The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives handbook (Bloom et al., 1956) is a book that explains how students learn and details the cognitive domain. It was published in 1956 (a first volume focused on cognitive objectives) after a series of conferences from 1949 to 1953 in which Benjamin S. Bloom was ably assisted by his colleagues, Max D. Engelhart, Edward J. Furst, Walker H. Hill, and David R. Krathwohl. The conferences sought to improve communication between educators about the design of curricula and educational examinations. In 1964, the second volume in the series (Krathwohl et al., 1964), focusing on affective outcomes, was published. Around eight years later in1972, Elizabeth Simpson built the taxonomy of the psychomotor domain based on the work of Bloom and others (Simpson, 1966). A revised version of the taxonomy for the cognitive domain was later created in 2001 (Krathwohl, 2002).
1956 – Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive – 1st volume
1964 – Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Affective – 2nd volume
1972 – Taxonomy of the psychomotor domain – Elizabeth Simpson
2001 – Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Cognitive – Revised version
Use of Bloom’s Taxonomy in Teaching and Learning
Bloom’s Taxonomy is used in the following three major areas
- Curriculum Design – It helps educators to design curriculum based on different levels
- Lesson Planning – It helps teachers to align learning objectives with learning outcomes
- Assessment – It guides teachers to frame different assessment strategies that measure different level of understanding
Differentiate between Bloom’s Taxonomy and Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
There are three major differences between the original and revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
- The nouns defining each stage were changed to verbs
| Bloom’s Taxonomy | |
| Original | Revised |
| Knowledge | Remembering |
| Comprehension | Understanding |
| Application | Applying |
| Analysis | Analysing |
| Synthesis | Evaluating |
| Evaluation | Creating |
- The places of last two levels were switched.
- Evaluating and creating switched places
- Evaluating became the fifth level
- Creating became the sixth level
- The revised taxonomy further broke each level down, proposing that each level has its own levels of knowledge.
- These levels are Factual, Conceptual, Procedural and Metacognitive
- Knowledge is the dimension that measures depth of learning
Cognitive Domain of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
Knowledge Dimension of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
The cognitive domain of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (2001) consists of six hierarchical levels: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. It emphasizes active, measurable learning processes, moving from lower-order thinking skills of facts to higher-order thinking skills like critical evaluation and creative synthesis.
Remembering – Recall facts
Understanding – Explain ideas or concepts
Applying – Use knowledge in solving problems
Analysing – Break information and draw connections among ideas
Evaluating – Making judgements based on criteria and statement
Creating – Design new ideas
Factual: Basic facts that the students must know in order to learn content or to solve problems
Conceptual: Abstract and concrete concepts that can be categorised together because of interrelationship among them.
Procedural: The method and/or flow of events that lead to accomplishment of a task
Metacognitive: Awareness of thought processes – both in general and of one’s self.
Thinking Skills Levels
Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills: Benefits
- Higher Order Thinking Skills increase and promote critical thinking
- Higher Order Thinking Skills make it possible for teachers to provide constant feedback to students on the way they comprehend information.
- The students are responsible for their learning
- Developing Higher Order Thinking increases focus and attention of the students
- Higher Order Thinking Skills enable discussions and stimulate logical thinking.
Developing Lower Order Thinking Skills in the classroom
- Give the students reading assignments
- PowerPoint Presentations are also a great way to develop lower order thinking skills
Finally, Bloom’s taxonomy helps teachers to frame learning objectives align with learning outcomes and assessment patterns that target different cognitive skills. It also encourages development from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills. It also equips learners to align with 21st century educational goals.
REFERENCE
- Bloom, B. S. (Ed.), Engelhart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals, Handbook I: Cognitive domain. Longmans.
- Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order thinking? Journal of Educational Psychology
- Pankajakshan, A. K. (2025). Bloom’s taxonomy simplified for CBSE teachers: A gentle guide to thoughtful, meaningful classroom practice.
- Bloom’s taxonomy (2026, March 03). In Wikipedia. wikipedia.org
Reference material and videos from Suraasa – PgCTL – Child Development, Learning Styles and Learning Taxonomies
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