The Bloom Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was revised Spring
2001.
This note describes the revisions that were recently made to the taxonomy
reported
in your textbook. It is easier to understand and use in many ways, so you
may use either one you wish in doing your test construction project.
Review of the changes
First, the revised Bloom taxonomy gives
slightly different
names to
the 6 levels of the hierarchy:
- remember (was knowledge)
- understand (was comprehension)
- apply (was application)
- analyze (was analysis)
- evaluate (was evaluation)
- create (was synthesis)
Second, the last two categories have been reversed, putting create
(synthesis) as the most complex level.
As you can see, the verbs have also been clarified.
These changes clear up two big questions that
many
people had in trying to use the taxonomy.
- What is the difference between comprehension and application?
The panel decided that they overlap because understanding is a very
broad term. It had been hard to distinguish which of the two many test
items were tapping. (It may sometimes be both.) Both categories
now have clearer verbs.
- What does evaluation really mean?
The chief confusion was that evaluation is usually less complex than
synthesis, which made it difficult to think of what sorts of test items
would
represent "evaluation." "Evaluate" now has a clearer meaning.
Source for revised taxonomy: Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R.
(2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of
Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Addison Wesley
Longman.