Benjamin Bloom

Taxanomy of Learning Domain

In 1956, a psychologist by the name of Dr. Benjamin Bloom and a
committee of educational professionals came up with three
taxonomies, or learning domains, to enhance a students learning
skills. These three domains were cognitive, affective, and
psychomotor. If you plan to pursue a career in the educational
field, its important that you know these three taxonomies, which
are detailed below.

The Cognitive Domain

The basic idea behind the cognitive domain involves the knowledge
and intellectual skills that a student will develop. There are six
categories involved within the cognitive domain, and they are usually
considered to be stages of difficulty. Usually, the first category must be
mastered before a student can move on to the next one. These
categories are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge
This particular category involves the recollection of data or
information. Examples of this include knowing the safety rules or
defining a term
Comprehension
After knowledge comes comprehension, which involves a number
of different things. Comprehension involves understanding
meaning, translating, interpreting instructions and problems, and
stating a problem in your own words. Examples of comprehension
could include explaining the steps of a complex task in your own
words or translating a mathematical word problem into a
mathematical equation.

 Application
Just as the category suggests from its name, application involves
applying the lessons learned in the classroom to situations in life.
Students will use the concepts they learn in a new situation
without any prompting. Examples of application would involve a
student using the proper steps to solve a math problem at home.
Analysis
This particular category involves breaking down information into
its separate parts to understand the organizational structure.
Analysis also teaches students how to distinguish between facts
and inferences.
Synthesis
Synthesis involves a process of putting something together from
the pieces to create new meaning or a whole new structure. An
example of this could be a student writing an essay regarding
material that was read.
Evaluation
When students begin to make judgments about the value of
ideas, theyre beginning the process of evaluation. In a
classroom, a good example of this would be book reports that
involve summarizing what was read and giving an opinion of what
they thought about the material.

Revisions to the Cognitive Domain

Lorin Anderson worked with a new group of educational
professionals in the 1990s to make changes to Blooms
taxonomy. One of the major changes he made was to the
cognitive domain. He changed the main categories from noun
forms to verb forms, and he rearranged them just slightly.
Knowledge was changed to remembering, comprehension to
understanding, application to applying, analysis to analyzing,
synthesis to creating, and evaluation to evaluating. He then
switched the position of creating and evaluating.

The Affective Domain

The affective domain deals with a persons emotions and how they are
handled. Like the cognitive domain, there are major categories involved
with this domain. They are receiving phenomena, responding to
phenomena, valuing, organization, and internalizing values.

Receiving Phenomena
When you receive phenomena, you are aware of your
surrounding. Your attention is focused on wherever that
phenomena is coming from, and you adopt a willingness to hear if
someone is speaking to you. Good examples of receiving
phenomena involve listening to others with respect and
remembering the names of people you just met.
Responding to Phenomena
People responding to phenomena become active participants.
They respond when spoken to and have a motivation behind their
reason for responding. Examples of responding to phenomena
include class discussions and presentations. It also involves
asking questions to better understand the phenomena.
Valuing
When you place a value on something, it becomes important to
you. This placing of value can be on an object, a phenomenon, or
just a behavior. Examples of valuing include students sharing their

opinion regarding a certain topic or a student who studies a

particular subject more than others because of the value they
placed in it.
Organization
This particular category involves the organization of your values
into priorities. By doing this, you compare, relate, and synthesize
those values. Examples of this are accepting responsibility for
your behavior and time management skills.
Internalizing Values
Internalizing values is the category that involves creating a value
system to control behavior. This value system should give your
behavior a consistency that others can recognize. Examples of
this involve cooperating in group work and a self-reliance when
working alone.

The Psychomotor Domain

The third and final domain of Blooms taxonomy involves physical
movement, coordination, and motor-skill usage. Developing the skills
involved with the psychomotor domain takes practice. There are seven
major categories involved with this taxonomy: perception, set, guided
response,

mechanism,

complex

overt

response,adaptation,

and

origination.

Perception
This particular category for the psychomotor domain is similar to
the receiving phenomena category of the affective domain. Using
sensory cues to detect surrounding, motor activity is guided to
where it is needed. Examples of perception involve recognition of
non-verbal communication cues and using other senses beyond
sight and hearing.
Set
A readiness to act involves mental, physical, and emotional sets.
These dispositions can help predetermine how a person will
respond in a situation. Examples of this are knowing your abilities
and recognizing your limitations. This particular category of the
psychomotor domain is related to the category of responding to
phenomena in the affective domain.

 Guided Response
A humans first learning experiences are through imitation and
trial and error, which is the basis of guided response. This is the
early stage of learning a complex skill. Examples of guided
response include following the instructions of an assignment or
performing a mathematical equation just as the teacher
demonstrated.
Mechanism
Mechanism is the intermediate stage involved in learning a
complex skill. It involves learned responses that are now habitual
and movements that are performed with confidence and
proficiency. An example of this would be the average user of the
computer. They dont know how to do most repairs to their
computer, but they can use a word processor and access the
internet with ease.
Complex Overt Response
This particular category is the expert stage involved in learning a
complex skill. There is a higher proficiency in complex movement
patterns with a minimum of energy used. If you have skills that fall
under this category, you perform them without hesitation and
automatically. Examples of this include people who can operate a
computer with ease including downloading many programs

without any help. Also, people who play instruments with ease
and competence have achieved complex overt response
regarding instrumental skill.
Adaptation
Once these pyschomotor skills are well developed, many people
can modify them to fit new situations. This is the adaptation part
of psychomotor domain. An example of this would be a teacher
modifying her lessons to reach special needs of certain learners.
Origination
This category is similar to adaptation, but origination requires the
creation of new movement patterns to fit a situation as opposed to
adaptation using already-known skills for a new situation.
Examples of this are gymnastic students who create a new
routine or writers who arrange words in new ways to come up with
new prose.

Cognitive

Affective

Psychomotor

knowledge

attitude

skills

1. Recall data

1. Receive
(awareness
)

1. Imitation
(copy)

2. Understand

2. Respond
(react)

2.
Manipulation
(follow
instructions)

3. Apply (use)

3. Value
(understan
d and act)

3. Develop
Precision

4. Analyse
(structure/elemen
ts)

4. Organise
personal
value
system

4. Articulation
(combine,
integrate
related skills)

5. Synthesize
(create/build)

5.
Internalize
value
system
(adopt
behaviour)

5.
Naturalization
(automate,
become
expert)

6. Evaluate
(assess, judge in
relational terms)