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Studying with Bloom's Taxonomy

What is Bloom's Taxonomy? 

Bloom’s Taxonomy can help you level up your learning!

Bloom's Taxonomy is a learning hierarchy that is used in education to classify learning by complexity to help you move from solely memorizing information to understanding and applying course content.

bloom's taxonomy hierarchy organized in a colourful pyramid.

Illustration by Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching, used under a creative commons license

Bloom's Taxonomy Learning Framework

The pyramid that Bloom's is structured as is a framework that you can use to upgrade your learning. The pyramid progresses from lower order thinking at the bottom to higher order thinking at the top.

Lower Order Thinking: 

  • Grasping and using knowledge at a surface level
  • Includes: 
    • Remembering - ability to recall basic concepts and facts.
    • Understanding - ability to explain ideas or concepts and make meaning of them.
    • Applying - ability to recognize and use concepts in new situations.

Higher Order Thinking: 

  • Deeply engaging with material to create something new and form connections.
  • To develop these skills, you must be able to recall relevant information from long term memory and make sense of it.
  • Includes: 
    • Analyzing - ability to draw connections between topics or ideas.
    • Evaluating -ability to make a judgement based on reason or evidence.
    • Creating - ability to produce new or original work.

How to Use Bloom's While Preparing for Exams

Use course learning outcomes, objectives and expectations to identify key words associated with each level of Bloom’s and build a study plan.

Remembering

  • When you can recall information such as names, dates, formulas, definitions, components, or methods.
  • Study strategies:
    • Flash cards;
    • Timelines;
    • Mind maps.

Understanding

  • When you can explain main ideas and concepts by interpreting, classifying, summarizing, inferring, and comparing them.
  • Study strategies: 
    • Connect topics/ideas to real life examples;
    • Explain content to a friend;
    • Write a summary in your own words.

Applying

  • You are able to use real-world situations to address when, where, or how to connect topics, methods and ideas.
  • Study strategies: 
    • Create your own study questions/practice problems;
    • Connect concrete examples to abstract ideas.

Analyzing

  • Break a topic/idea into components. You can examine the topic/idea from different perspectives to look at how the “whole” is created from the “parts.”
  • Study strategies:
    • List contributing factors;
    • Consider different perspectives;
    • Question the significance and connections.

Evaluating

  • Make judgments about the topic based on criteria and standards supported with reasons and evidence.
  • Study strategies: 
    • List problems and the evidence to support them connected to course material;
    • Develop your stance of the topic (agree/disagree) and explain why.

Creating

  • Combine the elements together to form a coherent/functional whole. Creating includes reorganizing and planning out elements into a new pattern or structure.
  • Study strategies: 
    • Design an experiment;
    • Create a model;
    • Use different mediums/methods to explain your thinking.

Want to learn more about this topic? Book an appointment with a Learning Consultant on the Student Success Portal.

References

Anderson, L. W. & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

The Learning Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (n.d.). Higher order thinking: Bloom’s taxonomy. The Learning Center. https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/higher-order-thinking/.