Blooms Levels of Learning

Bloom’s Theory of Learning

Benjamin Bloom thought of the idea of six steps to learning, the levels pertain to thinking and are also the cognitive domain. They start at the bottom then move up as the learner acquires more knowledge. This is a picture representing Bloom’s levels:

This staircase starts with the idea of recall, or knowledge. This expresses the natural urge to discuss previously learned material and provides a basis for future learning and higher levels of thinking. Basically, people need to know information and be able to recall it for use in order to achieve most things in life from a conversation to a degree. An example of this is when a student can tell you a dictionary definition of a vocabulary word.

Another step up is to grasp an idea, otherwise know as comprehension. One can know facts, but in order to be a higher level thinker that person must be able to translate that knowledge wisely and have an understanding of what they mean. Comprehension is only complete once a person is able to explain or restate ideas, proving they grasp a certain topic. To exhibit this level a student might define a word for you using their own language, not just from a dictionary.

After a person has recalled correct information and translated it into meaning, they are then able to apply that knowledge to a new situation. This step involves not only knowing information but then using it to solve problems in appropriate settings. Another way to look at this is if the same student who can describe a word’s meaning to you can then use it in a new sentence or a conversation.

Once a person has mastered the previous levels, then they are able to analyze what has happened. This involves breaking up the known information into helps bits of knowledge, such as the roots to a word. If a student can explain that a particular word can be broken up into parts which together mean the whole, then this step has been accomplished for that word.
Synthesis is the ability to have new innovations and piece together new wholes from parts of an idea. Basically, using the vocabulary reference, if a student can start with two root words and create a new meaningful word they have reached this stage or learning. In order to synthesize something an emphasis is put on unique understandings and creative relationships.

The last and most difficult stage of learning, according to Bloom, is that of evaluation and judgment. This type of learning involves every step in order to review and pronounce evidence and ideas so one can then make appropriate judgments and statements based in fact.


I got this information mostly from: http://oaks.nvg.org/taxonomy-bloom.html