3. – THE 6 LEVELS OF BLOOM’S TAXONOMY, EXPLAINED WITH ACTIVE VERBS

By Jeff Dunn on August 7, 2014

The various levels of Bloom’s (Revised) Taxonomy are pretty well known to most teachers at this point. The gradated levels of critical thinking allow teachers to build lesson plans and identify learning outcomes that are appropriate for the level of exploration of material for the students at that time.

A useful way of understanding how to put Bloom’s into action in your classroom (and ensuring that you’re using the right level of the taxonomy while doing it) is through the use of action verbs. Expanding on the basic verbs used in the taxonomy (Creating, Analyzing, Remembering, etc), you can add other verbs that fall into each category to help you delineate different types of activities that address the specific level of Bloom’s Taxonomy you’re looking for. Mia MacMeekin has created the below graphic with a huge variety of different verbs that can apply for each category. What other verbs would you add? Weigh in by leaving a comment below, mentioning @Edudemic on Twitter or leaving your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Bloom’s Verbs

CREATING

•devise

•build

•design

•formulate

•imagine

•collect

EVALUATING

•verify

•recommend

•criticize

•debate

•critique

•calculate

ANALYZING

•divide

•explain

•categorize

•identify

•estimate

•compare

APPLYING

•execute

•utilize

•complete

•produce

•dramatize

•illustrate

UNDERSTANDING

•summarize

•discuss

•describe

•explain

•outline

•predict

REMEMBERING

•recollect

•remind

•memorize

•identify

•cite

•reproduce

How To Teach Critical Thinking Using Bloom’s Taxonomy

By Jeff Dunn on September 27, 2013@edudemic

The various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are well known to teachers, students, and the rest of the education world at this point. You need to slowly ascend the pyramid in order to effectively reach your goal(s). That’s great. But what happens when you try to apply other time-tested methodologies to the famous taxonomy?

This happens.

The visual guide you see below is from Flickr via Kris McElroy’s Pinterest board (she shares a lot of fabulous resources so check ‘em out!). It details the many critical thinking skills and related questions that you should use.

Level One

From the base knowledge level of the taxonomy you can see that you start with the usual ‘who’ ‘what’ ‘where’ and other questions. Those are useful fill-in-the-blank questions that help identification and recall of information.

Level Two

You’re asked to re-tell and dive in a bit deeper into the topic you’re researching or discussing. This helps aid in comprehension and organization / selection of facts and ideas.

Level Three

How do you actually apply the skills you’re learning? How can your newfound critical thinking skills be used to interpret new data from outside sources?

Level Four

Like a good scientist (this is close to the Scientific Method after all), we must analyze the results that are now coming forth. We should pause and figure out how critical thinking skills are being incorporated into our everyday lives. Just ask the questions in level four and you’re off to a great start!

Level Five

Time to remix and synthesize some new ideas or formulations. In other words, let’s take what we know and combine a bit of what we just discovered. That’ll help us form new ideas and interpretations of what we’re studying or discussing.

Level Six

Boom. You made it. Time to form your own opinion and be able to discuss the finer points of why you think the way you do! Who knew it took so much work to actually be able to accurately form your own opinion?

Think about that the next time you’re asked your opinion. It takes time to ponder and consider every level of the taxonomy.

@edudemic

© 2013 by Edudemic