Instructional Design: A Brief Breakdown of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy was created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 as a classification of progressive learning outcomes which forms the basis for the entire curriculum and progression through it. The principles of Bloom’s Taxonomy are simple, break the learning outcomes down to simplify the theory, then progressively increase the students recollection of the theory through incrementally more demanding activities. The progression of a student would have these steps:   

1. Remember
2. Understand
3. Apply
4. Analyze
5. Evaluate
6. Create

The principles behind Bloom’s Taxonomy are simple yet highly sophisticated. With each new step of recollection demanding an incremental understanding of it. This aligns perfectly with how learning works in your brain, as every recollection further strengthens the synapse. Your brain can only do so much at a time, and requires sleep to process what was absorbed by your hippocampus for the day. Bloom’s executes this perfectly by staggering the recollection, allowing the students to fully process their lessons. 

Bloom’s Taxonomy also implements another powerful concept which is often used in game design to maintain the users attention. Essentially you straddle the line between boredom and anxiety as the user or student progresses. This is done by incrementally increasing the challenge, which Bloom’s Taxonomy executes perfectly. 

Using the highlighted principles, you can develop a curriculum that is science-based and engaging. A curriculum that builds towards advanced learning outcomes that result in proficient learners. 

Having read this article, can you recall the six steps of progression? If so, you’ve already moved on to step two.