Benjamin Bloom was an American
educational psychologist who is famously associated with a taxonomy of learning. Numerous
revisions and alternatives have followed in the subsequent decades.
For this task create one or more higher-order questions (lower on the list) using Barkley or
Krathwohl & Anderson as a model.
Barkley
- Exploratory
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probe facts and basic knowledge
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What research evidence supports ….?
- Challenge
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examine assumptions, conclusions, and interpretations
-
How else might we account for ….?
- Relational
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ask for comparison of themes, ideas, or issues
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How does compare to ….?
- Diagnostic
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probe motives or causes
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Why did ….?
- Action
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Call for a conclusion or action
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In response to ….., what should …. do?
- Cause and effect
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ask for causal relationships between ideas, actions, or events
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If …. occurred, what would happen?
- Extension
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expand the discussion
-
What are additional ways that ….?
- Hypothetical
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pose a change in the facts or issues
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Suppose …. had been the case, would the outcome have been the same?
- Priority
-
seek to identify the most important issue
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From all that we have discussed, what is the most important ….?
- Summary
-
elicit syntheses
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What themes or lessons have emerged from ….?
- Problem
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challenge students to find solutions to real or hypothetical situations.
-
What if?
- Interpretation
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help students to uncover the underlying meaning of things
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From whose viewpoint course perspective are we seeing, hearing, reading?
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What does this mean? What may have been intended by ….?
- Application
-
probe for relationships and ask students to connect theory to practice
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How does this apply to that? Knowing this, how would you …?
- Evaluative
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require students to assess and make judgments
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Which of these are better? Why does it matter? So what?
- Critical
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require students to examine the validity of statements, arguments, and conclusions and to analyze
their thinking and challenge their own assumptions.
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How do we know? What’s the evidence? How reliable is the evidence
Krathwohl & Anderson (Bloom revised)
Cognitive Dimension
- Remember (recognizing, recalling)
- “Who, what, when, where, how …. ?”
- Understand (interpreting, classifying, comparing, explaining)
- “Retell ….”
- “Summarize …”
- Apply (executing, implementing)
- “How is …. an example of …. ?”
- “How is …. related to …. ?”
- “Why is …. significant?
- Analyze (differentiating, organizing, attributing)
- “What are the parts or features of …. ?”
- “Classify …. according to ….”
- “Outline / diagram ….”
- “How does …. compare / contrast with …. ?”
- “What evidence can you list for …. ?”
- Evaluate (checking, critiquing)
- “Do you agree …. ?”
- “What do you think about …. ?”
- “What is the most important …. ?”
- “Place the following in order of priority ….”
- “How would you decide about …. ?”
- “What criteria would you use to assess …. ?”
- Create (generating, planning, producing)
- “What would you predict / infer from …. ?”
- “What ideas can you add to …. ?”
- “How would you create / design a new …. ?”
- “What might happen if you combined …. ?”
- “What solutions would you suggest for …. ?”
Knowledge Dimension
These questions can be asked along the four knowledge dimensions.
- Factual
- terminology: Technical vocabulary, music symbols
- specific details and elements: Major natural resources, reliable sources of information
- Conceptual
- classifications and categories: Periods of geological time, forms of business ownership
- principles and generalizations: Pythagorean theorem, law of supply and demand
- theories, models, and structures: Theory of evolution, structure of Congress
- Procedural
- subject-specific skills and algorithms: Skills used in painting with water colors, whole-number
division algorithm
- subject-specific techniques and methods: Interviewing techniques, scientific method
- criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures: Criteria used to determine when to
apply a procedure involving Newton’s second law, criteria used to judge the feasibility of using a
particular method to estimate business costs
- Meta-cognitive
- strategic: Knowledge of outlining as a means of capturing the structure of a unit of subject
matter in a text book, knowledge of the use of heuristics
- cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge: Knowledge of the
types of tests particular teachers administer, knowledge of the cognitive demands of different
tasks
- self-knowledge: Knowledge that critiquing essays is a personal strength, whereas writing essays
is a personal weakness; awareness of one’s own knowledge level
Bloom (original)
- Knowledge (identification and recall of information)
- “Who, what, when, where, how …. ?”
- “Describe ….”
- Comprehension (organization and selection of facts and ideas):
- “Retell ….”
- “Summarize …”
- Application (use of facts, rules and principles):
- “How is …. an example of …. ?”
- “How is …. related to …. ?”
- “Why is …. significant?
- Analysis (separation of a whole into component parts):
- “What are the parts or features of …. ?”
- “Classify …. according to ….”
- “Outline / diagram ….”
- “How does …. compare / contrast with …. ?”
- “What evidence can you list for …. ?”
- Synthesis (combination of ideas to form a new whole):
- “What would you predict / infer from …. ?”
- “What ideas can you add to …. ?”
- “How would you create / design a new …. ?”
- “What might happen if you combined …. ?”
- “What solutions would you suggest for …. ?”
- Evaluation (development of opinions, judgments, or decisions):
- “Do you agree …. ?”
- “What do you think about …. ?”
- “What is the most important …. ?”
- “Place the following in order of priority ….”
- “How would you decide about …. ?”
- “What criteria would you use to assess …. ?”
Sources
