1. Bloom’s Taxonomy
(with a little intro on assessment)

2. Assessment
 Provides evidence to instructor and student as
to how well the students have learned what
we intend them to learn.
 What we want students to learn and be able
to do should guide the choice and design of
the assessment.

3. Formative Assessment
Low stakes assessments for students and
instructors that gather feedback to guide
improvements in the ongoing teaching and
learning context.
 Examples:
 Asking students to submit one or two sentences
identifying the main point of a lecture
 Have students submit an outline for a paper.
 Early course evaluations

4. Summative
Obtained at the end of an instructional unit to measure the
level of success or proficiency (comparing it against some
standard or benchmark.)
Examples:
 Assigning a grade to a final exam
 Critique of a Senior recital
 University Faculty Course Evaluations
 The outcome of a summative assessment can be used
formatively, however, when students or faculty take the results
and use them to guide their efforts and activities in subsequent
courses.

5. What kind of assessment?
 What will the student’s work on the activity (multiple
choice answers, essays, project, presentation, etc) tell
me about their level of competence on the targeted
learning objectives?
 How will my assessment of their work help guide
students’ practice and improve the quality of their work?
 How will the assessment outcomes for the class guide my
teaching practice?

6. Align with objectives
 Are you assessing what you are teaching (what you
want them to learn?)
 When objectives and assessments are misaligned,
many students will focus their efforts on activities
that will lead to good grades on assessments,
rather than focusing their efforts on learning
 Use different kinds of activities so that students have
multiple ways to practice and demonstrate their
knowledge and skills.

7. Objectives should be
 Written clearly and succinctly
 Measurable
 Depending on Content, identify where in the
Bloom’s level is most appropriate

8. Bloom’s Taxonomy
Levels of Critical Thinking
Cognitive Domain

9. Benjamin Bloom
 University of Chicago; educator, researcher, examiner
 Classified educational objectives – became Bloom’s
taxonomy (1956)
 3 domains:
 Cognitive
 intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or 'think'
 Affective
 feelings, emotions and behavior, ie., attitude, or 'feel'
 Psychomotor
 manual and physical skills, ie., skills, or 'do'

12. Taxonomy: 6 levels
1. Remember / Knowledge • Define
Information gathering • Describe
• Label
 Exhibit memory of previously- • Locate
learned materials by recalling facts, • Identify
terms, basic concepts and answers
• Name
• Select
• State

13. Taxonomy: 6 levels
2. Understand /
• Explain
Comprehension
• Predict
Confirming • Defend
• Illustrate
 Demonstrative understanding of • Paraphrase
facts and ideas by organizing,
• Match
comparing, translating,
interpreting, giving descriptions, • Summarize
and stating main ideas

14. Taxonomy: 6 levels
• Apply
3. Apply / Application • Change
Making use of knowledge • Solve
• Produce
 Using new knowledge. Solve • Prepare
problems to new situations by • Interpret
applying acquired knowledge,
facts, techniques and rules in a • Classify
different way • Sketch
• Dramatize

15. Taxonomy: 6 levels
4. Analyze / Analysis • Analyze
Taking apart • Categorize
• Separate
 Examine and break information • Differentiate
into parts by identifying • Compare
motives or causes. Make • Contrast
inferences and find evidence to • Classify
support generalizations
• Construct

16. Taxonomy: 6 levels
5. Evaluate / Synthesis • Develop
Putting Together • Produce
• Construct
 Compile information together • Combine
in a different way by combining
elements in a new pattern or • Formulate
proposing alternative solutions • Hypothesize

17. Taxonomy: 6 levels
6. Create / Evaluation • Critique
Judging the outcome • Summarize
• Judge
 Present and defend opinions by • Weight
making judgments about
information, validity of ideas or • Solve
quality of work based on a set of • Recommend
criteria • Assess

18. Writing Objectives
Using Bloom’s Taxonomy

19. Ask yourself:
 What do you want them to learn?
 How will you know that they’ve learned it?
 Backwards Design
 Begin with assessment
 Work backwards to activities
(See the Backward Design presentation)

20. References
 Bloom B. (ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, the
classification of educational goals – Handbook I: Cognitive Domain New
York, NY: McKay
 Center for Academic Success, New Bloom’s pyramid, retrieved March 4,
2012 from Louisiana State University, http://www.cas.lsu.edu
 Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence (n.d.) Design & teach a course.
Carnegie Melon University. Retrieved online from
http://www.cmu.edu/teaching
 Pohl, M. (2000) Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn. Victoria, Australia:
Hawker Brownlow Education Pty Ltd.