An Intro to Bloom’s Taxonomy for New Teachers (With Examples)

If you’re a typical new teacher, it can feel like you’ve been thrown into a sea of educational terminology without a life jacket.  The overwhelm is real, especially when you’re treading water with the day-to-day classroom grind.  One such term is “Bloom’s Taxonomy”.  Although it may be tempting to put Bloom aside for “next year”, I’m here to tell you that a basic knowledge of Bloom will not only make you a better teacher, but it can make your job easier.  Here’s an intro to Bloom’s Taxonomy, with examples.

Bloom Level 1: Remember

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

As you may recall from your education classes, in 1956 Benjamin Bloom and friends, created a framework to classify learning outcomes and skills.  What became known as Bloom’s Taxonomy was born.  (Taxonomy means “classification”.)

Bloom wanted to go beyond the traditional notion that learning resulted from simple memorization. He hoped to encourage what he believed was higher-level thinking.  The result was his familiar pyramid of learning tasks.

Note: Bloom’s original framework was updated in 1999.  This article uses the updated version.

The original version of Bloom’s Taxonomy was updated in 1999.

Bloom Level 2: Understand 

So, how does the taxonomy work?

Bloom’s classification system contains six levels. The bottom three levels, Remember, Understand, Apply are considered “lower-level” or “lower-order” thinking.  

The top levels, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create are viewed as “higher-order” thinking.  

Recent educational trends have maligned lower-level “memorization” as a waste of time that dumbs down learning.  However, Bloom’s Taxonomy wasn’t created to diminish lower-level thinking.  Bloom argued that higher-level thinking was not possible without a strong foundation of lower-level knowledge. 

Bloom Level 3: Apply

How can I apply Bloom’s Taxonomy to my teaching?

A key takeaway for teachers is that Bloom’s Taxonomy created a hierarchy of thinking skills.  The implication is that as one moves up the hierarchy, learning tasks require increasingly sophisticated thinking on the part of the learner.

Typical lesson plans include learning outcomes such as “Students will be able to summarize… or “Students will compare and contrast…”.

As a teacher, you should mix in a few higher-order learning outcomes to push your students to think deeper.  Don’t completely do away with lower-order tasks, which are useful for knowledge-building.

Bloom Level 4: Analyze

Are there any other ideas for using Bloom’s Taxonomy in my teaching?

“How to Use Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Classroom,” by Mike Gershon provides tips for teachers interested in using Bloom. Here are two ideas:

• To simplify lesson planning, divide the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy into three sub-sections: Remember and Understand, Apply and Analyze, and Evaluate and Create. When you plan instruction, divide the learning activities of your lesson into three segments.  For example, in the first segment of the lesson, have students recite, summarize, or explain to a partner.  In the second segment, have students compare and contrast or experiment, and so on…
• Find or create a list of activities and questions for each learning level.  When you plan instruction, use the list for inspiration.

Bloom Level 5: Evaluate

Do Bloom’s critics have a point?

Modern critics argue that Bloom’s Taxonomy is outdated.  One report from the American Research Journal states that learning is much more complicated than Bloom’s pyramid would indicate.  We now know, the report says, that learning involves the feelings and beliefs of students as well as the cultural and social environment in the classroom.

Others say that Bloom’s Taxonomy is far too linear, and it implies learners must climb the pyramid one level at a time, in a set order.  Critics also reject the notion that certain types of thinking should be ranked as “more important” than others.  

If you’re interested in more detail, check out this criticism of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Whatever side you’re on, most educators agree that Bloom’s Taxonomy does have value.  It’s a helpful tool for creating learning objectives and Bloom’s levels serve as a reminder that teachers should vary learning activities.  

Bloom Level 6: Create

Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to create rigorous, interesting learning tasks for your students.  Here are examples from four subject areas.

Applying Bloom to Social Science

Applying Bloom to Mathematics

Applying Bloom to English

Applying Bloom to Science

Brad has taught history at the middle and high school levels for 19 years, almost exclusively in American public schools.  He has a master’s in educational technology and is passionate about elevating the status of professional educators.