LEARNING

TAXONOMY
FOR THE
MS
STUDENTS
One of the focal points teachers may focus while designing the course contents is

whether their students are able to learn whatever they are required to learn. Students

always learn something, but good teachers want their students to learn something

important and significant, rather than something relatively insignificant. This leads to a

question that is key to the whole teaching paradigm: What are the ways in which

learning can be significant? Basic knowledge of a task or fact is not enough without the

critical thinking to put these to use, especially in MS courses. In order to develop the

higher order cognitive skill in the students, we are using Bloom's Taxonomy as a

“Learning Taxonomy” for MS students in the semester Fall 2013.

What is Cognitive Skill?

Skills in the cognitive domain revolve around knowledge, comprehension, and "thinking through"
a particular topic. Traditional education tends to emphasize the skills in this domain, particularly

the lower-order objectives. There are six levels in the Bloom’s taxonomy, moving through the
lowest order process to the highest.

What is Bloom's Taxonomy?

Bloom's Taxonomy helps educators identify the intellectual level at which individual

students are capable of working. It also helps them ask questions and create

instructions aimed at critical thinking by striving to reach the top three levels of analysis,
synthesis and evaluation with students ready for those levels.

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What Are The Benefits?

Helps students to develop higher level thinking skills

Increases the permanent acquisition of learning

The Cognitive Domain

The cognitive domain involves the acquisition and use of knowledge, and is

predominant in the majority of courses. Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive

domain:

Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

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Cognitive Domain for Bloom’s Taxonomy

Category Definition Related Behavior (Verbs)

Evaluation judging the value of material or methods accept, appraise, assess, arbitrate,
as they might be applied in a particular award, choose, conclude, criticize,
situation; judging with the use of definite defend, evaluate, grade, judge, prioritize,
criteria recommend, referee, reject, select,
support

Synthesis Creating something new by putting parts blend, build, change, combine, compile,
of different ideas together to make a compose, conceive, create, design,
whole. formulate, generate, hypothesize, plan,
predict, produce, reorder, revise, tell,
write

Analysis breaking something down into its parts; analyze, compare, contrast, draw
may focus on identification of parts or diagram, differentiate, dissect,
analysis of relationships between parts, or distinguish, identify, illustrate, infer,
recognition of organizational principles outline, point out, select, separate, sort,
subdivide
Application using a general concept to solve apply, adopt, collect, construct,
problems in a particular situation; using demonstrate, discover, illustrate,
learned material in new and concrete interview, make use of, manipulate,
situations relate, show, solve, use

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Comprehension understanding something that has been alter, account for, annotate, calculate,
communicated without necessarily change, convert, group, explain,
relating it to anything else generalize, give examples, infer,
interpret, paraphrase, predict, review,
summarize, translate

recalling or remembering something define, describe, identify, label, list,

Knowledge without necessarily understanding, using, match, memorize, point to, recall, select,
or changing it state

Knowledge

Recalling the memorized information. May involve remembering a wide range of

material from specific facts to complete theories, but all that is required is the bringing to

mind of the appropriate information. Represents the lowest level of learning outcomes in

the cognitive domain.

Learning objectives at this level: know common terms, know specific facts, know

methods and procedures, know basic concepts, know principles.

Question verbs: Define, list, state, identify, label, name, who? When? Where? What?

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 Comprehension

The ability to grasp the meaning of material. Translating material from one form to

another (words to numbers), interpreting material (explaining or summarizing),

estimating future trends (predicting consequences or effects). Goes one step beyond

the simple remembering of material, and represent the lowest level of understanding.

Learning objectives at this level: understand facts and principles, interpret verbal

material, interpret charts and graphs, translate verbal material to mathematical

formulae, estimate the future consequences implied in data, justify methods and

procedures.

Question verbs: Explain, predict, interpret, infer, summarize, convert, translate, give

example, account for, paraphrase x?

Application

The ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations. Applying rules,
methods, concepts, principles, laws, and theories. Learning outcomes in this area

require a higher level of understanding than those under comprehension.

Learning objectives at this level: apply concepts and principles to new situations, apply

laws and theories to practical situations, solve mathematical problems, construct graphs

and charts, and demonstrate the correct usage of a method or procedure.

Question verbs: How could x be used to y? How would you show, make use of, modify,
demonstrate, solve, or apply x to conditions y?

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 Analysis

The ability to break down material into its component parts. Identifying parts, analysis of

relationships between parts, recognition of the organizational principles involved.

Learning outcomes here represent a higher intellectual level than comprehension and

application because they require an understanding of both the content and the structural

form of the material.

Learning objectives at this level: recognize unstated assumptions, recognizes logical

fallacies in reasoning, distinguish between facts and inferences, evaluate the relevancy

of data, analyze the organizational structure of a work (art, music, writing).

Question verbs: Differentiate, compare / contrast, distinguish x from y, how does x affect

or relate to y? Why? How? What piece of x is missing / needed?

Synthesis

The ability to put parts together to form a new whole. This may involve the production of

a unique communication (theme or speech), a plan of operations (research proposal), or

a set of abstract relations (scheme for classifying information). Learning outcomes in

this area stress creative behaviors, with major emphasis on the formulation of new

patterns or structure.

Learning objectives at this level: write a well-organized paper, give a well-organized

speech, write a creative short story (or poem or music), propose a plan for an

experiment, integrate learning from different areas into a plan for solving a problem,
formulate a new scheme for classifying objects (or events, or ideas).

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Question verbs: Design, construct, develop, formulate, imagine, create, change, write a

short story and label the following elements:

Evaluation

The ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel, poem, research report) for a

given purpose. The judgments are to be based on definite criteria, which may be

internal (organization) or external (relevance to the purpose). The student may

determine the criteria or be given them. Learning outcomes in this area are highest in

the cognitive hierarchy because they contain elements of all the other categories, plus

conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria.

Learning objectives at this level: judge the logical consistency of written material, judge

the adequacy with which conclusions are supported by data, judge the value of a work

(art, music, writing) by the use of internal criteria, judge the value of a work (art, music,

writing) by use of external standards of excellence.

Question verbs: Justify, appraise, evaluate, judge x according to given criteria. Which

option would be better/preferable to party y?

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Level 1. Knowledge

When was this picture taken?

Where was this picture taken?

Question cues: List, define, tell, label

Level 2. Comprehension

What is happening in this picture?

Why are these boys dressed like this?

Question cues: Describe, name, identify, discuss

Level 3. Application

How would you describe the photograph to others?

What caption would you write for this photograph (say, in a newspaper, magazine or
blog)?

Question cues: Modify, solve, change, Explain

Level 4. Analysis

Why are these boys here and not in university?

What do you know about their cause based on this photo?

Question cues: Analyze, separate, compare, contrast

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Level 5. Synthesis

What might these boys say about their work in an interview setting?
What might they say about their future?

Question cues: Create, construct, plan, role-play

Level 6. Evaluation

What is the significance of this photo for the education?

Give your opinion regarding the cause depicts from this photo?

Question cues: Give opinion, criticize, discriminate, summarize

Note: Go to cover page and practice the questions to build your

critical thinking skill

Thank You