Blooms revised

taxonomy
Blooms revised taxonomy provides the means to analyse the way in which we teach and test
by categorising cognitive skills on a cline as shown in the figure below:

Creating

Evaluating

Analysing

Applying

Understanding

Remembering

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Lower Order Thinking Skills

In order to ensure that education systems equip students with the skills required for the
workforce of the 21st century, it is widely recognised that higher order thinking skills (as shown
in the taxonomy above) should be encouraged. There is therefore a need to teach and assess
these HOT skills. The revised taxonomy provides a valuable contribution towards considering
the way that we teach and test skills in order to prepare students for the future in a globalised,
technology-proficient and sustainable world.
The skills identified in Blooms revised taxonomy can be divided into sub-skills as in the chart
below. These have been numbered here for ease of reference when applying them to tasks for
the 1119 Papers.
1
Remembering
Sub-skills

2
Understanding
Sub-skills

recognizing and
recalling
relevant
information
from long-term
memory

interpreting,
exemplifying,
classifying,
summarising,
inferring,
comparing, and
explaining, etc.

3
Applying
Sub-skills using

a learned
procedure either
in a familiar or
new situation

4
Analysing
Sub-skills

5
Evaluating
Sub-skills

6
Creating
Sub-skills

differentiating,
organising, and
attributing, etc.

checking
and
critiquing

generating,
planning,
and
producing
something
new