LEVELS OF THINKING

Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain - is a system that classifies the levels of thinking important
for learning. It was created by Benjamin Bloom, an American educational psychologist and his team to
promote higher levels of thinking which is composed of six levels that follows a successive pattern.

The six levels are;

EVALUATION

SYNTHESIS

ANALYSIS

APPLICATION

COMPREHENSION

KNOWLEDGE

This simply means that to proceed to the next level, the current one must be mastered first.

Revised Taxonomy of Cognitive domain - is a revision of the original taxonomy to make it more relevant
to the 21st century students and teachers. This was created by Lorin Anderson and ( Bloom’s former
student) and a group of cognitive psychologist. They changed the names of the levels and used verbs
instead of nouns to denote an active process of thinking. The six levels of thinking were named as
follows:

CREATING

EVALUATING

ANALYZING

APPLYING

UNDERSTANDING

REMEMBERING
COMPARISON OF THE ORIGINAL AND THE REVISED TAXONOMY

EVALUATION CREATING

SYNTHESIS EVALUATING

ANALYSIS ANALYZING

APPLICATION APPLYING

COMPREHENSION UNDERSTANDING

KNOWLEDGE REMEMBERING

THE OLD VERSION THE NEW VERSION

FIRST THREE LEVELS OF THINKING

Asking intelligent questions leads to better understanding of events and ideas and this is a key factor in
thinking critically

In summer before Pia became a grade 11 student, she decided to volunteer in a non government
organization which ran a shelter for street children. During her orientation, she was told to report
incidents of street children engaging in illicit activities. One day, she found one of the children who used
to go to the shelter of picking pockets in the market, so she went to talk to him. He said that his father
threatened to beat him up if he will not hand enough money by the end of the day.

What did Pia do during summer?

Answering the question requires you to recall the information that you just read. This is called
REMEMBERING. It involves the retrieval, recognition and recalling of information

REMEMBER by asking questions which aim to define, memorize or state information

What can you say about the situation of the street child?

To answer this question, you have to draw up your own interpretation on what you have read. This is
called UNDERSTANDING. It refers to the construction of meaning from verbal and non verbal messages.

UNDERSTAND by asking questions which discuss, describe, paraphrase or explain information.

If you were Pia, how would you approach the incident of seeing one of the children?

You have to draw on the knowledge you learned to use it on the situation. This is called APPLYING. It
refers to the use and implementation of knowledge in various situations.

APPLY knowledge by asking questions which demonstrate, solve or use information.

HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS

Pia reported the incident regarding the strret child to her volunteer organization. They contacted the
proper authorities to help the child nd to apprehend his father.. however, they were told that it was
already reported months before, and that the authorities will look into the issue once they have the
time, as they have other priorities.

Based on the response of the authorities, what inference cam you make regarding their treatment of
the case?

In answering the, you have to examine the causes and make inferences based on them. This is called
ANALYZING. It focuses on breaking down ideas into parts and relating these parts to one another.

ANALYZE by asking questions which compare, integrate, or structure information.

Is the reaction of the authorities justified?

When thinking of your answer, weigh the pros and cons to judge the action. This is called EVALUATING.
It refers to making judgments on the value and validity of ideas and events.

EVALUATE by asking things which judge and test the idea based on certain rules and standards.

How would you illustrate the highlights of the events through a four panel comic strip?

While making the comic strip, you have to synthesize the parts to turn them into one output. This is
known as CREATING. It involves combining parts to form a well designed whole. CREATING does not
only mean you make something concrete. You can also ask questions which aim to produce, design, or
construct new information or ideas.