NBA Accreditation and Teaching-Learning in Engineering (NATE)

N. J. Rao and K. Rajanikanth

Module 1: NBA and OBE Framework

Week 2: POs. PSOs, and Taxonomy of Learning (Keywords: Outcome, Program Outcomes,
Program Specific Outcomes, Taxonomy of Learning, Anderson-Bloom, and Cognitive Levels)
M1U6: PEOs and POs
Recap
 Reinterpreted the words “education”, “learning”, “assessment”, “teaching”, and “instruction” in
the context of formal programs and understood the centrality of assessment in facilitating good
learning.

M1U6
M1U6-1: Understand the nature and importance PEOs.
M1U6-2: Identify activities that facilitate the attainment of PO1, PO2, PO3, PO4, and PO5.

Levels of Outcomes
 Program Educational Objectives: PEOs are broad statements that describe the career and
professional accomplishments in four to five years after graduation.
 Program Outcomes: POs are statements that describe what the students should be able to do at
the time of graduation from an engineering program.
 Program Specific Outcomes: PSOs are statements that describe what the graduates of a specific
engineering program should be able to do.
 Course Outcomes: COs are statements that describe what students should be able to do at the
end of a course.

Program Educational Objectives (PEOs)

 Are what the graduates of the program are expected to achieve within 4 to 5 years of completing
the program.
 Can be abstract to some extent; but must be smaller in number (3 to 5) and must be attainable.
 PEOs must follow from the Mission of the Department offering the program.
 Writing PEOs must follow an established process.
 Creation of PEO-Mission Matrix will be considered in detail in Module 3.

Sample PEOs

Graduates of BE-EEE program four years after graduation will

PEO1. Engage in designing, manufacturing, testing, operating and/or maintaining systems in the field
of electrical and electronics engineering and allied engineering industries
PEO2. Solve problems of social relevance applying the knowledge of electrical and electronics
engineering, and/or pursue higher education and research
PEO3. Work effectively as individuals and as team members in multidisciplinary projects
PEO4. Engage in lifelong learning, career enhancement and adopt to changing professional and
societal needs

NATE-Module 1-Week-2 N J Rao & K Rajanikanth 1

Program Outcomes (POs)
 POs are what graduates of any engineering program should demonstrate at the time of
graduation.
 They are identified by the National Board of Accreditation.
 They are 12 in number.
 They are similar and in alignment with the Graduate Attributes of Washington Accord.
 Only five of twelve POs are dominantly disciplinary outcomes, and the remaining seven are
professional outcomes also known as generic or transferable (skills) outcomes.

o Three POs mention complex engineering problems

o Two POs mention complex engineering activities
o Two POs mention contextual knowledge

Complex Engineering Problems

 Involve wide-ranging or conflicting technical, engineering and other issues

 Have no obvious solutions
 Involve diverse groups of stakeholders with widely varying needs
 Have significant consequences in a range of contexts
 Have possibly many component parts or sub-problems

Complex Engineering Problems - Examples

 Plan for supplying water for irrigation and drinking to a group of villages in an arid zone.
 Design an instrumentation system for managing available water and its utilization in a river
basin.
 Design a system for construction of large scale poor and middle class housing in towns with
populations less than 2 lakhs.
 Improve the quality of power supply to a city or a district.
 Design a system for managing an elephant corridor without conflict between humans and
elephants.

Complex Engineering Activities

 Involve the use of diverse resources (people, money, equipment, materials, information and
technologies).
 Require resolution of significant problems arising from interactions between wide-ranging or
conflicting technical, engineering or other issues.
 Involve creative use of knowledge of engineering principles.
 Can extend beyond previous experiences.

PO1: Engineering Knowledge

Apply the knowledge of mathematics, science, engineering fundamentals, and an engineering

specialization to the solution of complex engineering problems.
 Solve complex engineering problems applying the knowledge of mathematics, science,
engineering fundamentals, and an engineering specialization

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 Majority of engineering courses mainly address this outcome.
 Assessment in many institutions falls far short of solving engineering problems, leave alone
complex engineering problems
 End of the chapter problems will at least moderately address this PO
 Basic Sciences or Engineering Sciences do not address engineering problems directly.

PO1 Activities

 Solve end of the chapter problems.

 Understand the context in which a given engineering problem was formulated.
 Understand the nature of complex engineering problems.
 Give examples of complex engineering problems.
 Give multiple solutions to given complex engineering problems.

PO2: Problem Analysis

Identify, formulate, research literature, and analyze complex engineering problems reaching
substantiated conclusions using first principles of mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering
sciences.
 The activities involved in addressing this PO: Problem identification, formulation,
researching literature, analyzing, and reaching substantiated conclusions.
 It involves problem statement construction, problem formulation and abstraction, information
and data collection, modelling, validation, experimental design, experimentation, interpretation
of results, implementation, documentation, feedback and improvement.
 The “substantiated conclusions” should be arrived using first principles of mathematics, natural
sciences, and engineering sciences and not based on opinion or intuition
 Majority of the programs do not have courses that address even a small subset of these activities.
 These activities can only be included in mini and major projects, provided they are properly
orchestrated.
 This PO can also be addressed through group assignments in some courses. This requires
considerable planning on behalf of the instructor and developing appropriate rubrics for
evaluation of performance of each member of the group.

PO2 Activities

 Identify complex problems that dominantly belong to your engineering branch.

 Make appropriate assumptions, especially about the context in which the solutions are being
sought, that help formulate an identified complex engineering problem.
 Justify the assumptions made in formulating a complex engineering problem based on survey of
the related literature.
 Understand the requirements of end users of solutions to the problems.
 Explore and select a method of solving the formulated problem.
 Specify the (hardware/software)products and processes that can produce the solution to the
formulated engineering problem.

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PO3: Design/Development of Solutions
Design solutions for complex engineering problems and design system components or processes that
meet the specified needs with appropriate consideration for the public health and safety, and the
cultural, societal, and environmental considerations.
 Designing solutions for engineering problems can only be experienced through projects and
assignments, and these are time consuming activities, and hence cannot be included in limited
time written examinations.
 Components of systems can be designed through smaller assignments in some identified
courses.
 The design criteria and specifications of components and processes need to be evolved from the
solutions to a given problem.
 These criteria and specifications should be developed taking issues related to public health and
safety, and the cultural, societal and environmental considerations.
 Issues related to public health, safety and environmental consideration can be addressed through
design using relevant standards.
 Cultural and societal considerations will require inputs from non-engineering fields, and get
incorporated into non-functional specifications.

PO3 Activities
 Understand the role of public health and safety, and the cultural, societal, and environmental
considerations in determining the non-functional requirements of products and processes.
 Identify the standards that are applicable to the product or process that needs to designed and
developed.
 Design components and sub-systems as per specifications.
 Specify the testing process to check the performance of the designed product or process.
 Document the design of products, components and processes.

PO4: Conduct Investigations of Complex Problems

Use research-based knowledge and research methods including design of experiments, analysis and
interpretation of data, and synthesis of the information to provide valid conclusions.
 Use research-based knowledge to provide valid conclusions. Most of the core courses do not
generally provide such learning experiences. It requires collection of a set of research papers that
can be understood by the UG students and posing a set of questions.
 Understand the research methods relevant to the discipline of concern.
 It will become difficult to design and implement such exercises particularly at undergraduate
level in majority of institutions.
 The research method of “design of experiments” can be experienced through open ended
experiments in some laboratories
 The research method of “analysis and interpretation of data, and synthesis of the
information” requires collection of significant amounts of data related to a context and posing
questions that can lead to synthesis of information. Such contexts can more readily be identified
in subjects like Data Bases, Material Science related subjects, Chemical Process Optimization,
Nano Technology, and Device and Sensor Design

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PO4 Activities
 Plan and perform experiments/surveys and collect the data in accordance with the applicable
standards.
 Perform the necessary calculations and data reduction to draw valid conclusions.
 Present the results in a professional manner.

PO5: Modern Tool Usage

Create, select, and apply appropriate techniques, resources, and modern engineering and IT tools
including prediction and modeling to complex engineering activities with an understanding of the
limitations
 This is related to creating, selecting and applying modern engineering and IT tools.
 Creation of tools can only be attempted through projects preferably by multidisciplinary teams.
 Selection can only be a paper level exercise comparing different tools for a specified application.
 Many institutions incorporate IT tools into their laboratories. Modern measurement and testing
tools are very expensive and very few institutions can afford them at undergraduate level, but
virtual laboratories can provide an avenue.
 Complexity in engineering is characterised by large number of variables, phenomena with widely
different time constants, presence of noise, independent multiple decision making, and/or
systems with a number of negative and positive feedback loops.
 Prediction of behaviour of complex engineering systems requires a wide range of modelling
methods and their simulation.
 While modelling is part of a number of engineering courses, simulation can be extensively used at
classroom level and in laboratories.

PO5 Activities
 Determine the requirements of a simulation tool for a class of engineering problems.
 Create tools for simulation and solving a class of engineering problems
 Select the most cost effective tool from the commercially available engineering and IT tools for
addressing a class of engineering problems.
 Understand the limitations of a given engineering or IT tool.
 Use the engineering and IT tools made available by the Department.

Exercise
 Write 3-5 PEOs for a BE program in your branch.
These assignments are proposed only to understand the nature of PEO and PSO statements.
The outputs of these assignments should never be considered as final. It should be
remembered that PEO are to be written by the specially designated committee following a well
documented process.
 Give one sample activity each that addresses PO1, PO2, PO3, PO4, and PO5 from the courses you
taught or familiar with.

M1U7: Program Outcomes

 Identify activities that facilitate the attainment of PO6, PO7, PO8, PO9, PO10, PO11 and PO12.

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M1U7-1: Program Outcomes
Recap

 Complex engineering problems are significantly different from the end-chapter difficult problems.
 PO1- PO5 are the Program Outcomes that are technical in nature.
 Only some elements of these POs are addressed by the present day engineering programs.

M1U7-1: Outcomes

 Understand the nature and importance of program outcomes PO6, PO7, PO8, and PO9 to a
graduating engineer.

PO6-PO12

 These seven Outcomes are labelled as Professional Outcomes or Generic Outcomes.

 The knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired through addressing these seven outcomes are
required by all professionals at all levels.
 While no one has any dispute with the desirability of these outcomes, the design of curricula do
not reflect their importance adequately.
 Integrating them into curriculum and designing related assessments require considerable
coordinated effort by the faculty.

PO6: The Engineer and Society

Apply reasoning informed by the contextual knowledge to assess societal, health, safety, legal and
cultural issues and the consequent responsibilities relevant to the professional engineering practice
 Technology is both cause and effect of societal changes. Engineers produce products and services
apparently for the benefit of the society.
 There are societal, health, safety, legal and cultural issues for all products and services, and these
are context dependent.
 Students should experience/understand the relationship of products and services to people/
society in a variety of contexts.
 Case studies can be incorporated in some courses that will bring the attention of the students to
product/service-people relationship in a number of contexts. Assessment could be in terms of the
student’s perception of his responsibilities.
 The evaluation rubrics for projects can incorporate elements of engineer-society interaction.
 There can be courses on Technology-Society interaction like Energy and Society, Water and
Society, Complexity, Housing, Climate Change, and Sustainability to address this PO.

PO6 Activities

 Understand the goals and working of relevant professional society.

 Identify when and where engineers interact with society through their professional activities.
 Understand the responsibilities implied in one’s professional practice.

PO7: Environment and Sustainability

Understand the impact of the professional engineering solutions in societal and environmental

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contexts, and demonstrate the knowledge of, and need for sustainable development.
 Student should understand the need for sustainable development.
 Student should understand impact of engineering solutions on people and environment.
 Student should demonstrate the knowledge of what can lead to sustainable development.
 This PO can be addressed through case studies and courses on technology and society, and
sustainability.
 Case studies can be incorporated in some courses that will bring the attention of the students to
sustainability issues. Assessment could be in terms of the student’s perception of impact of
engineering solutions on sustainability.

PO7 Activities

 Understand what sustainable growth is.

 Understand the impact of a given technology on environment and sustainability.
 Analyse the impact of a given engineering solution on environment and sustainability.

PO8: Ethics

Apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and responsibilities, and norms of the
engineering practice
 Application of ethical principles requires moral autonomy.
 Moral autonomy means conduct and principles of action are owned, decisions and action are
based on critical reflection and not a passive adoption of some “code”, and moral beliefs and
attitudes are integrated into the core of one’s personality and lead to committed action.
 Professional engineering ethics are rules and standards governing the conduct of engineers in
their role as professionals. Every professional engineering society will define a code of ethics for
its practitioners.
 Students should understand the nature of ethical problems they face in engineering practices.
 Students should understand the ethical norms of engineering practice and their implication on
professional decision making.
 PO8 can be addressed through a dedicated course on professional ethics and/or case studies with
focus on ethical issues and their resolutions.
 Identify the deviations of an engineering solution from the accepted professional practices.
 Identify the impact of an engineering solution on different groups of persons.
 Recognize the ethical dilemma in the case study presented.
 Propose actions that minimize damage and synthesize solutions rather than judge the players in
ethically complex situations presented as case studies.

PO9: Individual and Teamwork

Function effectively as an individual, and as a member or leader in diverse teams, and in

multidisciplinary settings.
 All engineering activities in organization are group activities. The group needs to work as an
effective team to meet the goals of a project. Industry considers the ability to work in a team is
a very important characteristic of all engineers.

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 An individual, after becoming a member of a team and identification of his/her role, should be
able to work effectively to achieve the team’s objectives despite personal differences with other
team members.
 It is necessary to develop rubrics to measure how good a team member one is and to make that
evaluation count.
 The students should be provided with experiences as members or leaders in technical,
semi-technical and non-technical teams.
 It is worthwhile to arrange for coaching to students on becoming members of teams.

PO9 Activities

 Group assignments that involve group decision making, division of work through negotiation.
 Group projects.
 Co-curricular activities that will require a group.
 Activities through e-groups.

Exercise

 Give one sample activity each that addresses PO6, PO7, PO8, and PO9 from the courses you
taught and learnt.
We thank you for sharing the results of the exercise at nate.iiscta@gmail.com

M1U7-2

 Understand the nature and importance of program outcomes PO10, PO11, and PO12 to a
graduating engineer.

NATE-Module 1-Week-2 N J Rao & K Rajanikanth 8

M1U7-2: Program Outcomes
Recap

 Understood the nature and importance of program outcomes PO6, PO7, PO8, and PO9 to a
graduating engineer.

M1U7-2: Outcomes

 Understand the nature and importance of program outcomes PO10, PO11, and PO12 to a
graduating engineer.

PO10: Communication

Communicate effectively on complex engineering activities with the engineering community and with
society at large, such as, being able to comprehend and write effective reports and design
documentation, make effective presentations, and give and receive clear instructions.
 An engineer needs to communicate effectively with his own community
 An engineer is also required to communicate with lay educated persons including customers of
one’s own organization and society at large.
 All engineers work in groups. This requires all members to document and present their
day-to-day work in commonly agreed formats.
 As all formal professional engineering activities are conducted in English, many colleges have
one course each in English and Professional Communication
 Several writing exercises should be embedded into some courses with evaluation rubrics
having elements related to correctness and writing skills.
 Technical writing should be given adequate weightage in evaluating project reports.

PO10 Activities

 Write technical documents (reports) that get evaluated as per declared rubrics.
 Make short presentations to peers and lay persons that get evaluated as per declared rubrics.
 Give feedback on a presented activity.
 Document the feedback given on a presented activity.
 Encourage and support group members in meeting the goals.

PO11: Project Management and Finance

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the engineering and management principles and apply
these to one’s own work, as a member and leader in a team, to manage projects and in
multidisciplinary environments.
 Most of the engineering activities are conducted in project mode
 The project can be multidisciplinary in nature.
 Projects have limited financial sources and specified timelines.
 This can be addressed through a course on Engineering Management and/or Project
Management.
 It can also be addressed through well orchestrated mini and main projects. The rubrics of evaluation
should reflect the student’s understanding of project management, and estimation of cost.

NATE-Module 1-Week-2 N J Rao & K Rajanikanth 9

PO11 Activities

 Offer a course on Engineering Management and/or Project Management.

 Do well orchestrated mini and major projects.
 Determine the time and financial resources required to implement a project.
 Analyze the performance of an organization from its balance sheet.

PO12: Life-Long Learning

Recognize the need for and have the preparation and ability to engage in independent and life-long
learning (LLL) in the broadest context of technological change.
 LLL is a concept of learning that enables us to deal with continuous change in the life and practice
of an engineer
 Life-long learning skill is the ability to “continue one’s own self education beyond the end of
formal schooling.”
 The technological changes in the last hundred years should convince us all to recognize that
learning is a continuous, and life-long pursuit.
 It is not possible to progress in one’s career only with the knowledge and skill set acquired at the
time of graduation.
 If students are to be motivated and equipped to continue learning themselves, their formal
education must go beyond presentation of predetermined content.
 Activities that promote life-long learning

o helping students to understand their own learning processes

o facilitating students to take responsibility for their own learning
o creating an atmosphere that promotes confidence in students’ ability to succeed.
o helping students see learning by themselves as personally relevant to their interests and
goals.

 Activities that promote self learning can be incorporated in several core courses. Rubrics need
to be developed to measure the attainment of this outcome.
 Projects of all kinds generally promote self learning, but appropriate rubrics are necessary for
measurement.

PO12 Activities

 Determine the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed at the beginning of a project (writing a
report and/or developing a product/process)
 Develop strategies to acquire the required knowledge and skills.
 Acquire the required knowledge and skills outside classroom.
 Participate in professional development, professional society activities, and co curricular and
extra curricular activities

Exercise

 Give one sample activity each that addresses PO10, PO11, and PO12 from the courses you
taught and learnt.

NATE-Module 1-Week-2 N J Rao & K Rajanikanth 10

We thank you for sharing the results of the exercise at nate.iiscta@gmail.com

M1U8

 Understand how to write Program Specific Outcomes

NATE-Module 1-Week-2 N J Rao & K Rajanikanth 11

M1U8: Program Specific Outcomes
Recap

 Understood the nature and importance of program professional outcomes PO10-PO12 given by
NBA.

M1U8 Outcome

 Understand how to write Program Specific Outcomes.

Program Specific Outcomes (PSOs)

 PSOs represent what the students should be able to do at the time of graduation from a specific
program.
 PSOs are program specific, 2 to 4 in number, and need to be defined following a well documented
process.
 PSOs should imply all the core courses of the program.
 PSOs should capture the scope of streams of the program. (ECE-2, ME-3, EEE-2 and CE-4/5)
 PSOs should also capture the features of the program that differentiates it from others.

Structure of PSO Statements

 The PSO statement should start with one or more action verbs.
Some examples of action verbs

o Formulate, specify, conceive, design, plan, architect, build, implement, test, operate
o Select
o Analyse, determine, estimate, calculate

 The action verbs should be followed by clearly identified technical objects related only to the
program of concern, and if required by the conditions under which the actions have to be
performed.

PSOs

 Curriculum of a program is derived from POs and PSOs.

 PSOs should capture all the core courses of the program.
 No curricular gaps should exist in PSOs
 PSO statements should not use words “such as,” “etc.,” and “various.”

What PSO statements should not be?

 PSO statements should not be POs reworded in the context of the discipline of the program
Example: Understand modern management and construction techniques to complete the
projects within the stipulated period and funds. (PO11)
Example: Apply the knowledge of mathematics, science, engineering fundamentals to the
solution of problems of computer science and engineering (PO1)
 PSO statements should not be written to represent the electives
Example: Design, develop and test mobile computing applications.

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Sample PSOs: Civil Engineering

PSO1. Survey, map and plan layouts for buildings, structures and alignments for canals and roads.
PSO2. Specify, design, supervise, test and evaluate foundations and superstructures for residences,
public buildings, industries, irrigation structures, powerhouses, highways, railways, airways,
docks and harbours.
PSO3. Analyse water resources hydrological systems to estimate safe and assured withdrawals, and
specify, design, and evaluate water conveying systems, hydraulic machines and surge
systems.
PSO4. Specify, select and formulate environmental engineering systems.

Differentiation in Programs

 PSOs should also capture the features of the program that differentiates it from others.

Sample PSOs: ECE - Sample 1

PSO1. Specify, design, prototype and test modern electronic systems that perform analog and digital
processing functions.
PSO2. Architect, partition, and select appropriate technologies for implementation of a specified
communication system.
PSO3. Design essential elements (circuits and antennas) of modern RF/Wireless communication
systems.

Sample PSOs: ECE - Sample 2

PSO1. Specify, design, prototype and test electronic systems that perform analog and digital signal
processing functions as per user requirements using currently available electronic components
PSO2. Architect, partition, and select appropriate technologies for implementation of a specified
wired and wireless communication system.
PSO3. Specify, design and test power supplies for electronic systems including battery management,
and power amplifiers using currently available electronic components.

Exercise

 Write 2-4 PSOs for a BE program in your branch.

This assignment is proposed only to understand the nature of PSO statements. The outputs of these
assignments should never be considered as final. It should be remembered that PSOs are to be
written by the specially designated committee as indicated following a well documented process.
We thank you for sharing the results of the exercise at nate.iiscta@gmail.com

M1U9: Taxonomy of Learning

 Understand the nature of Bloom Taxonomy and Revised Bloom Taxonomy.

NATE-Module 1-Week-2 N J Rao & K Rajanikanth 13

M1U9: Taxonomy of Learning
Recap

 Understood how to write PSOs of good quality.

M1U9 Outcomes

M1U9-1: Understand the three main domains of learning and the integrated nature of all our
experiences.
M1U9-2: Understand the structure of Bloom’s taxonomy and the rationale for its revision.

Learning Outcomes

 Learning outcomes are what the learners are expected to do at the end of a unit of learning.
 Outcomes of courses and instructional units can be more conveniently written if there is a well
accepted taxonomy of learning.
 It is desirable to have a taxonomy that is applicable to learning outcomes, assessment and
teaching.
 Outcome statements should have a well defined structure.

Taxonomy of Learning

 At course level, it would help addressing all 3 concerns – Course Outcomes, Instruction, and
Assessment - and also in addressing the issue of alignment among these three concerns.
 Several taxonomies exist: Bloom, SOLO, Fink, Gagne, Marazano, Kendall etc.
 All taxonomies are attempts to give a structure to the cognitive processes involved in learning.
Such attempts are based on observations of learning behaviors and the limited understanding of
how the brain functions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

 Benjamin Bloom was working along with a group of measurement specialists in early 1950s on
the development of a taxonomy of learning.
 In 1956, the group produced “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of
Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain.” (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl,
1956). This became quite popular and was generally called “The Handbook.”
 After a similar process of discussions involving several experts, a major revision was proposed in
2001. Anderson, Krathwohl et. al. (Eds): “A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A
Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ”
 Our focus is this Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Learning Domains

 Any given task tends to be generally dominant in one of the three psychological domains:
cognitive, affective, or psychomotor.
 The cognitive domain deals with a person's ability to process and utilize information in a
meaningful way.
 The affective domain relates to the attitudes and feelings that result from or influence the
learning process.

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 The psychomotor domain involves manipulative or physical skills.
 This classification is for focus and convenience; all the three dimensions are involved to varying
degrees in all intended learning experiences and activities.

Dominantly Cognitive

Dominantly Affective

Dominantly Psychomotor

Integrated Experiences

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Changing Domains

Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy

The original taxonomy had six categories in the cognitive domain:

 Knowledge
 Comprehension
 Application
 Analysis
 Synthesis
 Evaluation
 The categories were ordered from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. Further, it
was assumed that this order represented a cumulative hierarchy!
 All these categories, except Application, had several sub-categories.
 Example: Knowledge of - terminology, specific facts, conventions, trends and sequences,
classifications and categories, criteria, methodology, universals and abstractions in a field,
principles and generalizations, theories and structures.

Knowledge Category of Bloom’s Taxonomy

An anomaly in Knowledge Category:

 Knowledge’s extensive subcategories actually represented aspects of subject matter (Noun or
noun-phrase).
 Definition given to Knowledge stated that the student was expected to be able to recall or
recognize knowledge (verb or verb phrase)
 This dual nature of Knowledge category made it different from the other Taxonomic categories.
 This anomaly was eliminated in the revised Taxonomy by allowing these two aspects, the noun
and verb, to form separate dimensions!
 The noun was the basis for the Knowledge dimension.
 The verb was the basis for the Cognitive Process dimension.

Two-Dimensions of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

 The two-dimensional nature of the Revised Taxonomy allows a more natural expression of an
outcome statement.

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 A typical outcome statement has
o some subject matter content (a noun or noun phrase) and
o a description of what is to be done with or to that content (a verb or verb phrase)

 Example: State Maxwell’s field equations.

o Maxwell’s field equations: Subject matter content (Knowledge category)
o State: What is to be done with or to that content - Recall (Cognitive Process)

Knowledge Dimension of Revised Taxonomy

 The original sub-categories were represented in 3 knowledge categories in the Revised

Taxonomy:
o Factual Knowledge
o Conceptual Knowledge
o Procedural Knowledge

 A fourth category – Metacognitive Knowledge was added!

 The importance of this fourth category was not realized well at the time of the Handbook! It is
assuming increasing significance these days as more evidence from Learning Theories confirm its
importance.

Cognitive Process Dimension of Revised Taxonomy

 The Revised Taxonomy also has 6 categories of Cognitive Processes, but some changes were
made.
 Renaming:
o The verb aspect of original Knowledge category was named “Remember”.
o “Comprehend” was changed to “Understand”.
o “Synthesis” was changed to “Create”.

 Verb form: Application, Analysis, and Evaluation, were retained but were changed to the verb
forms – Apply, Analyze, and Evaluate
 Create was made higher in the hierarchy than Evaluate.

Cognitive Processes of Revised Taxonomy

 Remember
 Understand
 Apply
 Analyse
 Evaluate
 Create

Cognitive Process of “Understand”

 The original group avoided “Understanding” and used “Comprehending”.

 Reason: They found that the term “Understanding” was being used to represent a wide range of
competencies from comprehending, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and even evaluating.
They wanted to avoid this “fuzziness”!

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 Today, some scholars object to “Understand” on the ground that it does not represent an
“actionable” process!
 However, the Revision Committee decided, after considerable deliberations, to use “Understand”
itself!!
 “Understand” was made “actionable” and more specific by articulating explicitly the 7
sub-processes implied by “Understand” in the Revised Taxonomy.
 Most of the teachers were quite uncomfortable with the exclusion of the term “Understand”, a
term that is quite popular with them!
 The Revision Committee found that this was a major complaint of most of the teachers against
the original taxonomy.

Critical Thinking, Problem Solving

 Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are two other terms that are quite frequently used in the
field of education.
 However, neither of these terms finds a place in the Revised Taxonomy also.
 We will discuss these two cognitive activities in the next unit.

Hierarchy of Cognitive Processes

 The cognitive processes in the revised taxonomy are hierarchical in general.
 Thus Remember is of lower complexity than Understand and so on.
 However, because of the wider scope of Understand, occasionally, in specific cases, the hierarchy
may not hold. For example, in a specific case, the Explaining may be more complex cognitively
than Executing!
 Teacher must use her discretion in arriving at proper conclusions.

Cognitive Processes and Action Verbs

 Action verbs used in the outcome statement depend on the specific cognitive process of the
outcome.
 However, the cognitive process can not be determined blindly from the action verb!
 Example: Compare is an action verb that corresponds to “Understand” as well as “Analyze” – two
different cognitive processes.
 In-depth study of the taxonomy is essential for its proper use.

Bloom’s Taxonomy: Original and Revised

 The revised taxonomy has several advantages over the original taxonomy as already noted.
 However, some teachers still prefer the original taxonomy to its revised version.
 We use the Revised Taxonomy and strongly recommend it over the earlier taxonomy.

M1U10
 Understand the cognitive processes Remember, Understand, and Apply of Revised Bloom’s
Taxonomy.

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