BLOOM TAXONOMY AND

TABLE OF SPECIFICATION
11.3 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

11.3.1 Introduction

· To construct a good test, a teacher should consider cognitive

domains as given by bloom’s taxonomy.

· The cognitive domain involves those objectives that deal with the
development of intellectual abilities and skills.

· These have to do with the mental abilities of the brain.

11.3.2 Hierarchical levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Complex

EVALUATION

SYNTHESIS

ANALYSIS

APPLICATION

COMPREHENSION

KNOWLEDGE (MEMORY)
Simple

Fig. 1. Hierarchical levels of Bloom’s taxonomy

· Benjamin Bloom (1956) is the originator of Bloom’s taxonomy —

Taxonomy of learning

· It has since been revised by the proponents of this test construction

principle

11.3.3 Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

· This “is an update to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy which attempts to

account for the new behaviours and actions emerging as technology
advances and becomes more ubiquitous.

· Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy describes many traditional classroom

practices, behaviours and actions, but does not account for the new
processes and actions associated with Web 2.0 technologies,
infowhelm (the exponential growth in information), increasing
ubiquitous personal technologies or cloud computing.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

· Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy isn’t about the tools or technologies

rather it is about using these to facilitate learning.

· Outcomes on rubrics are measured by competence of use

and most importantly the quality of the process or product.

· For example. Bookmarking a resource is of no value if the resource

is inappropriate, invalid, out of date or inaccurate.
· Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy lends itself to problem and project
based learning where the student must work through the entire
process of development and evaluation.

The History of Bloom’s Taxonomy

· Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (2008) was developed by Andrew

Churches as an extension of the original Bloom’s Taxonomy and
creates a hierarchy of learning activities in a digital environment.

· Educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom developed a taxonomy

of learning objectives in 1956, as a structure to understand the
learning process.

· Divided into three psychological domains — cognitive (processing

information), affective (attitudes and feelings) and psychomotor
(physical skills) — his taxonomy progressed from Lower Order
Thinking Skills (LOTS) to Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS).

· The levels he identified were: knowledge, comprehension,

application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

· Bloom’s Taxonomy followed the thinking process with the logic

that you “can not understand a concept if you do not first remember
it, similarly you cannot apply knowledge and concepts if you do not
understand them” (Churches, 2008).

· Forty years later Lorin Anderson and David Karathwohl, former

students of Benjamin Bloom (1956), revisited Bloom’s Taxonomy,
publishing a revised version in 2001 which reordered the sequence
of categories and used verbs rather than nouns to describe each
category.
· It is this revised version that Andrew Churches (2008) used to
develop his digital taxonomy, keeping Anderson and Karathwohl’s
categories of remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing,
evaluating and creating, but extending them into the digital
environment.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Levels

1. Remembering

· Is the act of retrieving knowledge, in this case digitally, and can be

used to produce definitions and lists.

· It is the lowest of the taxonomic levels but is vitally important for

the learning process.

· At this level, the use of basic searches is a relevant task for a

student to undertake.

· They would need to be able to identify a legitimate search engine —

such as Google (www.google.co.za), Bing (www.bing.com) or Yahoo
(www.yahoo.com) — and understand how it works.

· That a keyword is entered into the text box and the search button is
clicked, following which the user then receives relevant, hyper-
linked search results that, when clicked, take the user to further
resources.

· An important part of this task is being able to identify the correct

keyword to use in order to receive the information required.
· With access to a vast quantity of information in the digital age, it is
not the remembering of information but the knowledge of how to
retrieve it that is important.

· This task tests students’ abilities to find and access necessary

resources and is a skill that is built on and used in all other levels.

· When constructing a test item, the key words to use here

are: State, list, Define, duplicate, memorize, recall, repeat

2. Understanding

· Is defined as the construction of meaning and the building of

relationships.

· A learning activity at this level could involve the categorizing and

tagging of bookmarks through a social bookmarking application
such as Delicious (www.delicious.com).

· The student would register an account with Delicious and then

bookmark a number of relevant websites or specific web articles.

· These could, for example, be resources needed for a school project.

· Once the links have been created, the student would spend some
time adding tags to the bookmarks.

· These tags exist as metadata, providing information about the

original data object, and could be specific to the particular resource
or be used on more than one bookmark.
· Tagging becomes useful by creating relationships between the
various bookmarks which allows the student to click on the
hyperlink tags and view all resources that have been categorized
with that tag.

· The tags can be further categorized through the creation of tag

bundles, which are used to group similar tags together.

· This task allows the student to organize the information they have
retrieved, create links between resources and construct meaning
from this categorization process.

· When constructing a test item, the key words to use here

are: Classify, Describe, explain, identify, locate, recognize,
report, select, select, translate, paraphrase

3. Applying

· Is the level where the student applies learned knowledge or

processes to a situation.

· The student implements the skills they have learned to produce a

presentation, document or simulation.

· Here, the editing of a wiki page, such as on Wikipedia

(www.wikipedia.org), would be an appropriate learning activity.

· The student would register an editing account with Wikipedia and

navigate to an appropriate page to edit.

· This page could relate to a topic that is being discussed in class or a

subject that the student has researched.
· In any case, the student should have relevant and original
information to add to the page.

· Following the editing guidelines, available from the Wikipedia

website, the student would edit the page and add their material to it,
keeping a similar writing-style to the rest of the article.

· If the student has any images, they could upload them and add
them to the page.

· Once the page is edited, the student should then click save.

· In this task they have used material they have generated, through
independent research, and carried out an editorial procedure to add
this to a wiki page.

· When constructing a test item, the key words to use here

are: Choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate,
interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write,
apply

4. Analyzing

· Is the level where the student learns to process data, dividing it into
parts and determining the relationships between these parts and the
overall purpose of the project.

· At this level the use of an online survey tool such as Survey Monkey
(www.surveymonkey.com) could be an appropriate learning activity.

· The student would register an account with Survey Monkey and,

using the online tools provided, set up a survey.
· The student would decide on a survey topic and write several
questions.

· These could be open-ended questions that would require the

respondent to input an answer or multiple choice or true/false
questions, which would require the student to generate possible
answers.

· Setting a closing date for the survey, the student would then invite
respondents to participate.

· These respondents could be members of the student’s class or a

wider survey group.

· Once the survey period has ended, the student would then use the
tools available in Survey Monkey to organize the results —
comparing responses, dividing respondents into groups and
deciding how these groups relate to each other and how they relate
to the overall survey topic.

· When constructing a test item, the key words to use here

are: Appraise, discuss, compare, contrast, criticize,
differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine,
experiment, question, test

5. Evaluation.

· This level requires the student to make criteria-based judgments

through the processes of critiquing and checking.

· A task the student could do at this level would be moderating and

responding to comments made on a blog post.
· In the digital environment there are a multitude of opportunities
for discussion and an ease of participation through comments and
forum posting.

· Not all comments or respondents add value to the discussion and

the student must be able to critically decide what is relevant and
respond appropriately.

· Using a free blogging platform such as WordPress

(www.wordpress.com), the student would write a blog post on a
subject of their choosing, encouraging comment and interaction
with the ideas presented in the blog post.

· The student will be alerted via email when a new comment has
been made.

· They will need to evaluate the comment in context and decide if it

contributes to the discussion and debate.

· If it does, they can make the comment publicly visible using the
tools supplied by WordPress.

· They will need to generate a critical response to this comment and

post it as a reply in the comment section of the blog post.

· It should be constructed to respond to both the comment and the

topic of the blog post.

· If the comment is not appropriate, then they should delete it using

the tools provided.
· Through this task the student learns to evaluate comments on a
blog post using a set of criteria (e.g. does it contribute to the online
discussion, and then respond accordingly).

· When constructing a test item, the key words to use here

are: Appraise, discuss argue, defend, judge, select, support,
value, evaluate

6. Creating

· Is the final level in Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy and is concerned

with taking various elements and creating a new, coherent product.

· This level draws on all other levels, with the student remembering,
understanding and applying knowledge, analyzing and evaluating
outcomes and processes to construct the end product.

· The digital environment allows for publishing to take place at an

ever increasing rate and in ever increasing formats.

· The learning activity the student could participate in at this level

could be the publishing and distribution of an e-book through the
Amazon (www.amazon.com) platform.

· Deciding on a topic, the student would research and write the text
for the e-book.

· They would need to structure the text in a coherent manner,

possibly dividing the text into sections or chapters.

· Once complete, the student would then decide whether the e-book
needed photographs or illustrations to complement the text.
· If yes, then they would need to source or generate these.

· Using an application such as Microsoft Word, the student would

lay out the text, formatting chapter and section headings and
deciding on fonts to use.

· At this point, they would also add any images they had decided to
use.

· Once complete, the document would be saved.

· The student would then create an account at the Amazon Direct

Publishing website.

· The student could input the e-book’s metadata (author name,

description, etc.) and upload the Microsoft Word version of their
book.

· They would be able to create a cover using the tools Amazon

provides and decide on a price for their e-book.

· The Amazon website’s software would then convert these elements

into an e-book format that could be read on the Kindle e-reader.

· Once reviewed by staff members, the e-book would be available for

sale.

· Through this task, the student learns how to take a number of

different elements and create a coherent product.
· The student would have planned the process of content creation
and, using various computer-based and online tools, created the e-
book.

· When constructing a test item, the key words to use here

are: Assemble, construct, create, design, develop,
formulate, write

Bloom’s Taxonomy — examples of digital activities

· Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy provides the opportunity for a number

of different learning activities for students, using a variety of digital
tools. Several have been highlighted above but others could be
selected by the student or teacher.

· The aim of the taxonomy is not to focus on specific tools but ensure
that the student progresses through the hierarchy of levels, building
on what they have learnt and using these skills as they move from
LOTS to HOTS.

11.4 Constructing Table of Specification / Test-

Blue Print

Content

Objectives: Broad competency objective / Educational objectives

(Measurable — action oriented [SMART]

Total

Form 4 Biology

Weight
Knowledge

(Rememb.)

10%

Compre

(Under)

15%

Applic

25%

Analysis

25%

Synths

(Eval)

15%

Eval

(Creat)

10%
100%

Topic 1

15/70

Topic 2

10/70

Topic 3

20/70

Topic 4

25/70

Total

70

10

100

· The bloom’s taxonomy is used together with table of specification.

· The table of specification is a two dimensional table that specifies

the level of objectives in relation to the content of the course.
· A well planned table of specification enhances content validity of
that test for which it is planned (as is outlined in the syllabus).

· The two dimensions (content and objectives) are put together in a

table by listing the objectives across the top of the table
(horizontally) and the content down the table (vertically) to provide
the complete framework for the development of the test items.

· The table of specification is planned to take care of the coverage of

content and objectives in the right proportion according to the
degree of relevance and emphasis (weight) attached to them in the
teaching learning process.

11.4.1 Steps in Constructing Test Blue — Print

1. The first consideration in the development of Test Blue–Print is

the weight to be assigned to higher order questions and the lower
order questions (That is, to educational objectives at higher and at
lower cognitive levels). This is utilized in the allocation of numbers
of questions to be developed in each cell under content and objective
dimensions.

2. An attempt should be made to ensure that the questions are

spread across all the levels of Bloom’s (1956 / 2008) Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives.

3. Weights are assigned in percentages to both content and

objectives dimensions as desired and as already stated earlier.

4. Decisions on the number of items to be set and used are the basis
for determining items for each content area. For instance, in the
table
Topic 1 is weighted 15% and 20 items are to be generated in

all. Therefore, total number of items for topic 1 is obtained thus:

- Topic 1, weight: 15% of 20 items = 3 items

- Topic 2, weight: 15% of 20 items = 3 items

- Topic 3, weight: 25% of 20 items = 5 items

- Topic 4, weight: 25% of 20 items = 5 items

5. The worked out values are then listed against each content area at
the extreme right (Total column) to correspond with its particular
content.

6. The same procedure is repeated for the objective dimension. Just

like in the above.

- Knowledge: weight 10% of 20 items = 2 items

- Comprehension: weight 15% of 20 items = 3 items

- Application: weight 25% of 20 items = 5 items

- Analysis: weight 25% of 20 items = 5 items

- Synthesis: weight 15% of 20 items = 3 items

- Evaluation: weight 10% of 20 items = 2 items.

Here also the worked out values are listed against each objective at
the last horizontal row, alongside the provision for total.

7. Finally, the items for each content are distributed to the relevant
objectives in the appropriate cells.

· Once the table of specification is adhered to in the item writing, the

item would have appropriate content validity at the required level of
difficulty.

· The blueprint represents the master plan and should readily guide
you in item writing and review.

· Generate more items than specified in the table of specification.

This is to give room for item that would not survive the item analysis
hurdles.

· Use unambiguous language so that the demands of the item would

be clearly understood.

· Build in a good scoring guide at the point of writing the test items.

· Have the test exercises examined and critiqued by one or more

colleagues.

11.4.2 Importance of the Table of Specification

1. To identify the achievement domains being measured

2. To ensure that a fair and representative sample of questions

appear on the test
3. For diagnostic and remedial teaching

4. Proves the content validity of tests to a teacher and that the test
covers what should be covered

5. Improves student learning

6. Helps to ensure that there is a match between what is taught and

what is tested

7. Helps students at all ability levels to learn better

11.4 Summary

To construct a good test, a teacher should consider cognitive

domains as given by bloom’s taxonomy. The cognitive domain
involves those objectives that deal with the development of
intellectual abilities and skills. These have to do with the mental
abilities of the brain. Cognitive domains, Bloom’s taxonomy and
table of specification are used in constructing a good and standard
test. These are used together with a syllabus when constructing valid
test items.

11.6 Learning Activities

1. Give the learner any past KNEC paper in the relevant subject area
and KNEC syllabus, let the learner make a table of specification for it
that was used.

2. Visit a Secondary School at the time when they are constructing

their test items, make an observation on the extent at which they use
Bloom’s taxonomy and table of specification.
3. Give a relevant video clip on making of table of specification and
let the learners make a report from what they have seen.

4. Discuss the difficulties in using Bloom’s taxonomy and table of

specification in constructing test items.