Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Digital World

Bloom’s Taxonomy, developed in the 1950’s, expresses thinking and learning through a set of concepts that begin with lower order thinking skills and build to higher order thinking skills which includes knowledge at the lowest, then progressing through comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

In education, quality teachers seek to bring their students to the higher order thinking skills level of the taxonomy whenever possible. Students typically acquire knowledge and comprehend information. They are rarely able to apply that knowledge.

As education heads into the digital world, many teachers struggle with where to place many of the new technology tasks within this long-standing hierarchal guide to teaching and learning. Constructed over the last 15 years, Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, turns the words that describe the six levels of thinking skills into different phrases. In the revised taxonomy, verbs are used rather than nouns to express the concept. To learn more about Bloom's Revised Digital Taxonomy, click here.