How My Cyberwall Uses Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a useful tool to classify cognitive levels of learning, in terms of learning objectives and skills. The taxonomy can be used by educators to plan lessons and design assessments. 

The 6 levels of the taxonomy are as follows:

1. Remembering – for example, to recite a poem, to remember a formula.
2. Understanding – for example, to match the animal to its habitat, to give examples of the properties of metals.
3. Applying – for example, to use a formula to solve a problem, to organise dates on a timeline.
4. Analysing – for example, to interpret information from a graph, to compare the skeleton of two different vetebrates.
5. Evaluating – for example, to identify own strengths and weaknesses, to write a paragraph concluding why lockdown is or is not the best approach to curbing the spread of COVID-19.
6. Creating – for example, to design a flowchart to show a process, to write a letter to the principal suggesting changes to the way waste is managed at the school. 

The taxonomy is hierarchical, meaning that learning at the lower levels should be attained before moving to the higher levels. For example, before you can understand a concept (level 2), you must first remember it (level 1) and before you can apply it (level 3), you must understand it (level 2), and so on. However, it would be tedious to just move up through the levels without gauging the level of learners and their previous knowledge and skills. 

Tests and exams should cater for a range of cognitive skills. CAPS states the cognitive levels for assessment.  These can be linked to Bloom’s taxonomy levels as shown below, for Intermediate Phase Social Sciences:

1. Lower order (knowledge and recall)  – Bloom’s levels 1 and 2 – 30%
2. Middle order (comprehension and application) – Bloom’s level 3) – 50%
3. Higher order (analysis, evaluation and synthesis) – Blooms levels 4 to 6 – 20%

In order to identify which questions align with each level, a list of common verbs used has been created. So for example, for level 1, ‘remembering’ verbs such as describe, list, identify, recite, can be used. There are, however, ‘multi-level’ verbs which can be used at different levels depending on the context of the question. For example, ‘explain’ could be used at both level 2 (understand) and also level 4 (analyse). 

My Cyberwall’s bank of over 3500 exercises cover all six cognitive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In addition, with My Cyberwall’s Exercise Builder function, educators can build up their own activities and assessments, from the lowest to the highest levels of the taxonomy.

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