Everything about Benjamin Bloom totally explained
Benjamin S. Bloom (born
21 February,
1913 - died
September 13,
1999), an
American educational psychologist, made contributions to the classification of educational objectives and to the theory of
mastery-learning.
Bloom's theories
Bloom exercised considerable influence in academic educational psychology. His main contributions to the area of
education involved mastery-learning, his model of
talent-development, and his
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the
cognitive domain.
He focused much of his research on the study of educational objectives and, ultimately, proposed that any given task favours one of three psychological domains:
cognitive,
affective, or
psychomotor. The cognitive domain deals with a person's ability to process and utilize (as a measure)
information in a meaningful way. The affective domain relates to the
attitudes and
feelings that result from the
learning process. Lastly, the psychomotor domain involves manipulative or physical skills.
Benjamin Bloom headed a group of cognitive psychologists at the
University of Chicago who developed a taxonomic hierarchy of cognitive-driven behavior deemed important to learning and to measurable
capability. (For example, one can measure an objective that begins with the verb "describe", unlike one that begins with the verb "understand".)
Bloom's classification of educational objectives,
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain (Bloom
et al., 1956), addresses the cognitive domain (as opposed to the psychomotor and affective domains) of
knowledge. Bloom’s
taxonomy provides a structure in which to categorize
instructional objectives and instructional
assessment. He designed the taxonomy in order to help teachers and instructional designers to classify instructional
objectives and
goals. The taxonomy relies on the idea that not all learning objectives and outcomes have equal merit. For example,
memorization of facts, while important, doesn't equate to the learned ability to
analyze or to
evaluate. In the absence of a classification-system (a taxonomy), teachers and instructional designers may choose, for example, to emphasize memorization of facts (which makes for easier testing) rather than emphasizing other (and likely more important) learned capabilities.
Bloom’s taxonomy in theory helps teachers better prepare objectives and, from there, derive appropriate measures of learned capability and
Higher order thinking skills.
Curriculum-design, usually a State (governmental) practice, didn't reflect the intent of such a taxonomy until the late 1990s. Note that Bloom, as an American academic, lacks universal approval of his constructs.
The curriculum of the Canadian Province of
Ontario offers a good example of the application of a taxonomy of educational objectives: it provides for its teachers an integrated adaptation of Bloom's taxonomy. Ontario's
Ministry of Education specifies as its taxonomic categories: Knowledge and Understanding; Thinking; Communication; Application. Teachers can classify every 'specific' learning objective, in any given course, according to the Ministry's taxonomy.
Decade of dedication
In 1985 Bloom conducted a study suggesting that one requires at least 10 years of hard work (a "decade of dedication"), regardless of genius or natural prodigy status, in order to achieve recognition in any respected field.
See also
Works cited
Further references
Bloom, Benjamin S. (1980). All Our Children Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Bloom, Benjamin S. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 1984 by Pearson Education.
Further Information
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