The Center for Academic Success presents: Blooms Taxonomy,
a classification of learning levels.
It maps the way we think and process information.
The levels of learning are: Remembering, Understanding,
Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating,
and Creating. The lower levels are more straightforward and fundamental,
while the higher levels and more complex. Let's see how Blooms Taxonomy can help
you with your learning.
Level 1: Remembering.
Remembering is maintaining basic knowledge through rote
learning or memorization. This may be how you studied in high school, but
college testing will require you to do more with the information.
Level 2: Understanding.
Understanding is being able to restate the information in your own words.
It allows you to construct meaning and explain what is happening
These levels of learning, when firmly in place,
will provide a strong foundation as you advance in the learning process.
Remembering and understanding information is important,
even at the college level. Each college course has several new concepts, terms,
procedures, and functions that you need to remember and understand.
Once you have a solid understanding of the new concepts, it's easy to see how something
works, or why it works.
Level 3: Applying.
College testing requires you to use what you learned in the previous levels
to solve problems. Application requires you to make connections,
compute or solve problems, and to transfer abstract ideas into practical situations.
Level 4: Analyzing.
After you apply your knowledge, you may need to analyze it
or break the material down into separate components.
Analysis allows you to illustrate relationships to one another
and overall structures. You will be able to recognize
unstated assumptions, logical reasoning, and relevancy of data.
At these levels, you can tell if you really know the information on up to take a test.
You can answer questions such as what if, or why, or how would something work.
Level 5: Evaluating.
You will need to judge, criticize, and assess information
using what you know to make decisions and support your views.
You have to think critically at this level and have a profound
understanding of a concept or discipline.
Level 6: Creating.
Creating is the highest level, in which you combine elements to form a coherent
or functional whole. It requires inventiveness,
an originality to plan and form new structures.
Creating brings together all levels of learning to theorize,
design, and test new products, concepts, or functions.
For my final psychology project, it became really clear to me
how important it was to really understand the different terms, concepts, and functions.
I was able to use this information to evaluate and create the best process to make
the experiment work. Just as a strong foundation is critical for supporting
structure, building strong foundational concepts will allow you to think critically
and creatively within your course content. To recap,
Bloom's Levels of Learning will help you target the level and type of learning
needed to be successful.
For more information on Bloom's Taxonomy or any of our workshops,
visit the Center for Academic Success website.