Assessment Primer:

Learning Taxonomies
Beginning in 1948, a group of educators undertook the task of classifying education goals and
objectives. The intention was to develop a classification system for three domains:

Cognitive domain (intellectual capability, mental skills, i.e., Knowledge)

Affective domain (growth in feelings, emotions, or behavior, i.e., Attitude)

Psychomotor domain (manual or physical skills, i.e., Skills)

This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as the goals of training; i.e., after a
training session, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.
Cognitive Domain - Bloom's Taxonomy

Work on the cognitive domain was completed in 1956 and is commonly referred to as Bloom's
Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain, since the editor of the volume was Benjamin S. Bloom,
although the full title was Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational
goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain, 1956 by Longman Inc. with the text having four other
authors (Max D. Engelhart, Edward J. Furst, Walker H. Hill, and David R. Krathwohl).
Bloom identified six levels within the cognitive domain, from the simple recall or recognition of
facts, as the lowest level, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the
highest order which is classified as evaluation.

A description of the six levels is given here (1 page

).

Bloom, et al indicated
[Bloom's] Taxonomy is designed to be a classification of the student behaviors which represent
the intended outcomes of the educational process. It is assumed that essentially the same classes
of behavior may be observed in the usual range of subject-matter content of different levels of
education (elementary, high school, college), and in different schools. Thus a single set of
classification should be applicable in all these circumstances.
What we are classifying is the intended behaviors of students the ways in which individuals are
to think, act or feel, as a result of participating in some unit of instruction. (Only such of those
intended behaviors as are related to mental acts of thinking are included in the part of the
Taxonomy developed in the handbook for the cognitive domain.)
It is recognized that the actual behaviors of the students after they have completed the unit of
instruction may differ in degree as well as kind from the intended behavior specified by the
objectives. That is the effects of instruction may be such that the students do not learn a given
skill to any degree.
We initially limited ourselves to those objectives referred to as knowledge, intellectual abilities,
and intellectual skills. (This area, which we named the cognitive domain, may also be described
as including the behavior; remembering; reasoning, problem solving; concept formation, and to a
limited extent creative thinking.)
In essence, the authors foreshadowed what has come to be known as outcomes-based assessment
(Assessment in Higher Education by Heywood 2000)

Examples of learning objectives at each of the Bloom levels:

Example of Learning Objectives at each of the levels of Bloom's taxonomy
(based on Assessment in Higher Education by Heywood 2000 and
Eder, Douglas J., General Education Assessment Within the Disciplines,
The Journal of General Education, Vol. 53, No. 2, pp. 135-157, 2004 )
Bloom's level
Knowledge

Comprehension

Application

Analysis

Synthesis

Evaluation

The following graphics depict how courses in a curriculum reflect Bloom's levels. Namely, the
higher levels of learning are addressed in advanced course work taken by students.

Affective Domain - Krathwohl's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy second domain, the Affective Domain, was detailed by Bloom, Krathwhol
and Masia in 1964 (Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Volume II, The Affective Domain).
Bloom's theory advocates this structure and sequence for developing attitude also now
commonly expressed in personal development as 'beliefs'.

Krathwohl's affective domain taxonomy is perhaps the best known of any of the affective
taxonomies. A description of the levels is given here (1 page
).
Psychomotor Domain

Various people have since built on Bloom's work, notably in the third domain, the 'psychomotor'
or skills, which Bloom originally identified in a broad sense, but which he never fully detailed.
This was apparently because Bloom and his colleagues felt that the academic environment held
insufficient expertise to analyze and create a suitable reliable structure for the physical ability
'Psychomotor' domain. As a result, there are several different contributors providing work in this
third domain, such as Simpson and Harrow which are described below.

Harrow's Taxonomy
The psychomotor domain taxonomy due to Harrow is organized according to the degree of
coordination including involuntary responses as well as learned capabilities. Simple reflexes
begin at the lowest level of the taxonomy, while complex neuromuscular coordination make up
the highest level.

Simpson's Taxonomy
The psychomotor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill
areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed,
precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution.