Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning in Relation
to the Student Learning Outcomes Model
Ray Launier, Ph.D.
November 15, 2004

What is the relationship between Bloom’s taxonomy of learning and the au courant fashion of student learning outcomes? Bloom distinguished six levels of cognitive processes, from the simple recall or recognition of facts, through increasingly more complex and abstract mental levels, to the highest order that he categorized as evaluation. Bloom and other educators suggest that all courses should reflect an integration of these six levels in the curriculum, lesson plans, syllabi and course learning objectives and outcomes. If we are to move on to the promised land of SLO liberation, where on the map do we trace the route from whence we came and stayed awhile at Bloom’s oasis? Or are we just going in circles? Cannot Bloom’s six levels also be viewed as general student learning outcomes to a course?

1. Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce, regurgitate.
2. Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,
3. Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.
4. Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.
5. Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.
6. Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.

Educators know about Bloom’s taxonomy and probably recall the names to the six levels distinguished by Bloom. Educators understand that the six levels represent a progressive increase in depth of learning. Educators have learned how to apply these levels in the design of curriculum and lesson planning. They are also able to analyze, compare and contrasts Bloom’s model with other models (behavioral, affective, intelligence type) of learning, and from this analysis are thereby able to synthesize a hybrid model of teaching and leaning, tailored to the particular requirements of their respective disciplines, and reflective of other approaches to the teaching/learning process.

Many educational psychologists have found the behaviorist’s emphasis on classical and operant conditioning too elementary for application in the classroom setting. Bandura’s work on observational learning, modeling and especially his later work on the belief outcome of “self-efficacy” fail to draw any meaningful distinction between classroom and non-classroom settings. The Piagetian focus on active discovery and constructivist cognitive development focused on the outcomes of symbolic representational schemas and associated logical operations. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences focuses attention on different learning styles and associated implications that educators teach to these differing styles. More recently, the focus on emotional intelligence, affective and motivational factors imply yet another set of lasting outcomes thought to be crucial for success. Yet, Bloom’s work seems to go further than these other approaches in addressing the issue: what is involved in genuine learning and what is it that the learner is able to do for having really leaned in depth about some subject matter.

In evaluating Bloom’s model, then, its strength lies in identifying and defining the increasingly progressive indicators (in broad, over-arching abstract concepts) to in-depth and mature learning. However, and perhaps due to its very broad, non-discipline specific nature, the one weakness to Bloom’s taxonomy lies in its failure to specify, define and tell any particular student in any specific course what learning outcomes are expected and required. That is, the student is never told what he or she needs to know, comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate as an accomplished outcome to the course. The current interest in student learning outcomes can perhaps be viewed as a response to this limitation to Bloom’s taxonomy, but in a way that leaves Bloom’s taxonomy still especially relevant to educators concerned with SLO learning.

Accordingly, as an overarching outcome to student learning, then, the student should be able to demonstrate (1) knowledge, (2) comprehension, (3) application, (4) analysis, (5) synthesis and (6) evaluation of the subject(s) on which a particular course if focused. Each of the six levels suggests a particular kind of learning outcome that goes far beyond just generating SLOs for level one and two: knowledge and comprehension. The SLOs provided below represent an attempt to formulate, for an introductory course in psychology, student learning outcomes that correspond to the six levels in Bloom’s taxonomy.

SLO #1 – Level of Knowledge - As the course progresses, the successful student will demonstrate progressive accumulation and memorization of knowledge with regard to the core concepts, terms, theories, historical trends and empirical findings related to the major sub-domains of psychology; sub-domains exemplified by the chapters traditionally included in introductory psychology textbooks.

SLO #2 – Level of Comprehension - As the course progresses, the successful student will demonstrate progressive comprehension in being able to describe, discuss and explain the concepts central to the conceptual understandings, theories, and research methods in the major sub-domains of psychology; sub-domains exemplified by the chapters traditionally included in introductory psychology textbooks.

SLO #3 – Level of Application - As the course progresses, the successful student will demonstrate progressive development in capacity to apply the basic principles, practices and tools of psychology central to learning, growth and health at individual, interpersonal and social levels.

SLO #4 – Level of Analysis - As the course progresses, the successful student will demonstrate progressive analytic competence in being able to meaningfully compare and contrast the relative contributions (strengths and weaknesses) of major theoretical perspectives in psychology, to question in a scientific (critical, empirical and logical) manner assertions made about human nature and human nurture, and to differentiate non-scientific (experience, opinion, belief, dogma; insight, intuition, imagination, fiction) from scientifically-based answers or assertions about the nature of human nature/nurture.

SLO #5 – Level of Synthesis - By the near end of the course, the successful student will complete a semester-long project and report that demonstrates the capacity collect, organize, synthesize, and compose materials for a report on the project, the specifics of which to be determined by the choice of project assignments provided.

Assignment Option Possibilities:
(A) Collect the results from a set of 4-6 related research articles on a topic central to psychology, but that provides more in depth understanding than that provided by the textbook, and then compose and write a term paper that represents a summary and synthesis of what was learned about the topic, including your comprehension and analysis of the strengths, limitations and general conclusions drawn by the studies.
(B) Write a Service Learning report summarizing the experiences and learning that accrue from participating as a volunteer in a community service agency, in a way that contributes to the synthesis of one's own psychological development, learning, growth and occupational identity.
(C) Compose a case study and write a psychologically-minded biography of a fellow student/classmate, or an autobiography, based on a set of interview questions in which good, meaningful, psychological questions are posed that contain many of the relevant concepts from developmental psychology.

SLO #6 – Level of Evaluation - By the near end of the course, the successful student will provide a comprehensive evaluation of a completed semester length project, the specifics of which to be determined by the choice of project assignments provided.

Assignment Option Possibilities:
(A) Complete a Self-Challenge for Success Project and report which includes a summary of the appraised or assessed strengths and weaknesses, goals selected, action plan formulated, and judgment on the results obtained.
(B) Summarize and evaluate the research procedures and findings of a “meta-study” reported in an article in the research literature with regard to some major topic of research interest in psychology.
(C) Complete a 3-5 page take-home essay on the following topic. Evaluate what has been the most significant outcome for having completed this course? That is, assess what you now know or know how to do that you didn’t know at the beginning of the course, with regard to some aspect of knowledge or know how covered in the course.