Exploring Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a set of levels of learning goals.  The categories increase in difficulty and learning development, moving from the most elementary to the most advanced.

As you take classes at Creighton, you will be confronted with all of these levels at various times.  By the time you graduate, you should be able to tackle each.  It will be much easier, though, if you know what these verbs mean before you see them on an assignment or test.

You can explore this classification system through a presentation I made on Prezi.com, a great presentation tool for students.

Bloom's Taxonomy encompasses an extensive list of verbs:

1. Knowledge: name, relate, list, tell, recognize, recall, choose, match, label, define...
2. Comprehension: compare, explain, describe, rephrase, outline, relate, classify, identify...
3. Application: apply, dramatize, construct, restructure, model, simulate, use, translate, practice, experiment...
4. Analysis: analyze, simplify, diagram, summarize, classify, relate to, contrast, compare, categorize, sequence, differentiate...
5. Synthesis: compose, elaborate, design, formulate, develop originate, propose, solve, adapt, invent...
6. Evaluation: judge, defend, rank, justify, rate, prioritize, evaluate, support, recommend, prove...

Derived from A Guide to Higher Level Thinking, Ruth Sunda and Kyrene de las Brisas

What Type of Learner are You?

Last week we took the Learning Styles Inventory in class.  It indicates whether you learn better through visual, auditory or kinesthetic means.  Visual learners, for example, need to see learning objectives, such as through images or written words.  Auditory learners need primarily to hear what they are learning.  Finally, kinesthetic learners understand better when they have hands-on experience.

The results may surprise some people.  I, for instance, thought I was an auditory learner, but the inventory shows I lean more towards visual learning; after reflection, I realized this was true.

What kind of learner are you? How can this knowledge help you as you begin taking college courses?