Remaking the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

Posted by: Dr Ashley Tan on: August 31, 2016

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EDIT: US English version of the job aid is available here.

I finally got down to remaking a model of the revised form of Bloom’s Taxonomy (BT).

This is a PNG that I share under this Creative Commons license: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.

My Google Drawing of the revised form of BT is at http://bit.ly/newbtref and can be downloaded there as a PDF, PNG, JPG, or SVG (File > Download as).

I based the model on a 2009 version that was created with the original BT in mind. That version retained the old static and passive terms like Knowledge instead of Remember, and Evaluation instead of Evaluate.

While the old wheel model did a good job of not using the traditional BT triangle, it did not swap the positions of Synthesis (Create) and Evaluation (Evaluate).

Given that the original BT model in 1956 was revised in 2001, I thought that revising this otherwise excellent wheel model was overdue.

I kept the wheel structure because:

• The triangle implies prescription: Teachers tend to start with the base and work their way up, if at all.
• Using the wheel is easy: Begin at the hub (red centre) and move outward (green periphery).
• Red core: The wheel has no cognitive outcome start point. A facilitator can start by challenging students with a complex problem that requires them to generate projects (Creating).
• Amber hub: The wheel offers verbs that are more observable and measurable. While this practice has behaviouristic foundations, it is better than having teachers design lessons where outcomes are “students will know…” or “they will understand…”. Teachers are not mind-readers!
• Green rim: The wheel model also has examples of learner artefacts or evidence of learning. This not only reinforces the observable and measurable principle, it also provides examples of what to design for.
• The examples are not mutually exclusive. For instance, a story might be evidence of Understanding or the process of Creating.

BT is a mainstay for the preparation of teachers and instructional designers. However, the triangle model is outdated and its levels imply causality or precedence (e.g., remember first, then understand, then…). It might be convenient to think this way, but it is irresponsible to teach this way because that is not how all people learn all the time.

I hope that my revised model provides a scaffold for newbies and a critical discussion piece for all.

Tags: bloom's taxonomy, revised, verb wheel