Bloom's Taxonomy

I have always enjoyed considering my work in the context of Bloom's Taxonomy.

I was first introduced to the concept in the third grade through the school district's gifted program, called Shared Time. Our teacher, Jill Dembsky (who runs KEWL), had the six words of Bloom's Taxonomy pasted on the wall next to the chalkboard for us to always ponder them. Still today, I frequently consider what type of thinking I am doing on an assignment in reference to the taxonomy.

Back in third grade we were challenged to think beyond Knowledge and Comprehension, the skills needed for elementary school, and reach the four highest levels. Now as a graduate student, we usually operate at Application and Analysis, and need to push ourselves to work more frequently at Synthesis and Evaluation.

I always felt seeing the thinking skills presented in a hierarchy made it easier to recognize where one was working at the time. Thus making it easier to consider what is necessary to reach the next level.