Bloom's learning domains

DURING THE 1950'S, BENJAMIN BLOOM LED a team of educational psychologists in the analysis of academic learning behaviors. The results of this team's research produced what is known today in the field of education, as Bloom's Taxonomy. This hierarchy of learning behaviors was categorized into three interrelated and overlapping learning domains; the cognitive (knowledge), affective (attitude), and psychomotor (skills). (Lane, 2001) This article describes in detail each of these three learning domains.

The Cognitive Domain

The Cognitive Learning Domain is exhibited by a person's intellectual abilities. Cognitive learning behaviors are characterized by observable and unobservable skills such as comprehending information, organizing ideas, and evaluating information and actions.

	Evaluation	judges the value of information
	Synthesis	builds a pattern from diverse elements
	Analysis	separates information into part for better understanding
	Application	applying knowledge to a new situation
	Comprehension	understanding information
	Knowledge	recall of data

 

These skills are arranged into six hierarchical levels, beginning from the simple and building to the most difficult. These six categories are arranged on scale of difficulty, meaning that a learner who is able to perform at the higher levels of the taxonomy, is demonstrating a more complex level of cognitive thinking.

In this picture, the learner is applying his knowledge of mathematical computation to solve a multiple step word problem.

A Detailed Explaination of Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy

The Affective Domain

The Affective Learning Domain addresses a learner's emotions towards learning experiences. A learner's attitudes, interest, attention, awareness, and values are demonstrated by affective behaviors.

These emotional behaviors which are organized in a hierarchical format also, starting from simplest and building to most complex, are as follows:

	Internalizing Values	behavior which is controlled by a value system
	Organization	organizing values into order of priority
	Valuing	the value a person attaches to something
	Responding to phenomena	taking an active part in learning; participating
	Receiving phenomena	an awareness; willingness to listen

These five categories can be thought of in a scaffolding manner, one must be learned in order to move onto the next category. (Clark, 1999)

In the picture to the left, this learner is writing a praise note in response to another child's positive actions.

The Psychomotor Domain

The psychomotor domain refers to the use of basic motor skills, coodination,and physical movement. Bloom's research group did not develop in-depth categories of this domain, claiming lack of experience in teaching these skills. However, Simpson (1972) developed seven psychomotor categories to support Bloom's domain.

	Origination	a learner's ability to create new movement patterns
	Adaptation	a learner's ability to modify motor skills to fit a new situation
	Complex Overt Response	the intermediate stage of learning a complex skill
	Mechanism	the ability to perform a complex motor skill
	Guided Response	the early stage of learning a complex skill which includes imitation
	Set	a learner's readiness to act
	Perception	the ability to use sensory cues to guide physical activity

These physical behaviors are learned through repetitive practice. A learner's ability to perform these skills is based on precision, speed, distance, and technique. (Clark, 1999).

This child is demonstrating a behavior from the psychomotor domain. While practicing the physical movements in throwing a softball he is learning and improving this skill through repetitive practice.

More information

http://officeport.com/edu/blooms.htm

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Jennifer Martin, graduate student
SDSU Educational Technology

Martin, J. (2001). Bloom's learning domains. In  B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved from