Chapter III: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Rosa Padilla Castro de Casamayor
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Before you build a house…
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How big is the lot?
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How many people will live in
it?
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Number of bedrooms?
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Number of baths?
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How big of a living / dining
room?; Office / library?
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Garden / balcony / patio?
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Garage, one car or two?
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Environmentally friendly?
Before you build a course, What do you
do?
What is an Instructional Objective?
It is an intent, communicated by a statement describing a proposed
change in the learner – a statement of what the learner is to be like
when he or she has successfully completed a learning experience.
Robert Mager
Instructional Objectives must:
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Describe what the learner will have to do when
demonstrating that he / she has reached the objective.
(Where am I going?)
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Describe any conditions under which the learner will
demonstrate his / her competence. (How shall I get there?)
•
Indicate how the learner will be evaluated, or what
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Bloom’s Taxonomy
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1950s- developed by Benjamin Bloom
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Adapted as a planning tool for classroom use
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Provides a way to organize thinking skills into six levels, from
basic to the highest order level of thinking
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1990s- Lorin Anderson (former student of Bloom) revisited the
taxonomy and made a number of changes
(Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn, pp. 7-8)
The Three Domains of Learning
• Cognitive domain (mental skills (knowledge))
Intellectual outcomes including knowledge, understanding, thinking skills.
• Affective domain (growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude or self))
Emotional outcomes including interests, attitudes, appreciation and values.
• Psychomotor domain (manual or physical skills (skills))
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The listing of the hierarchy of
objectives is often called a
taxonomy.
A taxonomy of educational
objectives is a systematic
classification scheme for sorting
learning outcomes into the three
broad
categories
(cognitive,
affective, and psychomotor) and
ranking the desired outcomes in
a developmental hierarchy from
least complex to most complex.
Domains
Objectives
Bloom’s (original) Taxonomy
Anderson’s (revised) Taxonomy
Hierarchical levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
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Cognitive Domain
1. Knowledge – recognize or recall information (repeat verbatim)
– Knows correct definitions
– Able to list major limitations of different types of items
2. Comprehension – understand the meaning of information (terms, definitions, and concepts)
– Selects correct item type for learning outcome
– Understands limitations of true-false items
– Distinguishes poor true-false items from good ones
3. Application – use the information appropriately in different situations to solve problems.
– Applies construction guidelines to a new content area – Creates a table of specifications
Cognitive domain involves knowledge and the d
evelopment of intellectual attitudes and skills.
Hierarchical levels of Cognitive Domain
Cognitive Domain
4. Analysis
– break information into components, see
relationships, formulate theoretical explanations, mathematical
or logical models for observed phenomena.
–
Identifies flaws in poor items
–
Lists general and specific learning outcomes
5. Synthesis
– put components together to create new products
and ideas, combine elements in novel ways.
–
Lists general and specific content areas
–
Provides weights for areas in table of specifications
6. Evaluation
– judge the worth of ideas, theories, opinions,
choose among alternatives, justify choice using specified criteria.
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Judges quality of procedure/product
–
Justifies product
–
Improves a product
Hierarchical levels of Cognitive Domain
Cognitive Domain
Creating
Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.
Evaluating
Justifying a decision or course of action
Checking, hypothesising, critiquing, experimenting, judging
Analysing
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships Comparing, organising, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Applying
Using information in another familiar situation Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Understanding
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarising, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Remembering
Recalling information
Recognising, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding
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What is higher-order thinking?
Higher-order thinking by students involves the
transformation of
information and ideas
. This transformation occurs when
students combine facts and ideas and synthesise, generalize,
explain, hypothesize or arrive at some conclusion or
interpretation. Manipulating information and ideas through
these processes allows students to solve problems, gain
understanding and discover new meaning. When students
engage in the construction of knowledge, an element of
uncertainty
is introduced into the instructional process and the
outcomes are not always predictable; and the teacher is
uncertain what the students will produce.
Sample Table of Specifications
Sample (you would
typically have more)
Bloom Levels
Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create
Identifies definition of key
terms (e.g, validity) x
Identifies examples of threats to test reliability
and validity x
Selects best item type for
given objectives x
Compare the pros and cons of different kinds of test for
given purposes x
Evaluates particular
educational reforms (e.g., whether they will hurt or
help instruction) x
Create a unit test x
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The affective domain may be the least understood, and in many ways, the
most important of the learning domains. A similar system for specifying
attitudinal objectives has been developed by D.R. Krathwohl. Like the
Bloom taxonomy, Krathwohl's hierarchy attempts to arrange these
objectives in an order of difficulty.
Since the affective domain is
concerned with a student's
attitudes, personal beliefs,
and
values,
measuring
educational objectives in this
domain is not easy. For
example, how is a positive
attitude
toward
safety
evaluated?
Observable
safety-related
behavior indicates a positive
attitude, but this is not like a
simple pass/fail test that can
be used to evaluate cognitive
educational objective levels.
•
Receiving
– attend to a stimulus [listen attentively to a lecture, read a
handout]
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Responding
– react to a stimulus [show interest in a subject, carry out an
assignment]
•
Valuing
– attach value to an object, person, phenomenon, or behavior
[demonstrate a positive attitude, appreciation, belief, or commitment
through expression or action]
•
Organization
– compare, relate, synthesize different values into the
beginning of an internally consistent value system [recognize a need to
balance freedom and responsibility, formulate a career plan, adopt a
systematic approach to problem solving]
•
Characterization by a value or value complex
– internalize a value
system and behave accordingly in a pervasive, consistent, and
predictable manner [work independently and diligently, practice
cooperation in group activities, act ethically]
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Psychomotor domain
• Perception – use sense organs to obtain cues about motor activity [relate labels to need for special handling of dangerous material]
• Set – readiness to take a particular action [explain the series of steps required to
operate a piece of equipment]
• Guided Response – early stage of learning a performance skill including imitation and trial and error [consciously follow a prescribed instrument calibration procedure]
• Mechanism – later stage of learning a performance skill when it can be performed
with proficiency [follow the same procedure smoothly and effortlessly]
• Complex Overt Response – skillful performance of a complex movement pattern
[repair electronic equipment quickly and accurately]
• Adaptation – skills that are so well-developed that the individual can modify them to fit the situation [alter a routine procedure to adapt to a novel situation] Mastery/Consultant
• Origination – creating new movement patterns based on highly developed skills
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Questions for Remembering
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What happened after...?
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How many...?
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What is...?
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Who was it that...?
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Can you name ...?
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Find the definition of…
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Describe what happened after…
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Who spoke to...?
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Which is true or false...?
Questions for Understanding
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Can you explain why…?
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Can you write in your own words?
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How would you explain…?
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Can you write a brief outline...?
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What do you think could have happened next?
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Who do you think...?
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What was the main idea...?
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Can you clarify…?
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Can you illustrate…?
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Does everyone act in the way that …… does?
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Questions for Applying
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Do you know of another instance where…?
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Can you group by characteristics such as…?
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Which factors would you change if…?
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What questions would you ask of…?
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From the information given, can you develop
a set of instructions about…?
Questions for Analyzing
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Which events could not have happened?
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If. ..happened, what might the ending have been?
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How is...similar to...?
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What do you see as other possible
outcomes?
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Why did...changes occur?
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Can you explain what must have happened when...?
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What are some or the problems of...?
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Can you distinguish between...?
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What were some of the motives behind..?
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What was the turning point?
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What was the problem with...?
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Questions for Evaluating
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Is there a better solution to...?
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Judge the value of... What do you
think about...?
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Can you defend your position
about...?
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Do you think...is a good or bad
thing?
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How would (should) you have
handled...?
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What changes to…would you
recommend?
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Do you believe...? How would you
feel if. ..?
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How effective are...?
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What are the consequences...?
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What influence will...have on our
lives?
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What are the pros and cons
of...?
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Why is....of value?
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What are the alternatives?
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Who will gain and who will
loose?
Questions for Creating
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Why don't you devise your own way to...?
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What would happen if ...?
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How many ways can you...?
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Can you create new and unusual uses for...?
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Can you develop a proposal which would...?
(Pohl,
Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn
, p. 14)
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Can you design a...to...?
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Can you see a possible
solution to...?
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If you had access to all
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Summary
You can conclude that affective processes are inseparable from the cognitive processes of Learning. Good thinking or mental ability is dependent on the attitudes, values and motivations that animate one’s character. You have also seen that the affective domain is very important and can be neglected in the formulation of instructional objectives especially as it relates to character formation and internalization of values.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Which of the following domain of educational objectives entails physical abilities?
a. Cognitive domain b. Affective domain
c. Psychomotor domain
Explain the meaning of affective domain, describe the levels of affective domain, state objectives in the affective domain.
Mention the characteristic features of affective domain
What is the psychomotor domain of instructional objectives. Briefly explain the physical abilities using examples.
