Bloom, an American educational psychologist, was working on perfecting the education process. He believed that education is a process and that teachers should come up with such tasks, that would encourage students to reach specific rather than general goals.
General goal – a goal that, for instance, illustrates an author’s vision of what the students will learn.
Example: to teach the teachers how to deal with parents’ complaints
Specific goal – a goal that captures one’s expectation of what a student will be able to do after finishing the course.
Example: react constructively to parents’ complaints, putting the conflicts down
Bloom’s taxonomy offers a classification of teaching and learning goals, which divides the process into three spheres:
- Cognitive (I know)
- your skills regarding knowledge, understanding and thinking critically
- Affective (I feel)
- your skills indicating how you react emotionally, how empathetic you are
- Sensory domains ( I create)
- your skills that define how well you can use given tools and instruments, they are usually connected to the development of hard-skills.
When it comes to critical thinking, the first sphere is the most important. There are 6 levels of it:
Watch this video that vividly explains Bloom’s taxonomy in more detail and the importance of implementing critical thinking in your life.