Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals.

I have studied Bloom's Taxonomy, as have millions of other educators, and found his work immensely helpful in clarifying educational objectives and outcomes for my students. I was introduced to Bloom in graduate school where I studied Instructional Design. It was clear; those instructors who successfully implemented Bloom's work in their own teaching were of a higher caliber, easy to understand and more successful in helping the students to learn, not just recall facts and figures. The earlier contributor is way off in their "review" of Bloom's work; and clearly paranoid.

This is a must-read, particularly in the field of systematic Instructional Design and specifically regarding learning objectives, criterion-referenced testing, etc. Bloom's work is the foundation for countless strategies, research, models, etc. The series on all domians is a good addition to any teacher's library, regardless of content or level.

This book was written almost 50 years ago and it is still widely used within education around the world. Bloom set out to create a common framework for categorising academic ability and his resulting taxonomy is still the de facto standard for classifying cognitive skills. Don't be put off by the age of the book - it's very readable - which perhaps reflects the timeless nature of his subject matter. Although some of his examples have aged (and perhaps were never particularly good examples), the book is accessible and interesting - and, as I've said, as useful today as it was 50 years ago. Highly recommended to anyone involved in writing test items. If you're interested, I've tried to provide more up-to-date examples on my Web site....