Definition of Learning Categories (based on Bloom's Taxonomy)

The following information provides guidance to teachers who want to submit lesson plans for the CongressLink site. It describes learning objectives for students based on Bloom's taxonomy. CongressLink lesson plans should incorporate classroom activities that reflect the taxonomy.

Learning Category: Knowledge

Description: The learner recalls or recognizes information previously presented. This is the lowest level of learning but is indispensable as a basis for all understanding and critical thinking. Knowledge can involve remembering, memorizing, recognizing, and recalling information.

Useful Questions: Who, what, when, where, how? How do you define?

Useful Verbs: List, Match, Name, Locate, Group, Define, Recite, Label, State

Learning Category: Understanding/Comprehension

Description: The learner changes the form of the previously learned information by translation. The student grasps the meaning and intent of material. Comprehension involves reordering ideas, making estimate and predictions, and grasping the implication of a concept. Comprehension is the lowest level of understanding, but it is still an important level of thinking that must be achieved before higher-order thinking can take lace.

Useful Questions: How would you paraphrase? What are the main ideas? How would you summarize? What examples of . . . can you find?

Useful Verbs: Compare, Classify, Summarize, Describe, Relate, Diagram, Reword, Illustrate, Categorize

Learning Category: Application

Description: The learner has done something with what s/he has learned. Application is the ability to use previously learned material in new and concrete situations. Application involves problem solving, applying information to produce some result, and using facts, rules, and principles in new situations.

Useful Questions: How is . . . an example of . . . ? How is . . . related to . . . ? Why is . . . significant?

Useful Verbs: Apply, Solve, Try, Practice, Execute, Construct, Determine, Investigate

Learning Category: Analysis

Description: The learner breaks down an idea into its principal parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Analysis involves the detection of the relationships of the parts and of the way they are organized. It involves subdividing something to show how it is put together, finding the underlying structure of a communication, identifying motives, and separating a whole into component parts. Analysis is the critical step between comprehension and synthesis, and it involves the skills used in application. Analysis combines understanding of the structural form as well as the content.

Useful Questions: What are the parts or features of . . . ? Classify . . . according to . . . . How does . . . compare or contrast with . . . ? What evidence can you list for . . . ?

Useful Verbs: Examine, Investigate, Categorize, Compare, Contrast, Classify, Relate, Divide, Infer, Determine, Discover

Learning Category: Synthesis

Description: The learner takes knowledge which is new to him/her and creates a whole from the bits and pieces. Synthesis involves putting together elements and parts to form a whole -- a pattern or structure not clearly there before.

Useful Questions: What would you infer/predict from . . . ? What ideas can you add to . . . ? How would you create/design a new . . . ? What might happen if you combined . . . ? What solutions would you suggest for . . . ?

Useful Verbs: Develop, Construct, Design, Hypothesize, Compose, Deduce, Formulate, Create

Learning Category: Evaluation

Description: The learner forms judgments based on facts, example and specific criteria. Evaluation involves making value decisions about issues, resolving controversies or differences of opinion, and developing opinions, judgments, or decisions. This is the highest level of learning because it contains elements of all of the other learning categories plus conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria.

Useful Questions: What would you infer/predict from . . . ? What ideas can you add to . . . ? How would you create/design a new . . . ? What might happen if you combined . . . ? What solutions would you suggest for . . . ?

Useful Verbs: Critique, Evaluate, Select, Justify, Support, Argue, Decide, Assess, Rate