Understand the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy within the cognitive domain and how they can be applied to questioning techniques in teaching. Develop effective questioning strategies that align with different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy to enhance student learning and critical thinking skills. Practice creating questions that target specific cognitive processes such as remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Evaluate the effectiveness of different types of questions in promoting deeper understanding and retention of course material among students. Apply Bloom’s Taxonomy principles to design assessments that incorporate various levels of cognitive complexity through well-crafted questions.

1. Chapter 4:
Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to
Improve Student’s Learning
Facilitated by:
• MR. VATH VARY
• varyvath@gmail.com
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AIA
2023-2024

2. Take a moment to reflect
1. How many questions do you think that you ask a day?
2. What percentage do you think are associated with
 classroom management?
 assessment for learning?
 developing higher-order thinking skills?
3. How long do you wait before you expect an answer?
4. How long do you wait before you respond to an answer?
5. Do all pupils in your classroom leave having answered at
least one question?
6. How do you facilitate questioning?

3. Take a moment to reflect
• Research suggests that teachers ask
between 300 and 400 questions a day
(Levin and Long, 1981).
• Yet the results of many studies tell us
that, of these questions,
 ‘approximately 60% of questions are
lower order,
 20% are higher order and
 20% are procedural’ (Cotton, 1988).

4. Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s taxonomy was named for Benjamin
S. Bloom. It was developed in 1956 and
followed the work Bloom had completed on
the three domains of learning:
Cognitive: The knowledge-based
domain, consisting of
Affective: The attitudinal-based domain,
consisting of five levels.
Psychomotor: The skills-based domain,
consisting of six levels.

6. • Woolfolk, A., & Margetts, K. (2020). Educational
Psychology International Edition. Pearson Higher
Education. (Chapter 14: chapter fourteen TEACHING
EVERY STUDENT)

7. Introduction
Originally developed for use by university professors, it quickly became
used by curriculum planners, administrators, researchers, and
classroom teachers at all levels of education
It continues to be taught to upcoming teachers as one of the
leading models for critical thinking skills.
A former student of Bloom, named Lorin Anderson, led a team in
the 1990s to update the taxonomy to reflect relevance to twenty-
first-century work. The “new” Bloom’s taxonomy was published in
2001 and made one major change
Instead of nouns, the new Bloom’s taxonomy utilized verbs because
verbs describe actions, and it is important to remember that thinking is
an active process.

9. FIGURE 6. Bloom’s taxonomy. From “Bloom’s Taxonomy,” by Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University,
2016, retrieved from https://www. flickr.com/photos/vandycft/29428436431. CC BY 2.0.

10. • Bloom’s taxonomy provides six different
levels at which you can ask questions,
providing plenty of room to raise the rigor
for students.
• Understanding each of level of Bloom’s
taxonomy is really important when it
comes time to write or ask your own
questions.
• Bloom’s taxonomy deals
specifically with the cognitive
domain.

11. The 2001 revision of Bloom’s taxonomy added a new dimension—to recognize that cognitive processes must process something—
you have to remember or understand or apply some form of knowledge. We now have the six processes of remembering,
understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating acting on four kinds of knowledge—factual, conceptual, procedural,
and metacognitive.

12.  How do you effectively use verbs
to vary levels of student thinking?
 How do you adapt lower level
questions into higher order
thinking?
SCAFFOLDING QUESTIONS
 You can start by asking students a
remember level question to form a base
of knowledge, and then ask additional
questions to lead to higher thinking.

13. SCAFFOLDING QUESTIONS
 You can start by
asking students a
remember level
question to form a
base of knowledge,
and then ask
additional questions
to lead to higher
thinking.

14. If you were teaching about Goldilocks and the Tree Bears, you could start at the
lower end of thinking and build up:
What would Goldilocks use if she came to your house?
Imagine how the story would change if you moved the setting from the
woods to the ocean.
Judge whether Goldilocks was right for entering the Bears’ house. Defend
your opinion.
Compare this story to reality. What events could not really happen?
Explain why Goldilocks liked Baby Bear’s chair the best.
What are items used by Goldilocks while she was in the Bears’ house?
Match the questions with
Bloom’s Taxonomy level

15. Apply: What would Goldilocks use if she came to your house?
Create: Imagine how the story would change if you moved the setting
from the woods to the ocean.
Evaluate: Judge whether Goldilocks was right for entering the Bears’ house. Defend
your opinion.
Analyze: Compare this story to reality. What events could not really
happen?
Understand: Explain why Goldilocks liked Baby Bear’s chair the best.
Remember: What are items used by Goldilocks while she was in the
Bears’ house?

16. The Remember Level
• involves recalling facts, terms, basic concepts, and answers,
such as when a teacher asks students to name important
dates they have memorized or answer basic literal questions.
The remember level
• Social Studies: Recalling the names of the seven continents.
• Language Arts: Knowing the common conjunctions of and,
but, and or.
• Math: Memorizing all of the multiples of 9 up to 108.
• Science: Recognizing elements on the periodic table.
Examples of The remember level

17. The Remember Level
•identify » recall » describe » tell
•name » reproduce » select » define
•locate » list
• Generic prompts include: What did …? Who did …? How many
…?
The remember level
• reviewing material already learned,
• introducing a concept by starting with defnitions,
• teaching basic math facts that will be used later to develop more advanced
math skills,
• something has to be memorized, or
• determining whether something is true or false.
Use remember level questions, such as when:

18. The Remember Level
1. What is 7 x 8?
2. What is the formula for the area
of a circle?
3. What are the elements of
hydrochloric acid?
4. What are the primary colours?
5. What is the capital of Australia?
6. List the rules for netball.
7. What is the name for a multi-
channeled river?

19. The Understand Level
•Builds upon students’ basic knowledge by asking them to explain what
or students need to respond in their own words rather than recite facts
•Have students summarize their understanding of a reading or recent
•Require organization of the facts and students’ ability to explain
The Understand Level
•Social Studies: Concluding the result of what certain events caused.
•Math: Comparing shapes to one another.
•Language Arts: Restating the general plot of a story.
•Science: Organizing data collected during an experiment.
Questions at the Understand Level can also act as
checkpoints to determine when students are ready to
move on to new content.

20. The Understand Level
• » interpret » compare » exemplify » explain
• » classify » give examples of » summarize » illustrate
• » infer » outline » use your own words to
• Generic prompts include: Why did …? What are/does …? Why has …? Can
you explain …?
The Understand Level
• determining whether students have comprehended reading,
• having students explain what they have learned to a classmate in their own
words,
• checking whether students understand the major take-aways from a lesson,
• you want students to draw a conclusion from the information they have been
given, or
• requiring students to show their work in a math problem.
Use Understand Level questions, such as
when:

21. The Understand Level
1. What is the main idea of this story?
2. How do waves erode the coast?
3. Why are both –5 and 5 the square
root of 25?
4. Describe the climate graph.
5. What does the ratio 5:2 mean?
6. How would you illustrate the water
cycle?
7. Can you convert your six-second
heart rate count into beats per
minute?

22. The Apply Level
• involves students taking information they already know and apply it to
situations to reach a solution.
• Application is often referred to as the higher level of lower level thinking
requires that students use their knowledge and understanding in order to
they have not seen before.
The Apply Level
• Social Studies: Using research skills to conduct a research project and
independently find and cite information.
• Math: Classifying numbers as fractions, improper fractions, or mixed
numbers.
• Language Arts: Developing an essay using the introduction, body, and
conclusion structure.
• Science: Using the scientific method to independent conduct an experiment.
Questions at the Apply Level

23. The Apply Level
•» solve » illustrate » apply » examine
•» produce » model » modify » translate
•» complete » predict
•Generic prompts: How can you …? How would you …? Using this
information, can you …?
The Apply Level
• checking whether students understand a math concept by giving them additional
problems to solve,
• having students follow rules of writing or grammar when composing a piece,
• seeing if students can take something they have learned and apply it to a new
situation,
• asking students to use established formulas to covert/solve a problem, or
• asking students to use logic to predict the outcome of a situation.
Use the Apply level questions, such as when:

24. The Apply Level
1. How would you use your knowledge of longitude
and latitude to locate Greenland?
2. If there were 8 inches of water in this tank and
all you have is a hose, how would you empty all of
the water out?
3. Why does the climate graph show this pattern?
4. How would you change the activity to reach the
target heart rate?
5. A supermarket is offering three for two on its
products. A small bag of 80 teabags cost £1.40
and a large bag of 320 teabags cost £3.70. Milo
wants to buy 320 teabags. Which is the better
deal?
6. How do you round a number to the nearest 100?

25. The Analyze Level
•Involves students breaking down a problem and looking at it in different
•This level of cognition involves higher order thinking because students
provide reasons and reach conclusions, using evidence to support their
need to have a strong awareness of how component parts relate to one
•This allows students to distinguish between fact and opinion.
The Analyze Level
•Social Studies: Studying the stock market and trying to predict what a
stock will do based on its past performance and the future market.
•Math: Investigating the various steps in an incorrect problem and
determining where the work went wrong and how to fix it.
•Language Arts: Connecting a character’s motives to something that
happened in the past.
•Science: Analyzing the relationships between different animals in an
ecosystem.
Questions at the Analyze Level

26. The Analyze Level
•» compare and contrast » relate » simplify »
arranged
•» transform » conclude » differentiate » connect
•» assume » explore » correlate »
prioritize
•Generic prompts: What are …? Why did …? Why do …? What if …?
Consider …? Discuss …
The Analyze Level
• a large concept needs to be broken down into smaller parts,
• building understanding of the big picture or essential question of a concept,
• comparing and contrasting concepts or a concept’s components,
• asking students to make connections between ideas or organize them, or
• getting students to begin to ask questions for themselves.
Use the Analyze Level questions, such as when:

27. The Analyze Level
1. Why do we call these animals mammals?
2. Give pupils two different graphs that offer similar
information – for example, boys’ and girls’ heights in
a box plot. Ask pupils to analyze the information
and come to conclusions.
3. Can you analyze the strategies used in the first and
second round of the game?
4. Explain why, if we increase 80 by 25 per cent, we
add the same amount as we take off if we decrease
the answer by 20 per cent.
5. What are some of the factors which cause rust?
6. Why did the UK declare war with Germany on 4
August 1914?
7. What elements of art did the artist use (line, shape,
space, form, texture, colour)?
8. What is the function of regeneration projects?

28. The Evaluate Level
• involves students making connections, engage in creative thinking
decisions through checking and critiquing. Students present and
opinions, making judgments about the validity of information or
work based on key criteria.
• This means that students need to not only understand the
concept, but also be able to understand the “why” and how to
The Evaluate Level
• Social Studies: Ranking the top 10 contributions from the Renaissance.
• Math: Judging whether a student chose the best method of solving a problem.
• Language Arts: Defending the actions of the character Severus Snape in the
Harry Potter series.
• Science: Deciding whether or not a scientist acted ethically in his or her
experiments.
Questions at the Evaluate Level require
students to explain their opinions

29. The Evaluate Level
• » support » rate » prove » recommend »
substitute
•» evaluate » assess » criticize » argue » prepare
•» debate » choose » generalize » modify » plan
•Generic prompts: How would you …? Construct a …? Are everybody’s
results the same …?
The Evaluate Level
•discussing a controversial topic,
•debating two or more sides of an argument,
•having students justify an opinion or recommendation about something,
•asking students to self-evaluate themselves or refect, and
•requiring students to back up their responses with well-informed evidence.
Use the Evaluate Level questions, such as when:

30. The Evaluate Level
1. Which poem did you feel best
represented the feeling of loss?
2. Which character do you like the best?
3. Imagine you could climb inside the
painting. How do you feel?
4. Why do you think (insert name) is so
famous?
5. List two fractions which lie between
1/3 and 1/2.
6. Which management choice is likely to
have the most positive impact?

31. The Create Level
•Involves students creating a new or alternative solution by combining
information or elements in a different way. In other words, this
students to put elements together to form a coherent whole.
•To accomplish ‘creating’ tasks, learners generate, plan and produce.
The Create Level
•How often do students create something new in social studies or in math
•Social Studies: Devising a solution to the housing short-age in third-
world countries.
•Math: Constructing a strategy for counting the number of jelly beans in
a jar.
•Language Arts: Rewriting the ending of a story so that it is more
realistic.
•Science: Formulating an alternative hypothesis based on evidence.
Use Questions at the Create Level, when

32. The Create Level
•» design » improve » invent » build
•» substitute » produce » imagine » revise
•» plan » write » develop » create
•Generic prompts: What would have happened if …? Pretend that …
Design a … Think of another way to …
The Create Level
• asking students to generate new ideas,
• having students solve a problem by proposing solutions,
• having students improve plans that have flaws,
• you want students to use their creativity, and
• asking students to think of multiple possibilities.
Use the Create Level questions, such as when:

33. The Create Level
1. How would you assemble these items to
create a windmill?
2. How would you complete the circuit?
3. Create two different sequences where the
fourth term is 12 and write down the
general rule for both of them.
4. The answer contains Cl2; what was the
question?
5. Put these words together to create a
complete sentence.
6. How would your life be different if you
could breathe underwater?
7. How would we need to be adapted?

34. QUESTIONING STEMS

35. QUESTIONING STEMS

36. QUESTIONING STEMS

37. QUESTIONING STEMS

38. References and Further Readings