Bloom's Taxonomy

KP Education Systems strives to keep up with current practices in education and research-based pedagogy. For this reason, all of the questions in the Sous Chef, including those populating the dynamic test/quiz generator, are organized according to the revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy. If you are not familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy, here is a guide to help you understand the depth of the learning opportunities available to your students in the Sous Chef 7 Curriculum Suite.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification of six levels of intellectual skills involved in learning (from the simplest to the most complex) that was developed by a group of educational psychologists headed by Benjamin S. Bloom in the 1950s. According to the taxonomy, the first categories must be mastered before the learner can move on to the higher levels of cognition. Bloom's Taxonomy revolutionized the way educators approached their learning objectives, since Bloom asserted that over 95% of test questions involved only the lowest level of intellectual ability--remembering data. Teachers could improve their teaching methods by applying the course content to the stages of Bloom's; they began to pay more attention to the higher levels of thinking.

A revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy was developed in the 1990s by his former student, Lorin Anderson, and a group of educational psychologists to keep the research up-to-date with contemporary learning theories and standards-based requirements. This updated model makes the objectives of each stage more specific to learner behaviors, which makes learning at each level more observable to the teacher.

Below are explanations of the levels of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy and sample questions from the Sous Chef 7 to illustrate the application of each classification.

Revised Bloom's

Remember: retrieve knowledge from the long term memory that was acquired from the lesson or reading. This first level of questions encompasses basic multiple choice, true/false, oral response, or fill-in-the-blank questions asking only for recall of the studied material (terminology, facts, places, dates and names). Key Words: define, select, state, recall, label, identify Example from the Sous Chef: How many pints are in one gallon?

Understand: understand what the remembered material means and be able to restate it. The student should be able to explain the concepts in his/her own words or interpret their meaning. Questions from this level can be essay, oral response, multiple choice, or true/false. Key Words: explain, explain why (what is the reason), comprehend, summarize, translate, interpret Example from the Sous Chef: Explain what the Model Food Code is and provide examples of its effects on the food service industry.

Apply: take the knowledge and apply it to a situation—it can either be in the form of a written explanation of a hypothetical situation or it can involve having the students execute, implement, apply, or demonstrate a concept from the learning material. These questions/learning activities are usually in the form of a task or demonstration but can also be multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank when applying a concept such as a formula or mathematical equation. Key Words: applies, computes, constructs, demonstrates, modifies, operates, prepares, produces, shows, solves, uses Example from the Sous Chef: Sanitize your workstation using the instructions in the Sanitation video. Follow the recipe and produce chicken piccata.

Analyze: break the knowledge into its pieces, analyze the relationships, and distinguish between the parts. These questions/activities come in the form of essay, oral response, or a visual project. Key words: analyze, distinguish, differentiate, compare/contrast Example from the Sous Chef: Compare and contrast the Creaming method and the Two Stage mixing method. When would you use one method rather than the other? What would be the effects on the final product?

Evaluate: evaluate a situation and make judgments using the knowledge gained. These questions/activities come in the form of essay, oral response, or a visual project. Key Words: evaluate, defend, judge, argue, support Example from the Sous Chef: Select an image from a cooking magazine of a dessert plate that shows good presentations skills and evaluate the chef's plating techniques using specific examples to support your judgment.

Create: put parts together to form a whole; create something new using the knowledge. At this level, learning activities are fully planned and executed projects in place of or in addition to written work. Key Words: assemble, create, construct, design, reconstruct, modify, generate, compile Example from the Sous Chef: Design a concept and create a proposal for your own television cooking show.

Since the higher level thinking skills often cannot effectively be made into a multiple choice or true/false question, most of the apply, analyze, evaluate, and create questions will be in the form of essay questions, demonstrations, and activities. Since learning objectives for each chapter vary, it is not uncommon for some Bloom's categories to not be represented.