Bloom's Taxonomy
Following the 1948 Convention of the American Psychological Association, B S Bloom took a lead in formulating a classification of "the goals of the educational process". Three "domains" of educational activities were identified. The first of these, named the Cognitive Domain, involves knowledge and the development of intellectual attitudes and skills. (The other domains are the Affective Domain and the Psychomotor Domain, and need not concern us here).
Eventually, Bloom and his co-workers established a hierarchy of educational objectives, which is generally referred to as Bloom's Taxonomy, and which attempts to divide cognitive objectives into subdivisions ranging from the simplest behavior to the most complex.
It is important to realize that the divisions outlined above are not absolutes and that other systems or hierarchies have been devised. However, Bloom's taxonomy is easily understood and widely applied.
B S Bloom
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