How to Use Bloom's Taxonomy in Everyday Life

Bloom's Taxonomy applies to life outside the classroom, as well as inside the classroom.

Bloom's Taxonomy was developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom and a team of psychologists to classify a list of behaviors associated with learning. Bloom's Taxonomy was modified in the 1990s by another group of psychologists led by Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom's. The updated Bloom's Taxonomy still outlines behaviors associated with learning, which can be applied in daily life as well as in the classroom.

Instructions

1. Memorize new information and replicate or understand it to practice remembering, the first behavior in Bloom's Taxonomy. For example, memorizing and recalling how to get to the store is an example of remembering.

2. Describe, organize and utilize the information to demonstrate understanding, the second part of Bloom's Taxonomy. Visualizing yourself going to the store, mapping your route and organizing the directions in your mind are ways to show understanding of the information.

3. Use the information that you remember and understand in a new way demonstrates applying, the third behavior of Bloom's Taxonomy. Taking experiences or learned information and applying them in correct and new ways is integral in daily life. Trying a short cut to the store would be a way to use what you know, how to get to the store, and interpret it in a new way.

4. Dissect the information and review it critically to practice analyzing, the fourth part of Bloom's Taxonomy. If a road was closed on your usual route to the store, you would practice Bloom's Taxonomy by analyzing other ways to get the store and choosing an alternative route.

5. Make a decision that you can defend and that you are practicing evaluating, the fifth part of Bloom's Taxonomy. Ask yourself why you chose the route to the store. No answer is wrong if you can provide reasons for what you did.

6. Create something new with the information that you have remembered, understood, applied, analyzed and evaluated. In doing so, you have used Bloom's Taxonomy in everyday life. If you devise a short cut to the store, you have created a new route for future trips.

References

• Old Dominion University: Bloom's Taxonomy