Now that you have an understanding of the learning styles people use to synthesize information, now let's look at the methods that Union University's ATEP faculty are using to present the students the core of information they need to eventually synthesize the didactic content for competence and proficiency.

The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, often called Bloom's Taxonomy, is a classification of the different objectives and skills that educators set for students. The taxonomy was proposed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist at the University of Chicago. Bloom's Taxonomy divides educational objectives into three "domains:" Affective, Psychomotor, and Cognitive. Within each domain are different levels of learning, with higher levels considered more complex and closer to complete mastery of the subject matter. A goal of Bloom's Taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education. It should be noted that the NATA educational competencies 4th Edition (2006) are based on the taxonomy of educational objectives or Blooms Taxonomy. The model simply implies, in three different domains, how individuals are introduced basic environmental information and how that information is eventually synthesized into learning at different levels of consciousness.

Benjamin Bloom created this taxonomy for categorizing level of abstraction of questions that commonly occur in educational settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in which to categorize test questions, since professors will characteristically ask questions within particular levels, and if you can determine the levels of questions that will appear on your exams, you will be able to study using appropriate strategies.

Knowledge

• observation and recall of information
• knowledge of dates, events, places
• knowledge of major ideas
• mastery of subject matter
• Question Cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

Comprehension

• understanding information
• grasp meaning
• translate knowledge into new context
• interpret facts, compare, contrast
• order, group, infer causes
• predict consequences
• Question Cues: summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

Application

• use information
• use methods, concepts, theories in new situations
• solve problems using required skills or knowledge
• Questions Cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

Analysis

• seeing patterns
• organization of parts
• recognition of hidden meanings
• identification of components
• Question Cues: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer

Synthesis

• use old ideas to create new ones
• generalize from given facts
• relate knowledge from several areas
• predict, draw conclusions
• Question Cues: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite

Evaluation

• compare and discriminate between ideas
• assess value of theories, presentations
• make choices based on reasoned argument
• verify value of evidence
• recognize subjectivity
• Question Cues: assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize
• From Benjamin S. Bloom Taxonomy of educational objectives. Published by Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 1984 by Pearson Education.