Bloom’s Taxonomy – Level 3 Apply

Apply

Learners effectively apply concepts, principles, methods, rules, laws, theories, and other newly learned information to novel and concrete situations in the form of measurable activity with minimal direction.  In this stage, a change in behavior occurs.  For example, a learner will conduct an effective negotiation session or perform conflict management via role-play.  Learning outcomes require a higher level of understanding than those in the Knowledge and Understand domains. 

Performance Verbs

• Adopt
• Apply
• Avail
• Carry out
• Capitalize
• Change
• Choose
• Classify
• Collect information
• Compare and contrast
• Compute
• Conduct
• Construct (e.g. charts and graphs)
• Consume
• Deduce
• Demonstrate correct usage of a method or procedure
• Devote
• Discover
• Dramatize
• Draw conclusions
• Edit
• Employ
• Execute
• Exercise
• Exert
• Exhibit
• Experiment
• Exploit
• Handle
• Illustrate
• Implement
• Interpret
• Make
• Make use of the known
• Manage
• Manipulate
• Mobilize
• Model
• Modify
• Operate
• Organize
• Paint
• Perform
• Practice
• Predict
• Prepare
• Profit by
• Produce
• Put into action
• Put together
• Put to use
• Question
• React
• Relate
• Report
• Respond
• Role-play
• Schedule
• Share
• Shop
• Show
• Sketch
• Solve problems (real life and mathematical)
• Take up
• Translate
• Try
• Use
• Utilize
• Wield

Examples of Activities or Uses

• Apply accounting strategies to understand financial documents
• Apply ideas to new situations
• Apply laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test
• Apply learned information to a new situation
• Apply rules of correct customer service protocol while interacting with a customer in xyz situation
• Apply rule to on-the-job situation
• Apply technique learned to an authentic situation
• Apply the conflict model as learned in a role play situation
• Assemble a collection of photographs relating to the topic
• Capitalize on the idea of a social media marketing – create a social media marketing plan with various tools, promotional materials, and advertising that will promote your social media resources
• Classify product types
• Command others step-by-step to perform a new procedure
• Compare and contrast attitudes toward e-learning today and in the 1990s
• Conduct a meeting
• Conduct an experiment
• Conduct an interview
• Create a forecast based on newly learned information
• Describe a situation you have encountered that is similar to the one we just discussed
• Determine your curriculum outline for a new training program
• Dub video or TV show
• Graph information
• How does the principle of supply and demand affect your business plan
• Interview colleagues on daily activities
• Make a diagram, sculpture, illustration, mobile, collage, model, map, cartoon,
• Operate computer program to obtain a goal or objective
• Organize the types of fractures from most severe to less severe
• Participate in virtual simulation
• Play a computer game with tasks that include application of skills
• Plan a corporate event with specific company guidelines and budget
• Presentation
• Produce a newspaper, article, story, etc.
• Produce questions
• Put information in graph form
• Questioning
  • Provide an instance which ___.
  • How is x related to y?
  • How is x an example of y?
  • How would you use this information?
  • How is x an example of y?
  • How is x related to y?
  • Why is xyz significant?
• Role-plays
• Select examples of how “private” social networking can impact one’s “public” internet footprint
• Select the most appropriate procedure for xyz situation
• Simulation activities
• Sketch a picture that relates to your ideas on effective leadership
• Solve a puzzle
• Solve problems
  • based on known information
  • Use knowledge from various areas to find solutions to problems
• Suggest actual uses
• Upload and share material
• Use a manual to calculate an employee’s vacation time
• Using the flow chart you created on handling customer complaints, determine which steps one should take to create customer satisfaction
• What could you say in xyz situation to overcome objections?
• Write a business proposal to your finance director
• Write a telephone conversation between a seller and a client

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Level 2 Understand

Understand

Learners comprehend the meaning of the material presented and predict consequences or effects from it.  No change in behavior occurs at this level.  Learners are able to describe their understanding of what is presented and discuss how the new material learned may or may not work in their own environment.  This type of thinking skills tells you that a learner can grasp and interpret prior learning.  Remembering and Understanding often go together, but Understanding goes one step beyond Remembering. 

Performance Verbs 

• Account for
• Advance
• Alter
• Annotate
• Calculate
• Categorize
• Change
• Classify
• Communicate an idea in a new or different way
• Compare
• Comprehend
• Conclude
• Confirm
• Construe
• Contemplate
• Convert
• Critique
• Describe a concept in one’s own words
• Defend
• Define
• Demonstrate
• Describe
• Discuss
• Distinguish
• Draw this scene/story
• Estimate (e.g. future trends)
• Expand
• Explain ideas
• Expound
• Express in other terms
• Extend
• Extrapolate
• Generalize
• Give an example
• Give main idea
• Give descriptions
• Identify
• Illustrate
• Infer
• Interpret material (e.g. charts, graphs)
• Locate
• Match
• Moderate
• Offer
• Organization and selection of facts and ideas
• Outline
• Paraphrase
• Predict consequences or effects
• Project effects of ideas
• Propose
• Qualify
• Recognize
• Reference
• Reiterate
• Relate
• Render
• Report
• Restate (e.g. What is another way to say X, in one’s own words)
• Retell
• Review
• Reword
• Rewrite
• Scheme
• See relationship among things
• Show
• Spell out
• Submit
• Summarize material
• Tell
• Theorize
• Transform
• Translate (e.g. from one form to another such as words numbers, the following phrases into English)
• Understand meaning of facts and principles
• Vary

Examples of Activities or Uses

• Apply a new sales technique to a real-life selling situation
• Classify different types of tickets for sale
• Command others step-by-step to perform CPR
• Communicate an idea in a new or different form
• Compare (e.g. How does Mary’s approach compare to John’s?)
• Create a model of representation
• Demonstrate how to plan a conference for new sales associates
• Create an audio recording, poster, cartoon, collage
• Create a “what if…” scenario
• Create examples or metaphors
• Debate an issue
• Define the relationships between consumers today and consumers in 1999
• Dramatize an event
• Draw a conclusion or implication
• Estimate the top priorities that our company will face in the next ten years
• Explain in your own words the steps for performing a complex task
• Explain leadership in your own words
• Explain or interpret meaning from a given scenario or statement
• Explain the specific model learned on how to manage stressful situations in your own words
• Explain why we have specific work safety rules in place
• Form relationships using analogies, similes, metaphors, causal relationships
• Give descriptions (e.g. What is this course about?)
• Give examples of a Class C fire.
• Give reasons for a problem (e.g. the energy crisis)
• Interpret the chart that shows the rate of inflation over the past 10 tens
• Interview colleagues on ways they reduce stress
• Justify the method used
• Outline the procedures
• Outline the steps necessary to handle customer complaints
• Paraphrase
• Peer teaching
• Perform a skit, speech, story
• Place information into a chart or graph
• Predict effects of changes
• Put ideas into categories
• Restate a paragraph, sentence, or page in your own words
• Restate the reasons for policy changes
• Rewrite the principles of test writing
• Show and tell
• Small group projects
• Solve story problems
• State main ideas (e.g. What is the main idea of this article?)
• State the underlying factors that contributed to the loss in revenue
• Suggest treatment, reaction or solution to given problem
• Summarize an article or information
• Take a photograph
• Translate an equation into a computer spreadsheet
• What characteristics do all learning models share?

Telling Ain’t Training Book Review

Why You Should Read This Book

Is the purpose of your training to change the behavior of your trainees and to improve workplace performance?  If so, this is the book for you. 

Is your mantra “learner-centered” and “performance-based”?  If not, it should be!  After reading this book I guarantee it will be! 

This learner-centered book is a must-read for anyone designing and delivering training whether a novice or experienced trainer or developer.  I plan to reread it over and over again as a refresher and will definitely use it as a reference. 

The authors, Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps, practice what they preach.  Telling Ain’t Training is fun, engaging, easy to read, and written in plain English.  All terminology and concepts are explained very well.  The book is interactive and keeps the reader engaged by interspersing activities throughout the book.  In addition, there are charts, illustrations, quizzes, worksheets, checklists, planning sheets, scripting sheets, and summaries.

What it Contains

Telling Ain’t Training contains practical information on adult learning principles based on current research in order to improve workplace performance.   This book doesn’t just explain how to train.  It tells what works and why.  Included in the book:

• Training and learning terminology
• Adult Learning Principles
• Types of knowledge
• How to motivate learners
• How to improve learner retention
• How to develop effective training activities
• How to retrofit current training sessions using the Five-Step Model
• Brain research
• Types of Training
• 25 effective training activities
• How to assess learners

Where to Order

Order from Amazon.com or the ASTD store.

Publisher: ASTD Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200 pages
Publication Date: 2002
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1-56286-328-2
ISBN-13: 978-1-56286-328-9
SKU: 110211

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Level 1 Remember

Remember

Remembering is the lowest level of learning in the cognitive domain in Bloom’s Taxonomy and typically does not bring about a change in behavior. It involves memorization and recall of information with no evidence of understanding.  Learners absorb, remember, recognize and recall information.  However, it is the building block of all subsequent levels of learning because the learner must remember information presented before progressing to the next levels.

Performance Verbs

• Arrange
• Check
• Choose
• Cite
• Define
• Demonstrate
• Describe
• Draw
• Duplicate
• Explain
• Find
• Group
• How
• How much?
• Identify
• Illustrate
• Know
• Label
• List
• Locate
• Make
• Match
• Memorize
• Name
• Omit
• Order
• Outline
• Pick
• Point to
• Quote
• Read
• Recall
• Recite
• Recognize
• Record
• Relate
• Remember
• Repeat
• Reproduce
• Retrieve
• Say
• Select
• Show
• Sort
• Spell
• State
• Summarize
• Tally
• Tell in your own words
• Touch
• Transfer
• Translate
• Underline
• What
• What does it mean?
• What is?
• When?
• Where?
• Which one?
• Which is the best one?
• Who?
• Why?
• Write

Examples of Activities or Uses

• Bring to mind appropriate material and stored knowledge
• Define customer service
• Drill and practice
• Explain the law of supply and demand
• Fill out a loan processing form
• Fill out workbooks or worksheets
• Find definitions
• Games
• Identify four teaching methods from the information processing family
• Identify the type of fracture
• Illustrate a word/concept
• Information searches
• Know rules
• Label the parts of a machine
• List policies and procedures
• List specific bits of learned information
• Locate examples of negligent misrepresentation in the following article
• Look at a product and provide a detailed description
• Make a timeline
• Memory games
• Multiple Choice tests
• Name three features of our new line of products
• Question and Answer sessions
• Questions have right or wrong answers
• Quizzes
• Quote a law, price, or other bit of information
• Read a book or article
• Recall a process or information
• Recite company policies or other learned information
• Recount facts
• Remember previously learned information
• Remember terms, methods, facts, concepts, specific items of information
• Remember things read, heard, seen
• Select the appropriate procedure (e.g. for fighting an electrical fire)
• State procedure
• Tell statistics
• Who is considered the “father” of adult learning theory? 
• Write definitions for the following terms
• Write an email to a potential customer outlining three benefits of our new product

Rapid Instructional Design Video with Thiagi

Check out this informative and entertaining video from the UMBC Training Forum: Rapid Instructional Design with Thiagi.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy and Why Should it Be Used in Workplace Training?

I first learned about Bloom’s Taxonomy in my education classes during college which were geared toward K-12 teaching pedagogy.  We were taught that we should incorporate all levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, students should master one before moving on to the next, and that the next level up is always more difficult than the last.  HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) were all the rage and Bloom’s Taxonomy was one way to achieve this.  While I’m sure Bloom’s Taxonomy was created primarily for academic learning, I believe it is relevant for all types of learning, including workplace training.  Why?

Bloom’s Taxonomy Helps Achieve Training Goals and Objectives

The goal of workplace training is for learners to not only remember and recall facts and procedures (which is the absolute lowest level of training) but to also be able to apply their learning to authentic workplace situations to improve on-the-job performance.  In order for training programs to be effective, it is vital that learners bridge the gap between their knowledge and its application.  One way to achieve this is to incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy into the curriculum.  It may not be necessary to include all levels into all training programs but rather the aspects that are appropriate to the learning goals and objectives.  In addition, Bloom’s Taxonomy can serve as a helpful checklist for planning, designing, assessing, and evaluating your training program and its effectiveness.  The Bloom’s Taxonomy model is divided into three parts or domains:

1. Cognitive – Intellect – Knowledge
2. Psychomotor – Motor skills and coordination – Skills
3. Affective –  Feelings and emotions – Attitude

Trainers often refer to these three categories simply as Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude. 

Six Levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy

In this blog post, I am going to focus on the Cognitive Domain which includes the following six categories starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. Each category can be thought of as a degree of difficulty and builds a foundation for the next level.  As a result, the first one should be mastered before the next one can take place.  Take a look at the chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  It includes each category in the cognitive domain.  I like to think of it as a mountain of intellect with the bottom level (Remember) creating the foundation for all learning that will take place.  Create is the last and ultimate level and once a learner has reached the Create level that have reached the pinnacle of learning that set of material. 

Level 1 – Remember

The learner memorizes and recalls ideas, facts, theories, and other specific bits of information.  No change of behavior is expected at this point.  Notice how this is the bottom, and the longest layer.  This is the foundation of learning since the learner must remember the information before progressing to the next level.

Examples:

List three procedures learned at workplace safety training.

Define the concepts of the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains as they relate to performance-based training.

What is bubble gum?

Level 2 – Understand

The learner demonstrates understanding of the material or information by describing, discussing, explaining, identifying, summarizing, and translating.  This second layer often goes with the first (Remember) and again typically no real change in behavior occurs at this level.  However, the learning outcomes go one step beyond memorization. 

Examples:

Explain the specific safety model learned in safety training in your own words.

Summarize the major findings from the case-study that pertain to the role of the cognitive domain.

How do you use bubble gum?

Level 3 – Apply

The learner correctly applies newly learned rules, concepts, principles, and theories to new and concrete situations.  This may include the application of rules, concepts, principles, laws, theories, and methods.  Learning outcomes require a higher level of understanding than in Understanding and this is the level where a change in behavior often begins.

Examples:

Correctly apply the safety training in various role-play situations.

Outline the major elements of a successful training program that takes into account the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of the participants.

With this sample of bubble gum, demonstrate how to blow a bubble.

Level 4 – Analyze

The learner is able to break down information into smaller parts, including the identification of parts, analysis of relationships between parts, and recognition of the organizational principles involved so that its organizational structure may be understood.  Learning outcomes represent a higher intellectual level than comprehension and application because they require an understanding of both the content and the structural form of the material.  At this level, the learner will analyze, compare/contrast, experiment, examine, differentiate, and distinguish one element from another.

Examples:

Analyze what there are safety risks at work and examine different ways in which they can be avoided.

Compare and contrast the “do’s” and “don’ts” of effective training programs.

Distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of chewing bubble gum.

Level 5 – Evaluate

The learner makes conscious value judgments of material for a given purpose and are based on definite criteria that is either given to the student or is determined by the student.  Learning outcomes at this level are very high because the learner must be able to assess, defend, judge, support, evaluate, argue, and value information and concepts. 

Examples:

Evaluate a variety of options for handling various safety scenarios.  Justify why a particular model/procedure would be best used in the situation.

Name and rank in order five evaluation tools to measure the effectiveness of the training program from the most beneficial to the least and provide reasons for each choice.

Prioritize the top three qualities of your idea bubble gum and justify why they are important.

Level 6 – Create

The learner puts ideas together into a new or unique product or plan which involves advanced, creative, out-of-the-box thinking with an emphasis on the formulation of new patterns and structure.  At this final level, the learner will arrange, compose, construct, create, design, develop, propose, organize, and manage a new product. 

Examples:

Create an evaluation checklist that a trainer could use during a training session to identify and document strengths and weaknesses of student performance.

Create an original lesson plan containing elements from the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains based on the learners’ abilities and needs in your workplace setting.

Create and describe the ideal/perfect bubble gum.

These are just a few examples and an overview of how to apply Bloom’s Taxonomy in workplace training.  I hope you found it useful!  Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts that will include more detail for each level.

A Few of My Favorite Learning Quotes

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. 
Henry Brooks Adams

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The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher inspires. 
William Arthur Ward

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What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.
Karl Menninger

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Teaching should be full of ideas instead of stuffed with facts. 
Anonymous

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The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. 
Kahlil Gibran

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The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate “apparently ordinary” people to unusual effort.  The tough problem is not in identifying winners:  it is in making winners out of ordinary people. 
K. Patricia Cross

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Who dares to teach must never cease to learn. 
John Cotton Dana

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A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on a cold iron.
Horace Mann

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When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.
John Ruskin

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They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Anonymous

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The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
Alvin Toffler

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It is not so much what is poured into the student, but what is planted that really counts.
Anonymous

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I touch the future. I teach.
Christa McAuliffe

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A teacher’s purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image. 
Anonymous

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Good teacher is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
Gail Godwin

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If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Andy McIntyre

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A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though awakens your own expectations.
Patricia Neal

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The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book.
Anonymous

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Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.
Josef Albers

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The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
Mark van Doren

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We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.
Ben Sweetland

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It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
Albert Einstein

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What I hear, I forget.
What I see, I remember.
What I do, I understand.
Confucius

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Aristotle

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Any training that does not include the emotions, mind and body is incomplete; knowledge fades without feeling.
Anonymous

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No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
Anonymous

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It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.
Harvey Samuel Firestone

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Students do not learn much just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing prepackaged assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what they are learning, write reflectively about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves. 
Arthur W. Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann

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In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Al Rogers

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An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action is the ultimate competitive advantage.
Jack Welch

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You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.
Seymour Papert

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Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
Gandhi

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It is today we must create the world of the future.
Eleanor Roosevelt

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The metaphor (coaching) with sports is meant quite seriously… the coach stands back, observes the performance, and provides guidance. The coach applauds strengths, identifies weaknesses, points up principles, offers guiding and often inspiring imagery, and decides what kind of practice to emphasize.
David Perkins

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Morpheus: “I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one who must walk through it”  
The Matrix

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If there is a way to do it better… find it!
Thomas Edison

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Education is knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and its knowing how to use the information you get.
William Feather

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I try to learn from the past, but I exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is.
Donald Trump

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The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.
B.B. King

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An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin

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In teaching, the greatest sin is to be boring.
J.F. Herbert

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Never discourage anyone…who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
Plato

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The only kind of learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered or self-appropriated learning – truth that has been assimilated in experience.
Carl Rogers

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Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Goethe

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The biggest enemy to learning is the talking teacher.
John Holt