NUR/427
Bloom's Taxonomy of Education and its use in Nursing Education
Introduction
Educators have always asked the basic question “Where do we begin in seeking to improve human thinking?” (Houghton, 2004 as cited in Forehand, 2005). One of the most famous men in the field of education is Benjamin Samuel Bloom. He was recognized for his work with Ralph W. Tyler known as Bloom’s Taxonomy. At the American Psychological Association in 1948, Bloom led a group of educators to develop Bloom’s Taxonomy, a method of classification for thinking behaviors believed to be important in the processes of learning (Forehand, 2005).
Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) later revised the original Bloom’s taxonomy to keep it relevant to today’s theories by combining the cognitive process and knowledge dimensions (Duan, 2006).
Application of Bloom’s Taxonomy in Nursing Education
Taxonomy is a classification system and Bloom’s Taxonomy is a tool to classify learning objectives and skills for students. It is used extensively by educators in allied health fields, including nursing to structure lesson plans and outcome testing (Larkin & Burton, 2008). Learning objectives were classified by knowledge-type by Anderson & Krathwohl (as cited in Yan, 2006) with a two-dimensional framework to help nurse educators develop better understanding about intended learning, and enable them to design appropriate instructional and assessment methods (Duan, 2006).
Nursing assessment and communication is improved using Bloom’s Taxonomy, and it also aids education to have long-lasting effects on improving nursing practice (Larkin and Burton, 2008). According Larkin & Burton (2008), critical thinking skills may not be attained through the nursing curricula and practicums and Bloom’s Taxonomy facilitates on-the-job learning with superior results.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education
The multi-tiered classification framework known as