Bloom’s Research and Response
Benjamin Bloom developed Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education in 1956. It is a teaching system developed to classify learning objectives and skills (Larkin & Burton, 2008). Lori Anderson and David Krathwohl revised the original publication- Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational objectives and also added new knowledge and ideas to the original material. This is the handbook in use by educators today. The Educational objectives that Bloom developed he categorized into three domains: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor.
Each domain has its own set of specific expectations. Bloom broke down his taxonomy into different levels of complexity. They are arraigned in a hierarchy from less to more complex. When teaching, the educator will use the levels so that mastery of the first level is necessary by the learner before the next level can be achieved. The Cognitive Domain focuses on knowledge and developing the skills of comprehension, it also uses critical thinking skills. There are six levels of complexity in this Domain: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.
The Affective Domain focuses on how the learner deals with emotions and with his ability to feel empathy for others. Bloom broke down this domain into five levels: Receiving (awareness), Responding (active participation in the learning process), Valuing, Organization, and Internalizing (values held that influence behavior so it becomes a characteristic). The third domain, the Psychomotor Domain was not broken down into subcategories by Bloom but by Simpson in 1972. The Psychomotor Domain focuses on the ability to manipulate an object physically.
This domain has seven levels: Perception, Set (readiness to act), Guided Response, Mechanism, Complex Overt Response (the ability to perform without hesitation), Adaptation, and Origination. When used, Bloom’s Taxonomy will provide the educator with a measurable way to assess the level of comprehension of the taught information by the learner (“Big Dog and Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition,” 2010). Nurses can use Bloom’s teaching method in educating patients with chronic diseases. First, the nurse must assess the patient for level of understanding and readiness to learn.
The nurse uses the Cognitive Domain to teach the patient about his specific disease and to facilitate understanding of all concepts associated with the disease and its treatments. In following the hierarchy the nurse would start with the simplest information and ideas and increase the complexity of the information after the patient has exhibited comprehension of the previously taught material. Using the Affective Domain the nurse helps the patient deal with his emotions related to his diagnosis and to attach value to it.
Once a patient has processed the information given to him, realizes the importance of managing his care and placing a value on its importance, he is ready to use the psychomotor domain. The educator uses the Psychomotor domain to teach the skills portion of education. Diabetics need to learn how to use blood glucose testing equipment; patients may need to learn how to self-catheterize these are just two examples of skills that nurses teach that fall under this domain. There are many areas of education a nurse teaches daily.
One of which is the information given to patients with chronic diseases in order for them to achieve or maintain self-sufficiency. Bloom’s teaching method gives those patients the best chance at mastering the necessary information and skills needed to live day-to-day with a chronic illness.
References
- Big Dog and Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition. (2010). Retrieved from http://www. nwlink. com/~donclark/hrd/bloom. html
- Larkin, B. G. , & Burton, K. J. (2008, September). Evaluating a Case Study Using Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education. AORN Journal, 88(3), 390-402
