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Bloom's Taxonomy: summary and use

Get to grips with Bloom's Taxonomy, and see examples from schools on how to apply the principles in lesson planning and teaching.

Last reviewed on 12 March 2025
School types: All•School phases: All•Ref: 7577
Contents
  1. What is Bloom's Taxonomy?
  2. Applying Bloom's Taxonomy to lesson planning
  3. Build on your questioning using Bloom’s
  4. Boost critical thinking with Bloom's
  5. Avoid an over-reliance on Bloom's
  6. How you can adapt the model to fit all learners

What is Bloom's Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a cognitive model explaining the levels of thinking seen as important to the process of learning. It was developed in 1956 by Benjamin Bloom and a team of educators.

In 2001, a number of changes were made to Bloom’s original taxonomy. This updated version is often referred to as the 'revised taxonomy', and this is the one used in the examples below. The revised taxonomy ranges from lower-level thinking abilities to higher-order thinking abilities, and has six components:

You can find more about what Bloom’s Taxonomy is and how you can apply it in your classroom in Jane Currell’s article