COLLEGE TIPS
Improving Communication Skills
Bloom's Taxonomy
When you write essays or research papers, you want to develop critical thinking skills. Bloom’s Taxonomy (classification) presents a guide to help you develop those skills.
Six levels of cognitive thinking skills (listed from the lowest to the highest level):
Lower order of critical thinking
Knowledge
Knowledge simply recalls information. You may make observations and relate major ideas and theories to those observations.
Comprehension
You understand information and grasp meaning. You are able to interpret facts. Using comprehension, you can compare and contrast information.
Application
Use theories to explain new situations. Solve problems through knowledge gained by research.
Higher order of critical thinking
Analysis
Determine the relationship of the parts. You can see patterns from your research. You recognize hidden meaning and can “read between the lines.” You need to understand what the author connotes as well as denotes.
Synthesis
Combine the parts to make something new. In other words, you use ideas from early theorists to create new theories. You take information and your knowledge from several sources and relate that information to draw conclusions on today’s experiences. You unite the parts to form something new. You write for yourself, through your reasoning, but always back up your own reasoning with supported research. You need to give credence to your ideas with proven research from the experts.
Evaluation
Discriminate between ideas. You want to assess the value of the theories. Be careful; you need to use theorists to help you present a logical and reasoned argument.
Review Bloom's matryx for examples and tasks that each level incorporates.
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