A ranking of educational objectives from recall through to evaluation, used to write and grade assessments.
Produced in 1956 by a committee of examiners looking for a common vocabulary for exam questions. Its durability comes from solving a practical problem — two examiners can now agree what a question is asking — rather than from evidence that minds work in that order.
In practice
- A paper that tests only recall is visible as such the moment the questions are classified.
- A course claiming to teach evaluation sets an exam answerable from the glossary.
- Standing
- The hierarchy is a classification adopted by committee rather than a measured developmental sequence, and the assumption that lower levels must precede higher ones is not established.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Learning & Education
- Essay
- Theories of teaching, and what schools are for