Levels of Questions in Bloom's Taxonomy

The goal of classroom questioning is not to determine whether students have learned something (as would be the
case in tests, quizzes, and exams), but rather to guide students to help them learn necessary information and
material. Questions should be used to teach students rather than to just test students!
Teachers frequently spend a great deal of classroom time testing students through questions. In fact, observations
of teachers at all levels of education reveal that most spend more than 90 percent of their instructional time testing
students (through questioning). And most of the questions teachers ask are typically factual questions that rely on
short-term memory.

Although questions are widely used and serve many functions, teachers tend to overuse factual questions such as
What is the capital of California? Not surprising, many teachers ask upward of 400 questions each and every
school day. And approximately 80 percent of all the questions teachers ask tend to be factual, literal, or knowledge-
based questions. The result is a classroom in which there is little creative thinking taking place.

It's been my experience that one all-important factor is key in the successful classroom: students tend to read and
think based on the kinds of questions they anticipate receiving from the teacher. If students are constantly
bombarded with questions that require only low levels of intellectual involvement (or no involvement whatsoever),
they will tend to think accordingly. Conversely, students who are given questions based on higher levels of thinking
will tend to think more creatively and divergently.

Many years ago, an educator named Benjamin Bloom developed a classification system we now refer to as Bloom's
Taxonomy to assist teachers in recognizing their various levels of question-asking (among other things). The system
contains six levels, which are arranged in hierarchical form, moving from the lowest level of cognition (thinking) to
the highest level of cognition (or from the least complex to the most complex):

Knowledge
This is the lowest level of questions and requires students to recall information. Knowledge questions usually require
students to identify information in basically the same form it was presented. Some examples of knowledge questions
include

What is the biggest city in Japan?

Who wrote War and Peace?

How many ounces in a pound?

Words often used in knowledge questions include know, who, define, what, name, where, list, and when.

Comprehension
Simply stated, comprehension is the way in which ideas are organized into categories. Comprehension questions
are those that ask students to take several bits of information and put them into a single category or grouping.
These questions go beyond simple recall and require students to combine data together. Some examples of
comprehension questions include

How would you illustrate the water cycle?

What is the main idea of this story?

If I put these three blocks together, what shape do they form?

Words often used in comprehension questions include describe,use your own words, outline, explain, discuss,
and compare.
Application
At this level, teachers ask students to take information they already know and apply it to a new situation. In other
words, they must use their knowledge to determine a correct response. Some examples of application questions
include

How would you use your knowledge of latitude and longitude to locate Greenland?

What happens when you multiply each of these numbers by nine?

If you had eight inches of water in your basement and a hose, how would you use the hose to get the water out?

Words often used in application questions include apply, manipulate, put to

use, employ, dramatize,demonstrate, interpret, and choose.

Analysis
An analysis question is one that asks a student to break down something into its component parts. To analyze
requires students to identify reasons, causes, or motives and reach conclusions or generalizations. Some examples
of analysis questions include

What are some of the factors that cause rust?

Why did the United States go to war with England?

Why do we call all these animals mammals?

Words often used in analysis questions include analyze, why, take apart, diagram, draw
conclusions,simplify, distinguish, and survey.

Synthesis
Synthesis questions challenge students to engage in creative and original thinking. These questions invite students
to produce original ideas and solve problems. There's always a variety of potential responses to synthesis
questions. Some examples of synthesis questions include

How would you assemble these items to create a windmill?

How would your life be different if you could breathe under water?

Construct a tower one foot tall using only four blocks.

Put these words together to form a complete sentence.

Words often used in synthesis questions include compose, construct, design, revise, create, formulate,produce,
and plan.

Evaluation
Evaluation requires an individual to make a judgment about something. We are asked to judge the value of an idea,
a candidate, a work of art, or a solution to a problem. When students are engaged in decision-making and problem-
solving, they should be thinking at this level. Evaluation questions do not have single right answers. Some examples
of evaluation questions include

What do you think about your work so far?

What story did you like the best?

Do you think that the pioneers did the right thing?

Why do you think Benjamin Franklin is so famous?

Words often used in evaluation questions include judge, rate, assess, evaluate, What is the best , value,criticize,
and compare.

What does all this mean? Several things, actually! It means you can ask your students several different kinds of
questions. If you only focus on one type of question, your students might not be exposed to higher levels of thinking
necessary to a complete understanding of a topic. If, for example, you only ask students knowledge-based
questions, then your students might think that learning (a specific topic) is nothing more than the ability to memorize
a select number of facts.

You can use this taxonomy to help craft a wide range of questionsfrom low-level thinking questions to high-level
thinking questions. If variety is the spice of life, you should sprinkle a variety of question types throughout every
lesson, regardless of the topic or the grade level you teach.

Bloom's Taxonomy is not grade-specific. That is, it does not begin at the lower grades (kindergarten, first, second)
with knowledge and comprehension questions and move upward to the higher grades (tenth, eleventh, twelfth) with
synthesis and evaluation questions. The six levels of questions are appropriate for all grade levels.

Perhaps most important, students tend to read and think based on the types of questions they anticipate receiving
from the teacher. In other words, students will tend to approach any subject as a knowledge-based subject if they
are presented with an overabundance of knowledge-level questions throughout a lesson. On the other hand,
students will tend to approach a topic at higher levels of thinking if they are presented with an abundance of
questions at higher levels of thinking.