Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy defines three domains of educational activities or learning: cognitive (knowledge), affective (attitudes), and psychomotor (skills).

The cognitive domain involves the ability to obtain and demonstrate knowledge. Acquisition of knowledge, attitude, and skills proceeds from simple actions such as memorization to more complex intellectual actions such as synthesizing information from multiple sources.  Bloom’s revised taxonomy discusses six categories of knowledge that describe the progression of knowledge from simple to complex:

Remembering: Recalling facts or basic concepts
Understanding: Explaining ideas or concepts
Applying: Using information in new situations
Analyzing: Drawing connections among ideas
Evaluating: Justifying a stand or decision
Creating: Producing new or original work

The affective domain involves internally valuing the unique multidimensional individual, respecting the individual’s right to self- determination, as well as valuing the core beliefs of the nursing profession.

The psychomotor domain involves performing coordinated fine motor, manual, and gross motor skills that are guided by intellectual reasoning.

Critical thinking in today’s complex health care system is necessary for safe, effective, and efficient patient care. Learning to critically think is successful when knowledge is presented in a systematic fashion wherein concepts are presented in a progressive manner of simple to complex incorporating all three learning domains.