Bloom's Levels of Thinking Complexity

Working Definitions of Higher Cognitive Levels of Thinking

Evaluation - Formulating subjective judgment as the end product resulting in personal values/opinions with no real right or wrong answers
Synthesis - Creatively or divergently applying prior knowledge and skills to produce something new or original
Analysis - Examining specific parts of information to develop divergent conclusions by identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and/or finding evidence to support generalizations
Application - Using previously learned information in a new situation to solve problems that have single or best answers
Comprehension - Understanding the information
Knowledge - Learning the information

Bloom's Taxonomy - Levels of Thinking Complexity


Source: Handout from teacher inservice "Introduction to Outcome-Based Education", Iowa Central Community College, Fort Dodge, Iowa, June 29-30, 1992

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