Condensing the Taxonomy
Because it is sometimes difficult for teachers to classify learning objectives into all six cognitive categories, some schools have opted to use a shorter version of the Bloom taxonomy. For example, some have reduced it to three categories: Remember (or Knowledge), Understand (or Comprehension), and Higher-Order Thinking. The “Higher-Order Thinking” category collapses Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create learning objectives into one group. Other schools formed three categories somewhat differently: Remember and Understand (Knowledge and Comprehension), Apply, and Higher-Order Thinking (including Analyze, Evaluate, and Create). The advantage of these condensations is that they eliminate the need for struggling with how to classify learning objectives into one of the top three categories of the taxonomy. A disadvantage of using a condensed version of the taxonomy is that teachers may stop trying to teach learning objectives in the Evaluate and Create categories because, after condensing, Apply and Analyze—generally easier skills to assess—will be in the same category as Evaluate and Create.