Question

The highest level in the knowledge domain of revised Bloom's Taxonomy :

• A. Conceptual knowledge
• B. Procedural knowledge
• C. Meta cognitive knowledge
• D. Factual knowledge

Answer 1

Answer:

C. Meta cognitive knowledge

Bloom's Taxonomy

• Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification system used to define and distinguish different levels of human cognition—thinking, learning, and understanding. It was originally created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom.

• In 2001, a group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists, instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists led by Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom) and David Krathwohl (one of Bloom's original collaborators) published a revised version of Bloom's Taxonomy.

• The revised taxonomy makes significant changes, including changing the categories from nouns to verbs and restructuring the hierarchy, but more importantly for this question, it introduced two dimensions: the Cognitive Process Dimension and the Knowledge Dimension.

The Knowledge Dimension in Revised Bloom's Taxonomy

• The Knowledge Dimension classifies the type of knowledge that students are expected to acquire or construct. It is typically broken down into four levels, moving from concrete to abstract, and from specific to general.

• The four categories of the Knowledge Dimension are:

  1. Factual Knowledge: This is the basic elements that students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems. It includes:

     • Knowledge of specific details and elements (e.g., names, dates, events, persons, places).

     • Knowledge of terminology (e.g., specific words and symbols).

  2. Conceptual Knowledge: This refers to the interrelationships among the basic elements within a larger structure that enable them to function together. It includes:

     • Knowledge of classifications and categories (e.g., periods of geological time).

     • Knowledge of principles and generalizations (e.g., the law of supply and demand).

     • Knowledge of theories, models, and structures (e.g., evolution, atomic structure).

  3. Procedural Knowledge: This is the knowledge of how to do something, including methods of inquiry, criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and methods. It includes:

     • Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms (e.g., steps to solve a quadratic equation).

     • Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods (e.g., scientific method).

     • Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures (e.g., when to use a specific statistical test).

  4. Metacognitive Knowledge: This is the highest level in the Knowledge Dimension. It refers to a person's awareness of their own cognition and particular cognitive processes. It includes:

     • Strategic knowledge (e.g., knowing how to plan a research project).

     • Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including contextual and conditional knowledge (e.g., understanding the demands of different types of essays).

     • Self-knowledge (e.g., knowing one's own strengths and weaknesses as a learner).

Key Points for Competitive Exams

• Always remember that the revised taxonomy features two dimensions: the Cognitive Process Dimension (verbs like Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create) and the Knowledge Dimension (nouns like Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, Metacognitive).

• The original Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) had one dimension focusing on cognitive processes: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation.

• In the revised taxonomy, 'Synthesis' was replaced by 'Create' and moved to the highest level in the Cognitive Process Dimension, and 'Knowledge' was renamed 'Remember' and placed at the lowest level of the Cognitive Process Dimension.

• The introduction of Metacognitive Knowledge as the highest level within the Knowledge Dimension highlights the importance of learners understanding and regulating their own learning.