Blooms Taxonomy Cognitive Domain

Blooms taxonomy, created by Benjamin Bloom is an arrangement of learning objectives within the education sector for classifying and categorising levels of intellectual understanding which usually takes place in a classroom setting. Bloom Taxonomy consists of three specific domains known as: the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Benjamin Bloom identified a hierarchy of six various levels within the cognitive domain. The cognitive domain comprises of knowledge and the development of intellectual skills which includes the recall or recognition of procedural patterns, concepts, and specific facts which play a major role in to the development of skills and intellectual capabilities. There are six major categories in the cognitive domain which are sub-divided and put in order of sophistication based on the mental process involved, the hierarchy starts from the simplest and ranges up to the most complex. Blooms Taxonomy six level hierarchies derives around the fact that in order for an individual to reach the most difficult and complex of category they must master the simplest of the category’s before the next ones can take place. Below are the six sub-divided categories of the cognitive domain which compromise of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge is the first and lowest level in the hierarchy of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain. In the cognitive domain knowledge is accumulated by the remembrance of previously learnt material. This will involve instantly bringing up previously learnt material to one’s mind. The remembrance of learnt material is considered to be the simplest category in the cognitive domain.

Comprehension, the second category in the cognitive domain is defined as the ability to grasp the meaning of material. Comprehension of materials focusses on translating material from one form to another i.e. (words to numbers), by explaining, summarising or interpreting material. Particularly in a Higher educational setting comprehension is the tool which is enables students to further their studies, in order to expand one must grasp the meaning of the material he/she might be studying. These learning outcomes go beyond the simple remembrance of material, and represent the lowest level of understanding.

Application in the cognitive domain is defined as the ability to apply and use previously learnt material in new situations. At this stage it is time to apply what you have learnt and understood, and apply it to novel situations or in cases in higher education exams/tests. Learning outcomes in this area require a higher level of understanding than those under comprehension.

Analysis the fourth category in the cognitive domain refers to the ability to break down material into its component so that its structure may be understood. This may include the identification of various parts, and recognition of the organisational principles involved. At this level in the cognitive domain learning outcomes here represent a higher intellectual level this is mostly because it requires a higher understanding of both the content and the structural form of the material.

Synthesis- at this stage in the cognitive domain we compose a structure or pattern from various elements. I.e. putting parts or segments together to form a complete whole, with high emphasis on creating a new structure. For example in a higher education setting a student might put various methods of revision to perfect or improve the chances of getting the maximum marks in their exam.

Evaluation- The final and most complex category in the cognitive domain is evaluation. In this category we look upon the ability to judge the value of material. At this stage judgments are based on a certain criteria. Our Judgments may be based on internal criteria or external criteria. The learning outcome in this category is at its most highest because it contains elements from each category in the cognitive domain.

Observing the six categories of the cognitive domain in Blooms Taxonomy has given me great insight of how each of these categories falls within the pathway of a programme of study in higher education. Category one (Knowledge) is not only vital part in a higher education setting, but it applies to almost any situation. Knowledge falls well within the stepping stones in higher education because to complete various tasks in a higher education setting some insight is necessary as to what tasks you may be undertaking. Category two, three and four (Comprehension, Application and Analysis) are also an essential because in order to apply material it has to be first correctly understood. For example in order for one to achieve high marks in his/her exams the syllabus has to be correctly understood before it can be applied actually in an exam. The two final and most complex categories within the cognitive domain do verily apply in a higher educational setting, this is because in life many aspects do not go to plan. Evaluation is critical in all tasks we may undertake in higher education. This is because in order to better something an evaluative process should ideally take place this is because at this stage in the cognitive domain you have certain set criteria as to what everything should be based on. So if your tasks do not meet your standard an evaluation process will take place as to what could be done so that this particular task meets your determined criteria. I consider myself to be at the (Application) stage in the cognitive domain, this is mostly because I can easily understand and apply the material.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. There are many forms of plagiarism however the two distinct types of plagiarism are intentional and unintentional. Intentional plagiarism is when an individual understands he/she is fully plagiarising however still proceed to do so. However unintentional plagiarism is deemed as plagiarism, when an individual does not understand they are plagiarising as they may have a poor understanding of what constitutes as plagiarism, and they maybe incorrectly placing citations.

There are many acts that one might constitute as plagiarism both intentional and unintentional. Below I will present a list of acts that are considered or are deemed as plagiarism.

The first act of intentional plagiarism is where an individual might pay certain essay bank on the internet to complete their assignments for you. This is a serious case of intentional plagiarism; this is because hiring a company do you work. Implies that the work is practically someone else’s and you had no intent of actually completing the work yourself so you deliberately plagiarised.

Another act of intentional plagiarism is when an individual deliberately copies text or passages from class peers, colleagues or friends without their knowledge or consent. This is deemed to be intentional plagiarism because reproducing a piece of work which is exactly the same as another person is stealing especially without their consent.

Plagiarism has been an ever increasing problem, especially due to the quick and easy access to various passages and text over the world within a click of a button. One particular act deemed as intentional plagiarism is when an individual deliberately copies a passage of text and then rearranges the word so it seems as if it his own work. This form of plagiarism is one of the most common and wide spread.

One form of unintentional plagiarism is paraphrasing without citing, this is when an individual rearranges the sentence to have the same meaning however they forget to reference it accordingly.

Another form of unintentional plagiarism is building on someone’s thoughts or ideas without correctly inserting a citation

There are many various ways one can follow in order to prevent plagiarism both intentional unintentional. In order to prevent unintentional plagiarism one should correctly paraphrase and add citations correctly. Furthermore in order to prevent intentional to avoid unintentional plagiarism print screen the webpage so that even though the webpage may be removed one still has proof that the webpage existed so therefore this will prevent being accused of plagiarism.

Harvard Referencing System

The Harvard referencing system also known as parenthetical referencing is one form of a citation style. Referencing is a system that allows you to acknowledge your source, i.e. whenever a secondary person’s ideas, theories, quotes, facts or any other evidence and information used, references have to be made to acknowledge the fact information has been used. Referencing is also used to give credit to its author and to help readers of your work to find the original source of information or ideas that you have used. Citation is used particularly in higher education and in other forms in an academic setting. Below are two examples of Harvard referencing one example is from a book and the other example is from a website:

Example of Harvard Referencing of a website

WILLIAMS, R., 2010. Universities and hit by industrial action [online]. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/06/cutsandclosures-middlesexuniversity [accessed 6 May 2010]

Example of Harvard Referencing of a book from a single author

Stevens (1996, p.2) pointed out that “referencing is a skill all students should develop”.

Harvard Referencing slightly differs from a website to other sources. Below I will explain how the Harvard system works. If you look above at example 1 you will firstly notice the name of the author. The author is the first step in referencing the Harvard way; if the name of the author is not given then the provider of the website should be used as the substitute to the author. The following step is to now add the date, the date is usually found next to the author’s name, the date is usually when the author first published his article. Once the name of the author and date has been added you now have to follow by adding the title of the website so in this case the title was “Universities and hit by industrial action”. If you can see above the title is in italics, the title which is used by the website should be placed in italics. The next step is to now actually add the websites URL address which in this case is http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/06/cutsandclosures-middlesexuniversity. The URL address is the actual location were you obtained the passage or text. Following the URL address, the date you viewed the website has to places in square brackets last. This ideally represents when you viewed the article in case the article is removed or edited along the way.