The Gravity Matrix – Bloom’s Taxonomy

 

What does it mean?

 

Almost 50 years ago Benjamin Bloom and a group of people involved in education came up with a list of levels of difficulty in what you can do with what you know. This group of different levels of describing how you approach a problem is called taxonomy.

 

Look at the table below

 

On the left you have the level of difficulty. Knowing is the least difficult. In the middle you have the skills that demonstrate it and on the right you have some of the words that might start a question which is linked to that level.

 

Do you want to go back to the Gravity Matrix and have a go at filling it in?

 

 

Competence

Skills demonstrated

 

Question cues 

 

1. Knowing

You are able to recall information, know dates, events and places.

list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

2. Understanding
(Comprehension)

You can understand information. You can order, group and make inferences from information.

summarise, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, discuss, extend

3. Applying

You can use information including methods, ideas and theories in new situations. You can solve problems using the skills of knowledge

apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

4. Analysing

You can see patterns in the information that you have ordered. You can find the meaning of those patterns and identify the reasons for them.

analyse, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain

5. Creating

You can use old ideas to create new ones and make generalisations linked to your ideas. You can use knowledge from lots of other areas. You can predict and draw conclusions.

combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalise, rewrite

6. Evaluating

You can compare and discriminate between ideas. You can assess the value of an idea or presentation.

assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarise