How to Study More Effectively with Bloom’s Hierarchy

Bloom's Taxonomy (also called Bloom's Hierarchy) is a framework in educational psychology developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. It categorizes different levels of learning and has been widely used in K–12, higher education, and professional training.

For anyone trying to learn new information, Bloom’s Taxonomy outlines how knowledge is acquired, processed, and mastered. In this article, we'll talk about what Bloom's Hierarchy is and why it matters for learning. Understanding Bloom's Hierarchy will help you study smarter and perform better on exams.

What is Bloom's Hierarchy?

Bloom’s Hierarchy consists of six cognitive levels, usually represented as a pyramid. The levels build on each other from basic knowledge recall to complex, creative thinking. Each level uses action verbs that reflect the cognitive process learners use to learn new information.

The six aspects of Bloom's Hierarchy include: 

• Remember: Recognize and recall basic facts and concepts. Examples include listing, identifying, and memorizing.

• Understand: Grasp meaning through interpretation, summarization, classification, inference, and explanation. Examples of this include explaining, comparing, and describing.

• Apply: Use knowledge in new situations or to solve problems. For example, using a formula, applying a rule, or implementing a process.

• Analyze: Break information into parts and explore relationships and patterns. Examples include organizing ideas, comparing components, and detecting inconsistencies.

• Evaluate: Make judgments based on criteria through critical thinking. Examples of this category include arguing for or against an idea and critiquing.

• Create: Generate new ideas, products, or ways of understanding—examples include designing, constructing, and producing original work.

Image Source:  University of Arkansas. 

Of course, knowledge is the driving force behind all of these cognitive processes, but the updated hierarchy also classifies knowledge into different categories: factual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognitive knowledge.

In the revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, knowledge is also divided into four types:

• Factual Knowledge: Basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline, such as key terms. 

• Conceptual Knowledge: Interrelationships among the fundamental elements such as principles, theories, and classifications within a topic. 

• Procedural Knowledge: How to do something or complete a specific task. 

• Metacognitive Knowledge: Awareness of your own learning processes and strategies. 

Bloom's Hierarchy helps establish and organize learning goals and provides an organized set of learning objectives.

Active vs. Passive Learning: How You Interact with Content Matters

There are two different types of learning: active and passive.

As its name implies, active learning refers to anything that students do to interact with educational content and improve their knowledge of the topic. This can include problem-solving, participating in online discussions, and completing worksheets that test new knowledge.

On the other hand, passive learning refers to less active participation in learning, such as listening to lectures, taking notes, watching videos, or flipping through PowerPoint presentations.

Identify Your Learning Style for Optimal Information Retention

Understanding how you learn best is one of the most effective ways to improve retention and study more efficiently.

Auditory learners learn best in an environment where they can listen to lectures, while visual learners may find visual presentations more effective. Tactile learners, by contrast, may do the best in laboratory-type courses that are more hands-on in nature.

Understanding how you learn best can help you study and learn in a way that aligns with how your brain best accepts new knowledge.

To identify your learning style, pay attention to how you naturally prefer to take in information—do you remember things better when you hear them, see them, or physically interact with them? You can also take free online learning style assessments to get more insight into your preferred learning method.

How to Effectively Self-Pace Your Learning

To be effective at self-paced learning, first consider your learning style. If you are an auditory learner, take notes while you listen to an online lecture. Then, read your notes aloud to promote an auditory style of learning.

If you are a visual learner, you may benefit from watching online videos. While useful for all learning types, tactile learners benefit from hands-on activities like virtual labs and practice questions.

Use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide while studying. Start with basic recall, then move toward deeper understanding, application, and analysis. Ideally, self-paced learners will progress from the lower levels of the pyramid to the top as they gain mastery.

Don't underestimate how long you should study. All the right learning strategies won't help if you don't give yourself enough time to absorb new material. If you're studying for an IT certification, this guide will help you figure out how long you'll need to prepare. 

Online Video Training Through the Lens of the Bloom Hierarchy

Video training might seem passive, but it can be active too. Students who use online video training to study for IT certification exams can take quizzes, engage with the content by discussing it on message boards, and challenge themselves by completing online test questions. 

Passive learning methods for online video training can include watching videos, browsing sample exam questions, and taking notes.

Remember to incorporate both active and passive learning in your exam preparation strategy. The most basic form of learning refers to the ability to recall facts and basic concepts (This is called "Remember" in the Bloom Hierarchy). Once you have a general familiarity with the basic concepts in the online curriculum, you can work on improving your understanding ("Understand" in Bloom's Hierarchy).

Improving your understanding of the material means that you should easily be able to explain the ideas or concepts. Once you start learning the material more thoroughly, you should be able to "Apply" this information to new situations. 

After you have reviewed the data and started achieving mastery of the material, you can work up the Bloom's Hierarchy to "Analyze" what you have learned. This means that you can draw connections among ideas. Different concepts can be compared and contrasted, and analyzed in detail.

The final two parts of Bloom's Hierarchy — the top of the pyramid — should be the goal in your studying efforts. In the "Evaluate" stage, you should be able to make an argument and support it with logical arguments based on your extensive knowledge of the material. Finally, in "Create," you should be able to develop new, original work based on what you have learned.

Ideally, for video training, you will want to review the material (in a manner appropriate for your learning style) in order to maximize your ability to absorb the information. The best way to ensure that you work your way up Bloom's Hierarchy is to plan short, focused study sessions over a long period of time.

A second benefit of such long-term study plans is that a longer timeframe for studying for IT certification exams can help you learn more comprehensively, so that when test day arrives and you are faced with difficult questions integrating many concepts, these tough questions will be a breeze for you.

The Bottom Line

Bloom’s Taxonomy isn’t just theory—it’s a practical roadmap for mastering any topic. If you're preparing for an IT certification exam, understanding your learning style and using both active and passive methods will help you retain information and succeed.

Ready to start studying? Explore CBT Nuggets' full list of IT certification training courses.