2.2. Theoretical frameworks of Critical Thinking
2.2.1. The Revised Bloom's Taxonomy
As stated in the previous section, in education, CT is concerned with higher- order thinking skills. This statement is drawn from a well-known and frequently used
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framework in the education field to measure students' skills and knowledge, which is Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT). The revised taxonomy was developed by Anderson & Krathwohl in 2001, based on the original one developed by Bloom et al.
in 1956. The essential features of the original taxonomy are retained. In order to understand more about RBT, I will first summarize Bloom's taxonomy, then analyze RBT in more detail.
The original taxonomy describes a hierarchy of 6 cognitive domains, including: (1) Knowledge, (2) Comprehension, (3) Application, (4) Analysis, (5) Synthesis, and (6) Evaluation, and they are sorted in order from low to high, respectively. Each domain includes many subcategories. Bloom's taxonomy indicates that people are required to master each lower-order domain category before mastering the higher-order one. More than 40 years later, Anderson & Krathwohl showed that the knowledge dimension in Bloom's taxonomy could be decomposed into two dimensions using both the verb and noun forms of the word "knowledge".
Accordingly, the noun form is used to construct the knowledge dimension, which can be understood as: "Knowledge is the outcome or product of the process of thinking actively". The knowledge dimension includes four categories structured as shown in X. Three categories of the original taxonomy are kept, and there is a new category that is metacognitive knowledge – which is defined as "involves knowledge about cognition in general as well as awareness of and knowledge about one's cognition."
(Krathwohl, 2002, p. 214)
The verb form of the word "knowledge" is used in a new hierarchy called "The Cognitive Dimension Process". This new model is so famous that when searching on Google with the keyword "Bloom's taxonomy", the results will show up this model.
The number of categories from the original taxonomy stays unchanged.
Notwithstanding, Anderson & Krathwohl have changed the names of these categories and converted their word forms from nouns to verbs. In addition, these authors have also changed the orders of the two categories. The levels from 4-6 of the hierarchy are often concerned with higher-order thinking skills. These changes are illustrated in Figure 3 .
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Figure 2 - The Knowledge Dimension of the RBT (Krathwohl, 2002, p. 214)
Figure 3 - The changes of the Bloom's Taxonomy – Illustrated by me
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And the cognitive dimension process is described in detail in the book "A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing: a Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy"
as illustrated in Table 2.3
Table 2-3. The Cognitive Dimension Process (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Level
Categories &
Cognitive Processes
Alternative
Names Definition
Level 1 - C1
Remember Retrieve knowledge from long-
term memory
Recognizing Identifying
Locating knowledge in long-term memory that is consistent with presented material
Recalling Retrieving Retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term memory
Level 2 – C2
Understand
Construct meaning from
instructional messages, including oral, written, and graphic
communication
Interpreting
Clarifying Paraphrasing Representing Translating
Changing from one form of representation to another
Exemplifying Illustrating Instantiating
Finding a specific example or illustration of a concept or principle Classifying Categorizing
Subsuming
Determining that something belongs to a category
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Level
Categories &
Cognitive Processes
Alternative
Names Definition
Summarizing Abstracting Generalizing
Abstracting a general theme or major point(s)
Inferring
Concluding Extrapolating Interpolating Predicting
Drawing a logical conclusion from presented information
Comparing
Contrasting Mapping Matching
Detecting correspondences between two ideas, objects, and the like
Explaining Constructing models
Constructing a cause and effect model of a system
Level 3 – C3
Apply The use of abstractions in
particular and concrete situations
Executing Carrying out Applying a procedure to a familiar task
Implementing Using Applying a procedure to an unfamiliar task
Level 4 – C4
Analyze
Break material into its
constituent parts and determine how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose
Differentiating Discriminating Distinguishing
Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant parts or important from
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Level
Categories &
Cognitive Processes
Alternative
Names Definition Focusing
Selecting
unimportant parts of presented material
Organizing
Finding coherence Integrating Outlining Parsing Structuring
Determining how elements fit or function within a structure
Attributing Deconstructing
Determine a point of view, bias, values, or intent underlying presented material
Level 5 – C5
Evaluate Make judgments based on
criteria and standards
Checking
Coordinating Detecting Monitoring Testing
Detecting inconsistencies or fallacies within a process or product; determining whether a process or product has internal consistency; detecting the
effectiveness of a procedure as it is being implemented
Critiquing Judging
Detecting inconsistencies between a product and external criteria;
determining whether a product has external consistency; detecting the
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Level
Categories &
Cognitive Processes
Alternative
Names Definition
appropriateness of a procedure for a given problem.
Level 6 – C6
Create
Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole;
reorganize elements into a new pattern or structure
Generating Hypothesizing Coming up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria Planning Designing Devising a procedure for
accomplishing some task Producing Constructing Inventing a product