Anderson and Krathwohl - Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised - Understanding the New Version of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Sep 20, 2026

A succinct discussion of revisions to Bloom’s classic cognitive taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl, explaining who the authors were and why their updated version gained influence in teacher training. The text traces earlier attempts to classify cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning, highlights common mislabeling of domains by some web sources, and contrasts the 1956 Bloom taxonomy with the 2000–2001 adaptation. It emphasizes differences in category wording and, especially, added connections between knowledge types and cognitive processes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Who are Anderson and Krathwohl?

Cognitive Domain

Key differences between the two versions

Taxonomies of the Cognitive Domain

Anderson and Krathwohl Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised Understanding the New Version of Bloom’s Taxonomy ©Leslie Owen Wilson (2016, 2013, 2005, 2001) Contact Leslie A succinct discussion of the revisions to Bloom’s classic cognitive taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl and how to use them effectively Background: Who are Anderson and Krathwohl? These gentlemen are the primary authors of the revisions to what had become known as Bloom’s Taxonomy—an ordering of cognitive skills. (A taxonomy is really just a word for a form of classification.) This taxonomy had permeated teaching and instructional planning for almost 50 years before it was revised in 2001. And although these crucial revisions were published in 2001, surprisingly there are still educators who have never heard of Anderson and Krathwohl or their important work in relation to Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy. Both of these primary authors were in a perfect position to orchestrate looking at the classic taxonomy critically. They called together a group of educational psychologists and educators to help them with the revisions. Lorin Anderson was once a student of the famed Benjamin Bloom, and David Krathwohl was one of Bloom’s partners as he devised his classic cognitive taxonomy. Here in the United States, from the late 1950s into the early 1970s, there were attempts to dissect and classify the varied domains of human learning – cognitive (knowing, or head), affective (emotions, feelings, or heart) and psychomotor (doing, or kinesthetic, tactile, haptic or hand/body). The resulting efforts yielded a series of taxonomies for each area. The aforementioned taxonomies deal with the varied aspects of human learning and were arranged hierarchically, proceeding from the simplest functions to those that are more complex. Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy had been a staple in teacher training and professional preparation for almost 40 years before Anderson and Krathwohl instituted an updated version. An overview of those changes appears below. While all of the taxonomies above have been defined and used for many years, there came about at the beginning of the 21st century in a new version of the cognitive taxonomy, known commonly before as Bloom’s Taxonomy. You can also search the Web for varied references on the other two taxonomies—affective or psychomotor. There are many valuable discussions on the development of all the of the hierarchies, as well as examples of their usefulness and applications in teaching. However, it is important to note that in a number of these discussions, some web authors have mislabeled the affective and psychomotor domains as extensions of Bloom’s work. These authors are in grave error. The original cognitive domain was described and published in 1956. While David Krathwohl was one of the original authors on this taxonomy the work was named after the senior or first author Benjamin Bloom. The affective domain was not categorized until 1964 and as David Krathwohl was the lead author on this endeavor, it should bear his name, not Bloom’s. Bloom had nothing to do with the psychomotor domain and it was not described or named until the first part of the 1970s. There are 3 versions of this taxonomy by 3 different authors—Harrow (1972); Simpson (1972); and Dave (1970) See full citations below. The Cognitive Domain: The following chart includes the two primary existing taxonomies of cognition. Please note in the table below, the one on the left, entitled Bloom’s, is based on the original work of Benjamin Bloom and others as they attempted in 1956 to define the functions of thought, coming to know, or cognition. This taxonomy is almost 60 years old. The taxonomy on the right is the more recent adaptation and is the redefined work of Bloom in 2000-01. That one is labeled Anderson and Krathwohl. The group redefining Bloom’s original concepts, worked from 1995-2000. As indicated above, this group was assembled by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl and in

FAQs

What distinguishes Anderson and Krathwohl’s revision from Bloom’s original cognitive taxonomy?

The text states the major differences are not just rewording or repositioning categories, but the added, more comprehensive links between knowledge types (factual, conceptual, procedural, metacognitive) and cognitive process levels.

Why do some sources mislabel the affective and psychomotor domains, and what is the correction given here?

The text explains that some web authors incorrectly label affective and psychomotor domains as extensions of Bloom’s work. It clarifies that affective was categorized in 1964 with Krathwohl as lead author, and psychomotor was not described or named until the early 1970s.

How does the cognitive domain taxonomy move from simpler to more complex thinking?

The document notes that the chart proceeds from simple to more complex and challenging types of thinking, combining knowledge and cognitive process levels to show how teaching activities align with both.

Sep 20, 2026

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