Learning domain

Learning Domain

Cognitive Domain

Cognitive Domain - This domain includes content knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts and concepts that serve developing intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories, starting from the simplest behavior (recalling facts) to the most complex (Evaluation).

Benjamin Bloom's 6 Major Categories in the Cognitive Domain

1. Knowledge
Recognizes and recalls facts and specifics.
Word's that reflect knowledge:

define	record	name
memorize	list	relate
repeat	recall	state

2. Comprehension
Interprets, translates, summarize or paraphrases information.
Words that reflect comprehension:

restate	tell	locate
discuss	review	identify
describe	report	express
recognize	explain

3. Application
Uses information in a situation different from original learning context.
Words that reflect application of knowledge:

translate	employ	dramatize
interpret	use	practice
apply	demonstrate	illustrate
operate	schedule	sketch

4. Analysis
Separates whole into parts until relationship among elements is clear.
Words that reflect analysis:

classify	differentiate	experiment
distinguish	appraise	test
analyze	calculate	compare
contrast	criticize	diagram
question	relate	examine
translate	interpret	inventory
inspect	debate

5. Synthesis
Combines elements to form new entity from original ones.
Words that reflect synthesis:

synthesize	compose	plan
propose	design	formulate
design	construct	create
set up	organize	manage
prepare	integrate	predict
summarize	assemble	collect
arrange

6. Evaluation
Involves acts of decision making, judging or selecting based on criteria and rational.
Words that reflect evaluation:

judge	appraise	evaluate
rate	compare	score
revise	value	select
measure	estimate	assess
choose

Definitions of the affective domain

The affective domain describes learning objectives that emphasize a feeling tone, an emotion, or a degree of acceptance or rejection. Affective objectives vary from simple attention to selected phenomena to complex but internally consistent qualities of character and conscience. We found a large number of such objectives in the literature expressed as interests, attitudes, appreciations, values, and emotional sets or biases.

Receiving is being aware of or sensitive to the existence of certain ideas, material, or phenomena and being willing to tolerate them. Examples include: to differentiate, to accept, to listen (for), to respond to.
Responding is committed in some small measure to the ideas, materials, or phenomena involved by actively responding to them. Examples are: to comply with, to follow, to commend, to volunteer, to spend leisure time in, to acclaim.
Valuing is willing to be perceived by others as valuing certain ideas, materials, or phenomena. Examples include: to increase measured proficiency in, to relinquish, to subsidize, to support, to debate.
Organization is to relate the value to those already held and bring it into a harmonious and internally consistent philosophy. Examples are: to discuss, to theorize, to formulate, to balance, to examine.
Characterization by value or value set is to act consistently in accordance with the values he or she has internalized. Examples include: to revise, to require, to be rated high in the value, to avoid, to resist, to manage, to resolve.

We are also interested in students' attitudes toward science, scientists, learning science and specific science topics. We want to find teaching methods that encourage students and draw them in. Affective topics in educational literature include attitudes, motivation, communication styles, classroom management styles, learning styles, use of technology in the classroom and nonverbal communication. It is also important not to turn students off by subtle actions or communications that go straight to the affective domain and prevent students from becoming engaged.
In the educational literature, nearly every author introduces their paper by stating that the affective domain is essential for learning, but it is the least studied, most often overlooked, the most nebulous and the hardest to evaluate of Bloom's three domains. In formal classroom teaching, the majority of the teacher's efforts typically go into the cognitive aspects of the teaching and learning and most of the classroom time is designed for cognitive outcomes. Similarly, evaluating cognitive learning is straightforward but assessing affective outcomes is difficult. Thus, there is significant value in realizing the potential to increase student learning by tapping into the affective domain. Similarly, students may experience affective roadblocks to learning that can neither be recognized nor solved when using a purely cognitive approach.

Psychomotor Domain

Psychomotor Domain- The psychomotor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution.


Perception (awareness): The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity.  This ranges from sensory stimulation, through cue selection, to translation.


Set: Readiness to act. It includes mental, physical, and emotional sets. These three sets are dispositions that predetermine a person's response to different situations (sometimes called mindsets).


Guided Response: The early stages in learning a complex skill that includes imitation and trial and error. Adequacy of performance is achieved by practicing.

 Mechanism (basic proficiency): This is the intermediate stage in learning a complex skill. Learned responses have become habitual and the movements can be performed with some confidence and proficiency.

 Complex Overt Response (Expert): The skillful performance of motor acts that involve complex movement patterns. Proficiency is indicated by a quick, accurate, and highly coordinated performance, requiring a minimum of energy. This category includes performing without hesitation, and automatic performance. For example, players are often utter sounds of satisfaction or expletives as soon as they hit a tennis ball or throw a football, because they can tell by the feel of the act what the result will produce.

 Adaptation: Skills are well developed and the individual can modify movement patterns to fit special requirements.

 Origination: Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem. Learning outcomes emphasize creativity based upon highly developed skills.