A Summary about Benjamin Bloom
Bloom was described as man who had not caught people’s attention with his physical characteristics, but lit up the room with his conversations. Bloom was a scholar, a teacher and someone who looked for potential in all people, even if that meant designing a way to make potential a possibility. Bloom was considered to be an optimist who looked to give meaning to the educational process. He is and always will be an inspiration in the field of education.
Bloom’s idea of cognitive taxonomy was that cognitive thinking could be separated into six levels of hierarchy. Cognitive taxonomy therefore depended on a student’s ability to perform at the level he or she was at in order to go beyond that level. Bloom’s work focused on what might be called “the operationalization of educational objectives (2).”
Bloom had an immense believe that the environment strongly affected the performance of individuals. He conducted studies to show that what made the difference in the lives of high achievers later in life was the kind of support they received at home. Children who are exposed to opportunities where they can spend much time and energy on a specific strategy are going to realize the outcome of their goals. Bloom’s idea of attainment was that the child who attained these types of opportunities in life were in fact learning, and their learning was influenced by the opportunities given to them and the effort they put forth toward them.
Bloom was a major contributor in the creation of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Bloom believed that you needed to know more beyond test scores in order to determine educational potential. He related the idea of testing back to his ideas on environment. Bloom believed that one should understand the time that studied for that subject, resources provided to the school, and the quality of teaching that was given. All of these play a role on how students perform on tests. The interpretation of scores without this understanding is not valid.
In conclusion Bloom was an educational theorist who ideas are still studied and looked upon today.