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In the1950s, Benjamin Bloom (1984) developed a taxonomy of educational objectives that consisted of three domains: (1) psychomotor ("doing/hands"), (2) cognitive ("knowing/head"), and (3) affective ("feeling/heart"). Psychomotor learning focuses on the links between cognitive functions and physical movement and is evidenced by physical skills including dexterity, movement, as well as fine and gross motor skills. Skills in the cognitive domain center on knowledge, comprehension, and critical thinking about a particular topic. Finally, the affective domain focuses on emotional reactions and empathy. These three domains are not mutually exclusive. Within each of the domains, there is a hierarchical skill set, although Bloom and his colleagues never created subcategories of skills in the psychomotor domain. Subsequently, however, Elizabeth Simpson did as illustrated in the chart to the right.
Bloom's best known domain is the cognitive domain and it is the skill set that is most central to quantitative reasoning. Bloom's taxonomy categorized and ordered six categories of skills in the cognitive domain. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. It is a continuum from the simplest behavior, or "Lower Order Thinking Skills," (LOTS) to the most complex ones which are the "Higher Order Thinking Skills" (or HOTS). The three lower skills are remembering, understanding and applying, while the higher order skills are analyzing, evaluating and creating. In the1990s, Lorin Anderson (see Anderson and Krathwohl2000), a former student of Bloom, revised the taxonomy by using verbs rather than nouns and by rearranging the order of the categories.
