Bloom’s Taxonomy: memory to mastery
Hierarchy of thoughts and knowledge that create wisdom
Have you ever learned some equations in school for your next exam? Let’s say you’re trying to remember all equations that exist in order to be able to answer. Let’s say we talk about math problems. We memorize formulas until we reach what seems like our personal best. Then the exam arrives, and for reasons we can’t quite explain, we blank. We can’t solve a single problem, despite remembering every equation for that subject. We remember, but we can’t apply what we know.
That’s a little example of Bloom Taxonomy for someone that does remember but cant apply nor explain what the stuff is. When learning something at the first glance you need to remember and hopefully at the end of the time you can apply it onto real life scenarios. In this mini essay I would try to explain my own research related stuff to the hierarchy of cognitive processes and the often overlooked types of knowledge that determine whether we truly master a subject or just memorize it for the test.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
In 1956, educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom introduced a framework that would revolutionize how we think about learning: Bloom’s Taxonomy. But here’s what most people miss it’s not just a pyramid of thinking skills. There’s a hidden second dimension that explains why some knowledge sticks while other information slips away, why some learners become creators while others remain consumers.
Think of it as a skill tree in an RPG. You can’t unlock advanced abilities without unlocking the previous step for your foundation. But unlike a agame where you can simply click “Upgrade,” coginitive development requires direct practice each level.
but~~
Why over complicate things?
I do think the same at first, but when I dig deeper within this pyramid concept and the rest of the component gradually becomes more clear. It reveals something crucial that learning isn’t linear accumulation, but vertical progress. You can remember a thousand games, songs, heck even math equations.
Bloom’s Taxonomy reveals something crucial: learning isn’t linear accumulation, it’s vertical progression.
Most educational systems and most online tutors focus heavily on the bottom three levels. We’re taught to remember some fact, understand the fact, and apply the well known fact without even trying to peek into the top three parts of the concept, and also these three levels are the easiest to google or use AI for searching an answer.
That’s why we need this framework. Not to complicate things, but to expose what we’ve been missing all along.
6 level of Cognitive
Lets explore each level using game development as our lens of observation, cuz believe it or not sometimes the simplest way to explain something is through games.
Remembering
This is our foundation of cognitive skills. Every person needs to be able to remember things, this step involves recall and object recognition. basically retrieve basic information without necessarily understanding it. Easiest way to put this into an example is like we almost can always recall that in every game frame rate is measured in FPS.
Understanding
in this state often we can explain stuff, and grasp the meaning behind desired object, but not in depth. You can explain concepts in your own words and translate information between formats. In game terms, you can explain to others about why frame rate can affect smoothness in game.
Applying
In this part is where theory meets practice, you can combine what you understand and use it in concrete scenarios. The thing is most of the educational systems stop right here, students who can apply knowledge are considered “Proficient” but the next three levels are where “Mastery” truly begins.
still with Frame rates example, the easiest is some people can adjust their game frame rate caps to optimize performance on different devices.
Analyze
Analyzing involves deeply understanding certain topics. Understand its structure, its pattern, and can see the difference between one and another things. At this level of cognition you are no longer just a user of knowledge, you become a critic who can dissect systems and understand their mechanics.
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for this example ima gonna geeked out a bit, its gonna be a long one lol.
I love to play tekken and all kinds of fighting games. In all those games they have lots of similarities. Frame Data. Yes frame data, what makes you a real deal when playing fighting games is your knowledge about frame data.
Frame data is a detailed breakdown of a move’s timing, for example in tekken. A generic Jab is need 10 Frames to land a hit. so when you doing a certain move let say in tekken 7 you playing as akuma and your opponent playing as kazuya, while both of you are standing in rather close position.
And you try to land a gou hadouken (19 frames) but the smart and giga chad kazuya knew is generic jab (10 frame.) will do the job. with simple calculation kazuya strike will hit true, because dude got less frame then your hadouken.
Each character in all fighting games mostly has the basic move such as jab, low kick, and heavy; all of those general moves often have similar frame data within all characters in each fighting game. Knowing the number makes you a better player but here’s the thing, every character often has unique moves with different frame data so knowing lots of moves and knowing their frame data will instantly make you a much better player then all those casual.
Evaluate
After obtaining and assessing information then you can make judgment based on certain criteria, and justify your conclusions. In this step you will improve your taste and judgment.
Want an example? Let’s go back to the Tekken series.
Imagine that you are an okay player. But here is the catch, you are the one trick player (only main one character) but the good part is you always learn other character frame data. therefore you can tell how you gonna fight your opponent; if the opponent only spam that one move, you will know that your opponent is a newbie so you can play a bit casual or if your opponent know timing and lots of cool combos, with that information alone you can judge that bro on the other side is a decent/good player.
Create
The last step of cognitive development is that you can create, design, or develop stuff from all the knowledge you collect. This isn’t copy and pasting stuff, it’s synthesis. In this step is where you stop being a student and become a creator. no longer consuming knowledge, but contributing to it.
wanna another example? ill gonna do with another Tekken stuff hehe
with your knowledge of frame data, you can construct the flow for when you fighting different character in your desire fighting games, for the example i love play mishimas in tekken especially kazuya, so when i fighting mishimas ill knew how to move and what i need to do next; or when i fighting 2D gimmick character in tekken (akuma, eliza, and etc) i know the general rule of thumb is most of their moves is generic and linear with little tracking, so I need to side step more and punish more often. im already constructing the battle in my head even before its starting.
Here’s what changes when you understand Bloom’s Taxonomy: you stop confusing activity with progress.
When you look at tutorials it doesn’t mean learning if you never build anything. Memorizing facts isn’t mastery if you cannot apply the knowledge. Reading about game design isn’t the same as analyzing why games work or creating your own.
Lots of people plateau because they keep grinding the same level all the time. They memorize more facts instead of learning to analyze. They consume more tutorials instead of creating original work. They understand concepts but never evaluate which approaches actually fit their needs.
The plateau happens when you mistake horizontal accumulation for vertical progression. Walk further without climbing higher.
Learning stuff with Bloom’s Taxonomy breaks the plateau by knowing what the next level looks like. The framework isn’t there to complicate learning, it’s there to reveal the ladder you’ve been standing next to all along.
Bibliography
Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.
Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl, D.R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. New York: Longman.
eattheplantfool. (2017). What does “flowchart” and “auto-pilot” mean in the context of Tekken? [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Tekken/comments/[post_id]/what_does_flowchart_and_autopilot_mean_in_the/
