Benjamin Bloom: biography of this psychologist and researcher

Let's see what was the life and work of Benjamin Bloom, an important educational psychologist.

Benjamin Bloom was an American psychologist and pedagogue who made important contributions in the field of learning for mastery and in the taxonomy of educational goals.

His work has influenced multiple pedagogical fields in the second half of the 21st century, as well as allowing a clearer understanding of children's cognitive development.

Let us take a look at the life of this psychologist through a brief biography of Benjamin Bloomin which we will know what was his work and his theory of the taxonomy of objectives of education.

Biography of Benjamin Bloom

This is a summary of the life of Benjamin Bloom, including his life and professional career.

Childhood and youth

Benjamin Samuel Bloom was born in Lansford, Pennsylvania, USA on February 21, 1913.. He was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, who were fleeing the discrimination against this group in the country at the beginning of the century.

From an early age he showed great curiosity for the world and knowledge. From his earliest years he showed himself to be an insatiable reader, and if he was given the opportunity to research something he had read in a book, he did not hesitate to do so.

He was good at learning what he had read. He was also noted for his reading ability and comprehension, to the point that in the library where he borrowed books, he was not allowed to return them the same day he had taken them, since they did not believe that he was capable of reading a whole book in less than a day.

Professional life

Benjamin Bloom received a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1935 and, subsequently, D. in Education in 1942 from the University of Chicago.. He was admitted as a member of the examination board of the University of Chicago, serving in this capacity until 1943. After this, he became an examiner at the university until 1959.

He traveled the world and served as an educational advisor to governments of countries in the process of developing and establishing democratic regimes, such as Israel and India.

Benjamin Bloom saw education as a process in which it was necessary to strive for academic achievement, but that this goes beyond the purely scholastic. goes beyond the purely scholastic. Education was the way, provided it was carried out in the most appropriate way, to bring out the full human potential of students. Education had to acquire an optimistic vision of students, seeing them as people who, if they set their minds to it, could achieve their dreams.

Bloom's very human vision of education was a real source of inspiration for other educational psychologists, pedagogues and philosophers of education. a true source of inspiration for other educational psychologists, pedagogues and educational philosophers, as well as for those who had the opportunity to become his students.and those who had the opportunity to become his students.

Benjamin Bloom died in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on September 13, 1999, at the age of 86.

Contributions as a researcher

Bloom had a profound influence on the field of educational psychology. His main contributions to this discipline were his ideas on learning for mastery, children's cognitive development and his famous taxonomy of educational objectives..

His work focused on research in the study of education from a psychological perspective, specifically in relation to the cognitive, emotional and psychomotor aspects of learning.

Cognitive aspects refer to the students' ability to usefully manage and give meaning to the information learned in the classroom. Emotional aspects are related to the feelings and attitudes generated as a result of the educational process. Finally, psychomotor aspects are everything that involves physical skills, such as the manipulation of objects or the exercise of the body, in order to acquire new knowledge.

In 1956 he published his main work, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain, in which he set out his new approach to the acquisition of new knowledge.in which he presented his new educational model. This taxonomy was elaborated to help teachers in their teaching task, especially in order to delimit which are the to delimit which are the pedagogical objectives to be achieved in the classroom..

The main idea behind this taxonomy is that not all educational objectives should be treated and prioritized in the same way.. For example, memorizing historical dates, while important, is not the same as analyzing the historical facts behind them, the political depth of the events that occurred and how they have shaped society to the present day.

Taxonomy of educational objectives

This is a classification of different objectives that educators should propose to students. Benjamin Bloom divided these objectives into three domains:

1. affective

This is the domain of how people react emotionally to educational content. Within this domain are five levels: reception, response, appraisal, organization, and characterizing.

2. Psychomotor

It is related to the abilities to physically manipulate objects, such as tools.such as tools.

Although Bloom and his colleagues did not really give levels to this domain, several educational psychologists have given it sublevels. Some of them are: reflexes, fundamental movements, perception, physical skills, expert movements and non-verbal communication.

3. Cognitive

This domain refers to the knowledge acquired in its most literal form, in addition to the comprehension of new information and critical thinking skills.It also refers to the comprehension of new information and critical thinking skills.

Traditionally, education has sought to emphasize the skills found within this domain, especially the rote learning of what is explained in class.

The taxonomy of educational objectives subdivides this domain into 6 levels, which range from the lowest to the highest level: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation..

Some of Bloom's detractors do agree with him on these categories that form the cognitive domain, but they do not consider this to be the real hierarchy, changing the order or considering that most of these levels are really subcomponents that acquire the same importance in the learning process.

Benjamin Bloom's legacy

This psychologist has come to be considered a guru in the field of educational psychology. He was also a leading educational activist, was a leading educational activist.. He took an important role in founding the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

While in the Department of Education at the University of Chicago, he developed the MESA (Measurement of Educational Achievement) program, he developed the MESA (Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis) program. with the aim of preparing schoolchildren with very striking critical thinking skills for a specialized type of education, in order to make the most of their potential.