Do you ever wonder exactly HOW children learn? There are as many theories on this topic as there are researchers to study it. However, there are three generally accepted models, called the “Domains of Learning,” that are used by most education professionals to guide their lessons. Along with standards and government input, these domains provide a framework that helps us to work with a wide variety of students.

While completing my education degree, I had a professor that related these to “the head, the heart, and the body” – thereby encompassing the whole child. When put together, they provide what is called a “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.” You can find a ton of information on the internet simply by searching for the domain you are interested in. The examples given here are by no means all-inclusive, but are only to give you an idea of what students are capable of at each level.

To optimize your teaching, you need to try to plan lessons that touch all three domains. I have provided a summary of each domain to help you start to reach every student… every day!

The Cognitive Domain (“the Head”)

This is the area that educators are most familiar with. It encompasses the thought processes that take place in the brain in order to produce the needed skills for completing a task. Developed by Bloom in 1956, it has been a long-standing example of what we, as teachers, need to address in our lessons. There were originally six levels to the Cognitive Domain model. Our ultimate goal is to have students progress through each level as they move toward adulthood.

Level 1: Knowledge

This level involves the remembering of previously learned material and retrieval of appropriate information. Students at this level will demonstrate knowledge of common terms, some specific facts, and basic concepts and principles.

Level 2: Comprehension

This level relates to the ability to grasp the meaning of the material being taught. These students will understand facts and principles, translate and interpret verbal material, interpret charts and graphs, and estimates consequences.

Level 3: Application

This level relates to the ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations, and requires higher level of understanding than comprehension. Students at this level can apply principles and theories situations, solve mathematical problems, and construct charts and graphs.

Level 4: Analysis

This level requires higher level of understanding than comprehension and application because it requires an understanding of both structure and content. It relates to the ability to break down materials into component parts so that organizational structure may be understood. At this level, students evaluate the relevancy of data, distinguish between facts and inferences, and identify parts and relationships between parts.

Level 5: Synthesis

Now that they have analyzed things to take them apart, students need to learn how to reassemble the parts into a comprehensible whole. Learning outcomes at this level stress creative thinking and formation of new patterns or structures. Students can write a creative short story or poem, formulate a new scheme for classifying objects, events or ideas, and integrate learning from different areas into a plan to solve a problem.

Level 6:– Evaluation

The highest level of cognitive ability deals with the ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose. Learning outcomes here will contain elements of all other categories, plus value judgments based on clearly defined criteria. At this level, students can judge consistency, adequacy, and/or value based on specific criteria – either internal (organization) or external (relevance to purpose).

The Affective Domain (“the Heart”)

Developed by Krathwohl in 1964, this domain relates to feelings and emotions. It is easy to include affective tasks in our lessons, but they can sometimes be difficult to assess for effectiveness. You can’t just give a chapter test for these!

Level 1: Receiving

This level relates to a student’s willingness to attend to a particular task or stimuli (classroom activity, text, music, etc.), and with our ability to get, hold, and direct students’ attention. Students at this level can listen attentively, attends closely to the classroom activities, has a sensitivity to social problems, and accepts diversity.

Level 2: Responding

At this level you will see active participation on the part of the student as they take interest in, seek out, and enjoy particular activities. Students at this level will complete tasks and obey rules, participate in class discussions, volunteer for tasks, and enjoy helping others.

Level 3: Valuing

Valuing deals with the worth a student attaches to a particular object, activity or behavior. It is based on internalization of values, but is expressed in consistent behaviors that make the value easily identifiable. Students at this level want to improve group skills, believe in the democratic process, assume responsibility for tasks, and show concern for others.

Level 4:– Organization

Only after receiving, responding and valuing can a student move to the level of organization. This encompasses the bringing together of different values, resolving conflict between them, and building a value system by forming, comparing, relating and synthesizing values. At this level, students can recognize the need for balance between freedom and responsibility, accept responsibility for their own behavior, and understand and accept their own strengths and limitations.

Level 5: Characterization by Values

At this level, the student has made personal, emotional and social adjustments, and has a value system that has controlled behavior long enough so that it is pervasive, consistent and predictable. Students at this level work well independently, cooperate in group activities, and demonstrate an objective approach to problem solving.

The Psychomotor Domain (“the Body”)

Simpson delineated this set of objectives in 1972. It involves the incorporation of tasks that use the body and the senses as actively as the brain. Again, students will move through the levels from lowest to highest.

Level 1: Perception

This involves the use of sense organs to obtain cues that guide motor activity, including sensory stimulation, selecting task-relevant cues, and translating the cue information into the relevant physical movements. Students can recognize sounds as indicators of problem or malfunction, relate taste to need for seasonings, and relate music to particular dance step.

Level 2: Set

This deals with the readiness to take a particular type of action – mental, physical and emotional. Students must pass the perception level in order to get here. Without perception of cues, they cannot become truly ready to perform a task. Students at this level will know sequence of steps to complete a task, and demonstrate proper body position for a specified action.

Level 3:– Guided Response

Now that the students have learned the cues and they are ready to begin, they move into the actual stages of learning a a complex skill – imitation and trial and error. At this level, students perform a task as demonstrated and can determine the best sequence of steps for completing a task.

Level 4:– Mechanism (Sometimes Referred to as Automaticity)

This level focuses on the performance of tasks where the learned response has become habit, and simple actions are performed with some confidence and proficiency. At this level, students can writes smoothly and legibly, set up equipment for a desired task, and operate technology without assistance.

Level 5: Complex Overt Response

Complex response deals with the performance of motor acts that involve complex movement patterns. Proficiency is shown by smooth, quick, accurate performance with a minimum of energy. Students at this level demonstrate the correct form and required skill in completing a task, and provide quick and accurate completion of a task.

Level 6:– Adaptation

At this level, skills are so well developed that the individual can modify movement patterns to fit special requirements or meet a problem situation. Students can adjust reaction in response to action, and modify actions to suit circumstances.

Level 7:– Origination

The highest level of the psychomotor domain involves the creation of new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem, using creativity based upon highly developed skills. These students can create movements, create music, design new styles of clothing, art, etc.