Compare And Contrast Bloom's Taxonomies

The concepts behind Bloom and Perry’s Taxonomies provide interesting and different ways to view graduate school education, and really education in the most general sense. On one side, you have Bloom’s Taxonomy which is very lineal and presents the idea that education is a building block effect of sorts which is illustrated as a pyramid. The higher you go the smaller the pyramid becomes until you reach the top, evaluation stage of learning. Perry’s Taxonomy on the other hand presents frameworks of sorts that explain how students retain knowledge and learn. Neither Bloom or Perry’s Taxonomy is better than the other, rather they work together to provide contrasting views on learning.

As a student, Bloom’s taxonomy seems to be more relatable

to learning at the graduate level. Since the taxonomy is lineal, it is easy to relate each block of the pyramid to a period of learning such as high school, undergraduate, and graduate level education. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, graduate students should be synthesizing and evaluating rather than just being able to comprehend, apply, and analyze.

However, synthesis and evaluation does not happen without the others happening first, thus the building block concept. Just as one cannot get in graduate school without a high school diploma and undergraduate degree without the basic building blocks, one will not be able to synthesize and evaluate knowledge. Synthesis and evaluation are especially important in graduate social work education because as social workers much of what is done relies on being able to evaluate patients, methodologies, and interventions. Social workers must also synthesize and be able to piece together the puzzle of information even when the client does not give all the details. However, social work is not just about the finished product of evaluation either. Social workers must apply the previous building blocks of Bloom’s taxonomy to their work. Social

workers must have knowledge of the field, the protocols, and treatment options. Then they must be able to comprehend. This might be as simple as reading a chart or history or as complex as comprehending a new therapy technique. Next, social workers must apply what has been learned through the years. All the techniques and methods learned in school must be applied to actual client care. And finally, analyze, identify the components and what the client needs. All these must be addressed before the synthesis and evaluation even takes place. So, while the graduate level skills are important, it is also important to have mastered the others that built up to the highest levels of the taxonomy.
Unlike Bloom’s taxonomy, Perry’s taxonomy presents frameworks for learning rather than a lineal diagram.

Perry’s taxonomy consists of nine total stances, however three of the most popular are dualism, multiplism, and contextual relativism. It appears contextual relativism and multiplism are more relatable to social work practice and graduate level social work education than dualism would be. Dualism focuses on the fact that each question has one singular right answer. This may be the case, however in social work there may be many right answers and often time the right answer is “it depends on the client”. Each client is different so often a one size fits all approach such as dualism would not be the best option. Multiplism on the other hand certainly relates to social work education because it focuses on the fact that there are multiple right answers to each question, just like there are multiple different ways to treat a client. Building on this, contextual relativism focuses on determining which is the best answer or right answer given the context of the question. Multiplism and contextual relativism go hand in hand in graduate social work education because as a student social worker one should know that there could be many possible answers to one problem but should also know how to identify which is the best answer to the problem among a sea of

possibilities.
Overall, it is evident how both Bloom and Perry’s taxonomies relate to graduate social work education. While the taxonomies differ in the way they approach learning and knowledge, both are understandable relatable to education in all levels and especially graduate social work education.