The Cognitive Domain

The Cognitive Domain

" The cognitive domain has to do with those school activities which might be otherwise described as intellectual. In this domain are knowledge, comprehension/understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In general, teaching should be directed to the areas of application, analysis , synthesis and evaluation rather than towards only the acquisition of knowledge and understanding, although, of course, the gaining of knowledge is a pre-requisite to the performance of the higher level achievements. This domain relates to objectives concerned with knowledge and intellectual skills. The six levels from the simplest to the most complex are as follows: Knowledge: Recalling specific and general items of information and also information about methods, processes and patterns. Comprehension: Recognition of items of information settings similar to but different from those in which they were first encountered. Application: Explaining previously unseen data or events by applying knowledge from other situations. Analysis: Breaking down blocks of information into elements for the purpose of clarification. Synthesis: Combining elements to form coherent units of information. Evaluation: Making judgements about the value of information, materials or methods for given purposes. "