The following list details significant quotes and key learnings from the work of educational psychologist Benjamin S. Bloom. These are categorized by his major contributions: Mastery Learning, Talent Development, The 2 Sigma Problem, and Educational Philosophy.

Sources include his seminal books: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976), All Our Children Learning (1981), and Developing Talent in Young People (1985), as well as his famous research paper on the "2 Sigma Problem."

On Mastery Learning & Human Potential

Bloom’s central thesis was that given the right conditions, virtually all students can learn what only the top students learn under traditional instruction.[1]

  1. “What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn if provided with appropriate prior and current conditions of learning.”[1][2][3][4]
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)
  2. “Modern society no longer can content itself with the selection of talent; it must find the means for developing talent.”
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)
  3. “Creativity follows mastery, so mastery of skills is the first priority for young talent.”
    • Source: Developing Talent in Young People (1985)
  4. “The purpose of education is to change the thoughts, feelings, and actions of students.”
    • Source: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
  5. “Most students become very similar with regard to learning ability, rate of learning, and motivation for further learning—when provided with favorable learning conditions.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  6. “Education must be increasingly concerned about the fullest development of all children and youth, and it will be the responsibility of the schools to seek learning conditions which will enable each individual to reach the highest level of learning possible.”
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)
  7. “We need to be much clearer about what we do and do not know so that we don’t continually confuse the two.”
    • Source: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
  8. “To create effective schools, we must have a picture of the human potential that is not constrained by the normal curve.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  9. “History is full of examples of the self-fulfilling prophecy. If teachers believe their students can learn, they will learn.”
    • Source: Discussion on Mastery Learning
  10. “The normal curve is a distribution most appropriate to chance and random activity. Education is a purposeful activity and we seek to have the students learn what we have to teach. If we are effective... the distribution of grades will be anything but a normal curve.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  11. “There are no faster or slower learners; there are only those who have the prerequisite knowledge and those who do not.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  12. “Learning is not a race. It is a process of reaching a standard of competence.”
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)

On The "2 Sigma Problem" & Tutoring

In 1984, Bloom found that one-to-one tutoring allowed the average student to perform better than 98% of students in a traditional classroom (2 standard deviations, or 2 sigma). His "problem" was how to achieve this result in a group setting.

  1. “The average tutored student was above 98% of the students in the control class.”
    • Source: The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring (1984)
  2. “An important task of research and instruction is to seek ways of accomplishing this [2 sigma effect] under more practical and realistic conditions than the one-to-one tutoring, which is too costly for most societies to bear on a large scale.”
    • Source: The 2 Sigma Problem (1984)
  3. “If the research on the 2 sigma problem yields practical methods... it would be an educational contribution of the greatest magnitude.”
    • Source: The 2 Sigma Problem (1984)
  4. “Tutoring demonstrates that most of the students do have the potential to reach this high level of learning.”
    • Source: The 2 Sigma Problem (1984)
  5. Key Learning: The difference between a student in a conventional class and a tutored student is not intelligence, but the customization of instruction and feedback.
  6. Key Learning: Peer tutoring and mastery learning (feedback/correctives) combined can approach the 2 sigma effect of one-on-one tutoring.
  7. Key Learning: The quality of instruction is more variable than the intelligence of the students.

On Talent Development (The "Bloom Study")

Bloom’s team studied 120 world-class achievers (pianists, swimmers, mathematicians, etc.) and found that they were rarely "child prodigies."

  1. “We were looking for exceptional kids, but what we found were exceptional conditions.”
    • Source: Developing Talent in Young People (1985)
  2. “No matter what the initial characteristics (or gifts) of the individuals, unless there is a long and intensive process of encouragement, nurturance, education, and training, the individuals will not attain extreme levels of capability.”
    • Source: Developing Talent in Young People (1985)
  3. “Talent is a long process of becoming, not a state of being.”
    • Source: Developing Talent in Young People (1985)
  4. “At the early stage, the teacher’s ability to make the learning fun and rewarding is more important than their technical expertise.”
    • Source: Developing Talent in Young People (1985)
  5. “The dedicated pursuit of a talent field requires great sacrifices of time and money on the part of the parents.”
    • Source: Developing Talent in Young People (1985)
  6. Key Learning: World-class talent typically requires 10+ years of committed practice (often cited as a precursor to the "10,000-hour rule").
  7. Key Learning: The "Romance Stage" (loving the activity) must precede the "Precision Stage" (learning technique) for talent to stick.
  8. Key Learning: Most "geniuses" did not show early promise; they showed early interest and had parents who supported that interest.

On The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Bloom’s Taxonomy is the most famous framework in education, classifying learning from simple recall to complex creation.

  1. “A student attains ‘higher order thinking’ when he no longer believes in right or wrong.”
    • Source: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
  2. “We are not yet able to produce a simple classification of the higher mental processes.”
    • Source: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
  3. “If I could have one wish for education, it would be the systematic ordering of our basic knowledge in such a way that what is known and true can be acted on.”
    • Source: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
  4. Key Learning (Cognitive Domain): Learning is hierarchical. You must Remember and Understand before you can Apply or Analyze.
  5. Key Learning (Affective Domain): Education is not just about facts (Cognitive); it is also about values, attitudes, and emotional growth (Affective).
  6. “A large part of what we call good teaching is a teacher’s ability to obtain affective objectives by challenging the student’s fixed beliefs.”
    • Source: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
  7. Key Learning: The highest form of learning (in the original taxonomy) is Evaluation—the ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose. (Revised in 2001 to Creation).

On Environment & Early Childhood

  1. “The environment for learning is the single most powerful tool we have to shape the future of the child.”
    • Source: Stability and Change in Human Characteristics (1964)
  2. “A single early success can often be enough to set a child on a path of lifelong interest and achievement.”
    • Source: Stability and Change in Human Characteristics (1964)
  3. “Home environment is the most important factor in determining the school achievement of the child.”
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)
  4. Key Learning: Human characteristics (like intelligence and academic achievement) become increasingly stable with age; therefore, early intervention (ages 0–4) is critical.
  5. Key Learning: "Stability" of intelligence is not biological destiny; it is a result of a consistent environment. Change the environment, and you can change the trajectory.
  6. Key Learning: Remediating learning gaps later in life is significantly harder and more costly than preventing them in early childhood.

On Teachers and Instruction

  1. “Instructional variables are the most potent influences on learning that are within the control of the educator.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  2. “The teacher’s job is to translate the curriculum into terms that are meaningful to the student.”
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)
  3. “Feedback and correctives are the engine of mastery learning.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  4. “We must reduce the variation in student achievement by increasing the variation in instructional time and help.”
    • Source: All Our Children Learning (1981)
  5. “Teachers frequently underestimate the learning potential of their students.”
    • Source: Human Characteristics and School Learning (1976)
  6. Key Learning: A "normal distribution" of grades (the bell curve) is actually a sign of educational failure, not success. It means the school failed to teach the majority of students.
  7. Key Learning: The "quality of instruction" is defined by four elements: cues, participation, reinforcement, and feedback/correctives.
  8. Key Learning: Formative assessment (testing during learning to improve it) is more valuable for student growth than summative assessment (testing after learning to grade it).
  9. Key Learning: Students who are given extra time and help early in a course eventually become more efficient and require less help later.
  10. Key Learning: "Aptitude" is not the capacity to learn, but the amount of time required to learn.

References & Further Reading

  • Bloom, B. S. (1984). The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring. Educational Researcher. Link to Paper
  • Bloom, B. S. (1985). Developing Talent in Young People. Ballantine Books. Link to Book Info
  • Bloom, B. S. (1981). All Our Children Learning. McGraw-Hill. Link to Book Info
  • Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. David McKay Company. Link to Overview

Sources  

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  4. scribd.com
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  7. daneshnamehicsa.ir
  8. wikipedia.org
  9. wordpress.com
  10. quotefancy.com
  11. goodreads.com
  12. newworldencyclopedia.org
  13. vikaspedia.in