Product Description
B> This revision of Bloom's taxonomy is designed to help teachers understand and implement standards-based curriculums.Cognitive psychologists, curriculum specialists, teacher educators, and researchers have developed a two-dimensional framework, focusing on knowledge and cognitive processes. In combination, these two define what students are expected tolearn in school. Like no other text, it explores curriculums from three unique perspectives-cognitive psychologists (learning emphasis), curriculum specialists and teacher educators (C&I emphasis), and measurement and assessment experts (assessment emphasis). This "revisited" framework allows you to connect learning in all areas of curriculum.Educators, or others interested in Educational Psychology or Educational Methods for grades K-12. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Welcome Paradigm shift
As an educator, I was originally one of the countless victims of the Bloom verb-list mythology.I eventually read the original handbook and was empowered with the true model - an amazing work.

The revision makes the original work two-dimensional.There is now a knowledge dimension as well as a cognitive dimension.Configured into a table or grid pattern, it can be used to categorize learning objectives into one of 24 categories.For each category there are explanations and examples of not only objectives and testing strategies as in the original work, but also teaching stragegies as well.

Unlike the original, it is written for teachers instead of other academics.This is a powerful tool that can be used to both develop and evaluate curriculums.Be warned, however, that the paperback version is abridged, missing a few chapters.I recommend the hardbound edition.

Caution
When "comprehension" becomes "understand" we are going backwards. As an instructional designer and professor of cognitive psychology, I am horrified. Comprehension is measurable. Understanding is not.

An excellent revision
This book is a great addition to the original Blooms Taxonomy.I found it very informative and the explanations were very clear and helpful.

Teachers should understand what they are doing
Anderson and Kratwohl (eds.) describe a taxonomy of learning and therefore teaching and assessing. Based on the original work of Bloom (1956) they develop further his ideas. Whereas Bloom described a taxonomy of the cognitive process, the new book introduces a 2nd dimension, and classifies the knowledge as such. The concepts are well described, in correct terms. Anyone teaching may easily follow the argumentation. It is shown why and how the two-dimensional taxonomy will be useful in planning, preparing and assessing curricula and lectures or "teaching events". Practical examples illustrate the well presented theory. The clear structure allows one to read the book as a whole as well as to pick out issues of special interest. It was useful for me as a Prof. at a University of Applied Sciences as a framework in order to better and quicker plan and organize a new curriculum. The book is recommended for both, new teachers at any level, as well as for experienced profs revising their lectures.

Bloom's Taxonomy & Anderson's Revision
Until the 1950's the educational system within the United States had no consensus or continuity in its approach to learning."Knowledge" by interpretation meant different things to different people and professional educators had no basis by which to tie together the cornucopia of theories.By definition, taxonomy is in its widest sense, the classification of any group of likened things to include principles and ideas.Benjamin Bloom designed a hierarchical taxonomy of cognitive skills for the educator who is designing curriculum and formatting educational standards and objectives.This cognitive domain is laid out in six areas now quite familiar to teachers:knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Knowledge is memorization, the ability of the student to recall information.The concept can be found in lesson plans that require the student to define, recall, or label.Examples of knowledge as a cognitive skill include learning the alphabet or memorizing important dates in history.Once the ability to gather information at the knowledge stage is mastered the student proceeds to comprehension.At this stage the student begins to see word clues such as "estimate", "explain", and "summarize".The student is not generating anything new but is putting learned knowledge into his / her own words.At the application stage the student learns to use the knowledge.Key words appear such as "apply", "compute", or "demonstrate".At the analysis stage the student begins to generalize information to new or different situations.The student has yet to create anything wholly new, however, the cognitive process has sequenced from basic recognition and memory skills to those tools needed for abstract thought and creation.In the next stage, synthesis, the student begins to see key words such as "compose", "create", and "modify".The pre-schooler has gone from recognizing a Lego toy to using the toys to create something new.In the final cognitive stage, evaluation, the student gains the ability to judge or critique.He / she can now compare the creations of others and validly support, explain, or defend the work.
The educator could now function in agreement with his / her fellows in designing curriculum in an environment of consensus.Why then did Drs. Anderson and Krathlwohl feel the need to revise Blooms work?The authors answered this question in the book's Preface by stating that there were two primary reasons:first, to refocus the attention of educators on the original Bloom's Taxonomy as a document not only historical in nature but valid in context of today's standards, and, secondly, to incorporate new knowledge and thought into Bloom's framework.Though it is not so stated in the Preface, much of this new knowledge and thought is in dealing with an ever-growing populace of divergent learners and likewise with an eye toward the population of children in low socio economic situations.
The revised Bloom's Taxonomy incorporates a framework that is no longer simply linear but a grid.In Anderson & Krathwohl's revision the original six components are renamed so that they still relate directly to the original taxonomy but in terms that are both more relevant to today and simplified."Knowledge" becomes "remember", "comprehension" becomes "understand", "application" is simplified to "apply", "analysis" to "analyze", and "synthesis" becomes somewhat confusingly "evaluate" as "evaluation" changes to the more descriptive "create".This revision allows for the discrimination of higher order thinking even within the lower cognitive levels of Bloom's.For the teacher of special needs or struggling learners, this is especially useful.Simply put, you can go more places on a grid than you can on a straight line.
Anderson and Krathwohl subdivide the x-axis consisting of the renamed Bloom cognitive dimensions into a y-axis of four knowledge dimensions.These four dimensions are, like the cognitive dimensions, hierarchical.At the base is found factual knowledge; knowledge of terms, details, symbols, etc.Conceptual knowledge; classification, categorization, structures, etc follow this.From there the hierarchy advances to application with the dimension of procedural knowledge.At this level the student applies the facts and concepts.Here, for example, the student learns not only to recognize math symbols but also to apply them to an equation.The peak of this hierarchy is meta-cognitive knowledge.At this level the student applies strategies and self-awareness of his or her skills to the lesson.
This revision ranges then from remembering factual knowledge as the lowest cognitive function to creating something new with the application of meta-cognition to truly understand what has been created.The teacher can put this taxonomy to its fullest advantage by dissecting his / her exams and lesson plans to fully realize the potential of the student.It is the opinion of this reviewer that the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy is of particular use when dealing with the two extremes of the learning spectrum, the mentally disabled or struggling student and the student who excels academically.In the case of the student with cognitive deficits, the instructor who recognizes that his / her students may never pass beyond the lower processes of "remember" and "understand" in Bloom may still challenge and properly assess those students in both academic and adaptive areas by progressing from the factual knowledge dimension to procedural and meta-cognitive knowledge.With the latter, the student who is excelling and most likely placed in the school's gifted and talented program, the instructor may use Anderson and Krathwohl's revised taxonomy to insure that the student is not evaluating and creating based on memorization of facts and concepts but on using appropriate procedures and meta-cognitive skills to create something that is unique to that student's abilities.
This text is complete with examples of the taxonomy in practical application with the standards and objectives the teacher is familiar with.I am confident that once the basics of this revision are understood by the educational professional, the book will become a well-used tool in the real world of teaching today's students.
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Customer Reviews (13)

textbook great
my book was delivered promptly and it is in great shape! it's my little buddy right now--i spend a lot of time reading it :) very reasonable price as well!! thanks

sucky
delivery was SLOOOW and didn't even make it to my house!!! horrible. very upset. wouldn't even give it 1 star.

School books
Book in good shape and I was glad I wasn't forced to pay the bookstore price.

well worth my money
The product arrived on time and was in great condition. I will definately consider buying from this seller again!! Thank you

Excelente compendio
Posee muy buenas figuras, altamente explicativo y la seccion de enfermedades por taxonomia es muy buena, especialmente a la hora de realizar clases en esta area. ... Read more

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Thoroughly field-tested and used in a wide variety of educational environments, Marzano's Taxonomy reflects the most current research and today's movement to standards-based education. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent resource to Standards-Based Teaching!
One again, Dr. Marzano has clarified for us how to effectively teach to the standards through a new lens of teaching our students "thinking skills."I have often found Bloom's Taxonomy hard to implement with my students because it seemed that I struggled in creating lessons that challenged my students thinking. I believe that we absolutely need to find ways to effectively educate 21st Century students with 21st Century tools.

Dr. Marzano clearly describes the differences between the New Taxonomy and Bloom's: when learning new information, it does not always occur in a sequential, level of difficulty process(Bloom's);instead, acquiring new information is initiated by the Self-system (New Taxonomy), which is controlled by our beliefs, values, personal goals, etc.For students to learn new information, they must make the decision that the information is beneficial to them. As educators, we are always looking for opportunities to make our lessons engaging and that motivate students towards higher order thinking skills...The N.T explains how to do this.

Additionally, Dr. Marzano shows how to connect the N.T to the standards, which ensures that my lessons are standards-based and that I meet students' learning needs as well.

I would caution that the book is written to explain in great detail the research behind the New Taxonomy and the intricate details within each cognitive thought process; however, I believe that once you get through Chapters 1 & 2, you should have a clear understanding of the research and skip to other chapters that impact teaching and learning.

Great Book to use for Instructional Design
We are reviewing our standards and assessments. This has been a great book to use in both PE and Health.

Typos
This book has several typos and other editing errors.Errors make it hard to follow. ... Read more

Product Description
Summary Taxonomies are often thought to play a niche role within content-oriented knowledge management projects. They are thought to be 'nice to have' but not essential. In this groundbreaking book, Patrick Lambe shows how they play an integral role in helping organizations coordinate and communicate effectively. Through a series of case studies, he demonstrates the range of ways in which taxonomies can help organizations to leverage and articulate their knowledge. A step-by-step guide in the book to running a taxonomy project is full of practical advice for knowledge managers and business owners alike. Key Features Written in a clear, accessible style, demystifying the jargon surrounding taxonomies Case studies give real world examples of taxonomies in use Step-by-step guides take the reader through the key stages in a taxonomy project Decision-making frameworks and example questionnaires Clear description of how taxonomies relate to technology applications The Author Patrick Lambe is a widely respected knowledge management consultant based in Singapore.His Master's degree from University College London is in Information Studies and Librarianship, and he has worked as a professional librarian, as a trainer and instructional designer, and as a business manager in operational and strategic roles. He has been active in the field of knowledge management and e-learning since 1998, and in 2002 founded his own consulting and research firm, Straits Knowledge, with a partner. He is former President of the Information and Knowledge Society, and is Adjunct Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Patrick speaks and writes internationally on knowledge management. Readership This book is written primarily for knowledge managers and key stakeholders in knowledge management projects. However, it is also useful to all information professionals who wish to understand the role of taxonomies in a corporate setting.It may be used as a teaching text for postgraduate students in Information Studies, Library Science, and Knowledge Management, as well as at MBA level.Contents Part One: Dealing with Babel - the problem of coordination; why taxonomies are important; definitions; taxonomy as a common language; taxonomies express what is important; socially constructed; the business case for taxonomies; taxonomies in KM, collaboration, expertise management and information management; taxonomies, typologies and sensemaking Part Two: Fixing the foundations: planning your taxonomy project - understanding your context; identifying and engaging stakeholders; defining your purpose; planning your approach; communicating and setting expectations; managing myths; how NOT to do a taxonomy project; a taxonomy as a standard; digital information, hierarchies and facets Part Three: Building the floors: implementing your taxonomy project - Implicit taxonomies; evidence gathering; analysis or sensemaking; validation principles and techniques; change management and learning; taxonomy sustainability and governance; taxonomies and technology; measuring success Part Four: Looking skywards: the future of taxonomies - complexity and sensemaking; taxonomies as sensemaking frameworks and patterns; taxonomies and serendipity; taxonomies and ambiguity; anti-taxonomy and folksonomies; taxonomies, ignorance and power; taxonomies and organisational renewal ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Outstanding
An outstanding book on developing taxonomies for repositories, companies, and websites. Packed with useful information and well worth the time.

Worth the money
My two co-reviewers appear to have a vastly greater experience in this field, and I was pretty much flying blind when I plunked down $60+ USD for a paperback.The other reviewers have a pretty good opinion of this book, and many of the alternative books suggested did not get great reviews. However, the other reviewers sound like experts and I wasn't sure the book would be useful to me, a beginner trying to get a maximum amount of understanding of taxonomy for a minumum investment of time and money.

They were right about the value of Organising Knowledge.I don't want "Taxonomy for Dummies" and O. K. is not that book, but it CAN serve the same need.If you are new to the field, or even if you have been doing this work in your company for several years and want to know more of what your company's taxonomy-Jedi Knights are talking about, start here.(If you are an expert, read the other reviews and make your decision.)

It is becoming my business to set up wikis for people.Reading Organising Knowledge is helping me to think about how to create the basic structures, rather than starting with randomly-selected keywords and hoping everyone will think of the same descriptors.

This isn't light reading.However, it's only difficult in that the material is new to me.The writing is clear and I'm not having any trouble following, if my brain would only not go off on so many side trail along the lines of "Oh, I could do THAT for this client..." or "NOW I see what those other clients were talking about..."

So:from the newbie seats--good book.

Fascinating and useful insights into taxonomies
Patrick Lambe provides excellent insights and tips for anyone facing a project to design and implement an enterprise content management system. Through many thought-provoking examples, he makes it clear that a collection of unstructured data is only as good as the effort that went into its organization, and he demonstrates the critical need for collaborating with the content providers and consumers to understand their thought processes and expectations. Some of the examples include some very uncomfortable lessons about the dangers of badly conceived taxonomies. He also makes the subject very interesting by placing the art of taxonomy in its historical context, showing us how various dynamic individuals developed classification systems that are now widely deployed and have an impact on everyday life. This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in the implications of the enormous amount of digital information accumulating at an ever-increasing rate.

Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies Matter!
If I follow the writing principle of bottom line and idea first then I would have to say Patrick Lambe's "Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness" is a five-star publication.Using the four-point scale Study, Read, Skim, Bin as a guide to the effort that might be invested, this book definitely warrants a Study rating.So what's so good about the book?

Well judging by my margin scribbles and underlining lots!First it is an entertaining, coherent and easy read.Patrick's assertion that - "If taxonomies classify, describe and map knowledge domains, then taxonomy work is made up of the things we must do to achieve that outcome:listing, creating and modifying categories, standardising, mapping, representing, discovering native vocabularies and categories, negotiating common terms" (p. 11) - resonates with me and is an example of the practical flavour of the book. Similarly I found Patrick's taxonomy forms - lists, trees, hierarchies, poly-hierarchies, matrices, facets, and system maps - to be a useful classification and a guide to why some taxonomies fail and others succeed.

I must admit that I had never considered in any detail how our reasoning patterns impact on our taxonomies.Most of us reason by beginning in the middle and generalising upwards and differentiating downwards.It's an interesting insight which explains why so many tree structures don't work. I suspect we like tree structures because they are easy to understand and they at first impose order onto chaos.

I do think one or two longbows are drawn with some of the examples in the book - the Victoria Climbie child abuse discussion being a case in point.The archetype typology - a special type of taxonomy - is another. Despite this the examples serve to show in a practical way how a well designed taxonomy can help in knowledge discovery and knowledge articulation.

Perhaps one of the most interesting insights in the book is the notion of taxonomies as boundary objects. A well designed taxonomy can allow different groups of people to find common ground and therefore communicate. One example is communication between amateur ornithologists and professional zoologists.Another is communication between economists and health professionals through the International Classification of Diseases taxonomy.

Patrick signed my copy on the 14th of August 2007, and wrote the following comment on the front page - "For Graham in the hope you will find this useful!"Well I've skimmed the book more times than I can remember, I've studied it twice, and read it twice (both in a single sitting)!The book is very useful and should be on the shelf of anyone who professes to be a knowledge management practitioner.In my view it should also be mandatory reading for students of library science, knowledge management and information management. I'm certainly convinced that taxonomies matter!

Regards Graham
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Educators across grade levels and content areas can apply the concepts of Marzano's New Taxonomy to turn standards into concrete objectives and assessments to measure student learning. ... Read more

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education
Is you are interested into the Bloom taxonomy and the books from that taxonomy are so difficult to get this is a good book. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (33)

1 star is almost too many...
I've given up after about 100 pages. The only reason I made it that far was it was the only book I took with me on a weekend trip! I had nothing else to do on the plane and kept picking it up, reading another few pages until I couldn't stand it anymore, putting it down to stare at the seat in front of me, and then repeating the process out of boredom. I agree with other reviewers that it has a lot in common with Royal Tenenbaums, which is a movie that I love. Reading about insanely quirky, rich, self-absorbed characters just isn't as amusing. The writing was mostly bad, the little literary references and tricks were too obvious, the characters were unlikeable, and it all seemed very self-indulgent.

yuck
couldnt even get through the first 30 pages.i found the author's style of writing to be really hard to follow.

A VERY mixed blessing
I really wanted to like this book.It is -- in many respects -- charming and witty, and it creates an absolutely lovely picture of New York, with gorgeous evocations of Central Park and the Upper East Side.But, in the end, it is very difficult to read.First, there is the slightly silly device of the primary characters' names, all of which begin with a "B".This would work if all of them were all equally delineated.Unfortunately, not the case.The book theoretically focuses on the six daughers of the Barnacle family -- Bell, Bridget, Betina, Belinda, Beryl, and Beth.But only the first three have any real part in the story, and -- as a result -- reading about the latter three becomes a task rather than a pleasure:one never knows which is which, or how to unravel their stories and their place in the narrative.Second, the plot tends to jump around alarmingly, with situations introduced and then abandoned.Ms. Niederhoffer is obviously talented, but in her next novel (hopefully there will be one) she needs to discipline herself, drop the cutesiness, and concentrate instead on her finely-tuned descriptive skills.

Zero stars
"A Taxonomy of Barnacles," about six sisters --whose names all start with a "B"-- seemed like a quirky, different novel, so I picked it up at the bookstore without having heard or read anything about it. Well, talk about hate at first page. Niederhoffer's writing is terrible, her characters are pretentious and annoying, and the whole thing reads like the bad effort of a privileged high-school student who's been told she's so bright and precocious.

I don't know whose daughter/wife/friend Galt Niederhoffer is, but I am certain this book got published because of the author's contacts, not her talent, since unfortunately she has none.

Some lively characters overwhelmed by the author's mistakes
"A Taxonomy of Barnacles" is supposedly a novel about nature versus nurture, taking its name from an early work of Darwin, and posing, in the background, the question of why Darwin, having developed his theory of natural selection in a study of barnacles, waited many years to publish it, and then focused instead on finches.

Thus, we have the contrast between the Barnacle family, a wealthy Jewish family whose patriarch made his money in pantyhose, and the Finch family, their WASPish neighbors who include a pair of identical twins.The book's introduction is well-written and intriguing, but from the start of the first actual chapter the book seems to have lost its way.Everyone in the Barnacle family has a first name starting with B, except for adopted Latrell, and they are hard to keep track of.Bell and Bridget and youngest Benita are pretty distinct, while the other three often go unmentioned for many pages.Bits and pieces are worthwhile, but the time scale is hard to follow, with some things seeming to go on forever while the book turns out to take place within a single week.

The supposed engine of the plot is a King Lear like promise by father Barry Barnacle to leave his fortune to the daughter who immortalizes the family name.Motifs of the importance of the right proposal (which I assume is the point other reviewers refer to as a shout out to Jane Austen), the similarities and differences between twins and siblings, infidelity, deception and identity switching fill the book.

Unfortunately, what does not fill the book is any sense of consistency.

The author can't make up her mind as to how identical the Finch twins actually are, just like she can't make up her mind as to whether Bella, the mother, breaks her leg (a plot point that just lies there) or it is merely a sprain.Within two paragraphs, Latrell has two different favorite places to hide (many of which are pretty hard to imagine actually working in 2006 in New York, such as hanging at the Guggenheim amongst the art after hours; does she think there are no motion detectors or cameras?).Yankee players have made up names; David Wells pitches for the Red Sox.Her basic understanding of baseball, despite the fact that it is mentioned over and over again, seems at about the level of the average American's understanding of English County Cricket.New Yorkers are not divided between fans of the Yankees and Red Sox, they are divided between fans of the Yankees and Mets.A grand slam in the bottom of the ninth when the team is four runs behind ties the game; it is not over.

Perhaps the strangest bit, though, is at the very beginning.Bridget's erstwhile boyfriend Trot, on whom she has been cheating in her heart with Billy Finch, is chided by her for having failed to bring cake to the family's Seder.He, not Jewish, failed to do so for the obvious reason that no one should bring cake to a ceremony where only unleavened bread is to be consumed.

I did laugh out loud at her making fun of my own surname on page 166.And at a few other points, which is why it rates two stars, not one.Benita is kind of fun and Beryl is rather sweet.Others have compared it to the Royal Tenenbaums (which I hated), but I think the sense of unreality and privilege comes more from Francis Ford Coppola's "Life Without Zoe", his generally unsuccessful contribution to "New York Stories".It too is a fantasy about privileged people that seems to assume that we should care about them, without going to the effort to provide us a reason why we should care. ... Read more

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In this book, Colin Groves Proposes a complete taxonomy of living primates, reviewing the history and practice of their classification and providing an up-to-date synthesis of recent molecular and phylogenetic research. He contends that the taxonomic designation of individual species is the starting point for conservation, and that the taxonomy of living species is critical to understanding evolutionary relationships. At the heart of the book are species-by-species accounts in which Groves reviews the recent history of each group and offers many new taxonomic arrangements. He evaluates several distinctive former subspecies to full species status and reestablishes the status of a number of previously overlooked taxa. Discussing the major taxonomic issues of each group, he describes the reasoning behind his conclusions and objectively offers explanations of opposing views. He also briefly outlines a possible taxonomy of fossil primates based on the taxonomy of living primates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An authoritative treatment.
Extensive taxonomic revisions are usually published in monographic series by natural history museums, distributed to a handful of academic institutions the world over, and relegated to shelves in the bowels of libraries where they are consulted on occasion by a few specialists in each scientific generation.That Colin Groves' latest taxonomic revision is published in an attractive volume and sold on amazon.com testifies to the importance of primate taxonomy to many disciplines.I've read it from cover to cover.This revision deserves the attention.

Groves' introductory chapters describe theories and traditional methods in taxonomy, and provide useful historical context, as well as insight into his own viewpoints.For primatologists without taxonomic experience, this account will de-mystify the discipline and allow the process to be easily visualized and understood.For fellow taxonomists, Groves' descriptions of his methods and his mindset are invaluable for interpreting his conclusions, and for comparing notes.Also extremely useful are Groves' remarks both on the comparative excellence of primate holdings at major natural history museums worldwide, and on the influence and thought of past taxonomists.Knowledge like this is very truly the province of the specialist, and is very hard to come by-- close familiarity with the holdings of primate collections in museums worldwide can only be gained through expensive travel and extensive examinations, and intimate understanding of the viewpoints of taxonomists of decades and centuries past requires a comprehensive familiarity with countless old and often obscure descriptions, revisions, and monographs.

As for Groves' treatment of the primates, it is different, fresh, and full of monumental splitting (he recognizes about 330 species).Possibly it will be hard for some workers in primatology and mammalogy to stomach, as it certainly disrupts familiarity with relative rank of various taxa, and with figures of species richness in all groups.However, as many or more will welcome it as a long-needed reassessment of primate diversity, which in other current treatments is woefully underestimated.Groves has discovered over time, via careful museum research, that a large number of primate taxa named long ago but later uncritically synonymized and soon enough forgotten, are actually distinctive and recognizable species.Such taxonomic resurrections turn conservationists' attention to long-overlooked populations of primates that are deserving of high-concern conservation status.Changes in taxonomy lead to changes in policy, and this without doubt will be the most important effect of Groves' new book.An additional very useful contribution is that the book highlights and summarizes the flood of new primate taxa discovered during fieldwork in the tropics in recent years.

Of course it is important to remember, as Groves himself notes, that no taxonomic revision is the last word on the subject.In the case of primates, new species will continue to be described from the world's tropical regions, and many of the taxa Groves lists as provisional will with further research be shown to be undeserving of the rank he bestows on them.Nevertheless, Groves' take on primate taxonomy is without doubt a much more accurate characterization of living primate species diversity than other current and more traditional arrangements.For the large number of people who work with, write about, or make decisions regarding primates, this book should be considered the authoritative reference for identifying the current name, taxonomic rank, or uniqueness of a primate population.It is a most excellent contribution.

A monkey puzzle tree�.
Finally, Primate Taxonomy has appeared- before this, I had heard references to it at primatological gatherings. Colin Groves needs no introduction in the area of taxonomy of many non-primate species, most recently, in resolving the question whether the African bush elephant is a subspecies, or a species in its own right (the latter). But it is probably fair to say that Colin's greatest achievement has been, the taxonomy of nonhuman primate (NHP) species. So what is Primate Taxonomy like? First, although a work aimed at a professional audience, there is much that can be appreciated by a non-scholarly audience interested in NHPs. The first few chapters deal with taxonomy, its history, and how it is done to-day. Taxonomy is the science of identifying species, placing them in the system designed by Linnaeus and familiar to all biology students, which assigns to each species a double Latin name; the first indicates the genus to which the species belongs, while the second is specific and unique to the species, eg, the rhesus monkey is Macaca mulatta, and the sacred baboon, Papio hamadryas. Related genera (like Macaca and Papio) are included in the "tribe" of the Papionini, which is part of the "subfamily" Cercopithecinae, which is part of the "family" Cercopithecidae, which is part of the "superfamily" of the Cercopithecoidea. This way, each species has its own place in a tree-like, hierarchical structure. But there is a snag: what, exactly, is a species? At first glance, this may seem obvious, but it is not. Appearances may be deceiving, with animals which look alike nevertheless being different species (the owl monkey, where chromosomal differences differentiate between very similar animals); conversely, animals that differ strikingly in their appearance may be of the same species (the historic misidentification of some gibbon species where there is sexual dimorphism in colour, as two species), and the history of taxonomy is littered with misidentifications of species. Groves provides clear descriptions of different attempts to define what makes a species, and favours the "traditional" definition, which includes a species being a population with its own ecological niche and limited distribution which does not interbreed (except in cases where territories may overlap) with another species, and which has a common behavioural repertoire distinct from other populations. Unfortunately for the taxonomist, the essential components of this (or any) definition of a species are often not known, and the only materials available are skins and skeletons (where, in case of some, it is not even known exactly where they were collected). On the other hand, in modern times, the traditional morphological criteria derived from skins and bones can be amplified by DNA analysis and other molecular biological markers, chromosome analysis, and by an increasing knowledge of behaviour, and Groves has, wherever possible, used such data in compiling his book. However, having identified a species, the taxonomist is not there yet: any species with a wide distribution covering a number of different "living conditions", or where rivers separate different populations (as in the Amazon or Congo basins) will probably have subspecies. Reading those first chapters makes one aware of the amount of work involved in the bulk of the book, where, going down the branches of the taxonomic tree, Groves lists the species and subspecies of all NHPs, from lemurs, lorises, bushbabies and tarsiers, through the New World monkeys and Old World monkeys to the great apes (Homo sapiens is listed at the very end but receives little discussion). There are brief summaries of the main features of families, subfamilies, tribes, etc, but the focus is on the species level where a general description of the genus is followed by one of a species including a list of the scientific names that species may have had since first described. This is rather helpful because one still comes across superseded names. After the description and distribution of a species, its subspecies are listed, starting with the type species (eg, Macaca fascicularis fascicularis), with for each, the characteristics which make it different, as well as the distribution. Two impressions emerge: first, the enormous variety of NHP species and subspecies that exist; and that in a world that seems to become smaller daily, new species are still being discovered, even where very little NHP habitat is left, such as on Madagascar. And this is surely the second impression, that many species, or their subspecies, are fast becoming vulnerable/threatened/endangered. So should you buy this book? If your profession is dealing with primate taxonomy in a serious way (zoos, conservation groups, government and NGO environmental and foreign aid agencies, university departments) the book is essential because of its profound scholarship. Nevertheless, I do have a few quibbles: the major one is that it would have been very good to have a summary table at the end of the book which allowed a quick overview of the proposed taxonomy. Now, if one wants to know how many subspecies of Macaca mulatta there are, for instance, one has to go to the relevant chapter and count them as listed; which is not made easier because the book's print is rather fine, and while, following convention, all scientific names are in italics, they are not otherwise highlighted and a brief entry can easily be missed. Likewise, short of counting, I could not find out how many species of NHP Groves thinks there are, and how many subspecies, overall. Such numbers would be nice to know in arguments about biodiversity and conservation. For non-taxonomists, it might have been helpful to include a kind of diagram of a "standard" NHP divided (bushmeat-like?), into portions so descriptions of fur colour distributions could be read more easily; in the text, for instance, terms like "dorsum", "saddle", "rump", "haunch" and "lumbar region", although strictly speaking referring to different parts, could be confusing. But these are minor points: Primate Taxonomy will be a tool, and subject for discussions for many years to come. It represents an outstanding feat of scholarship. ... Read more

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The field of plant taxonomy has transformed rapidly over the past fifteen years, especially with regard to improvements in cladistic analysis and the use of new molecular data. The second edition of this popular resource reflects these far-reaching and dramatic developments with more than 3,000 new references and many new figures. Synthesizing current research and trends,Plant Taxonomy now provides the most up-to-date overview in relation to monographic, biodiversity, and evolutionary studies, and continues to be an essential resource for students and scholars.

This text is divided into two parts: Part 1 explains the principles of taxonomy, including the importance of systematics, characters, concepts of categories, and different approaches to biological classification. Part 2 outlines the different types of data used in plant taxonomic studies with suggestions on their efficacy and modes of presentation and evaluation. This section also lists the equipment and financial resources required for gathering each type of data. References throughout the book illuminate the historical development of taxonomic terminology and philosophy while citations offer further study.Plant Taxonomy is also a personal story of what it means to be a practicing taxonomist and to view these activities within a meaningful conceptual framework. Tod F. Stuessy recalls the progression of his own work and shares his belief that the most creative taxonomy is done by those who have a strong conceptual grasp of their own research.

Customer Reviews (5)

unsurpassedsystem in education.
Bloom 'taxonomy of educational objectives' in education could be (for some aspects) compared to Darwins 'on the origin of species' in biology. Both books are often referred to and used as a starting point, are adapted and discussed. Both books also are not often read in the original version. Students mostly approach the taxonomy indirectly, more or less by hearsay. It therefore was refreshing to receive the 1956 print of this book and find out that for instance it wasn't just Bloom. He was the editor presenting combined quality. Condensed quality excelling in clarity, brevity and above all usefullness. The fresh look this book provides on education withstood many cohorts of teachers and educators. Moreover the writers have an approach to the subject and so different from other interpretations in that time that in their philosophy they must have broken with old rules and have started from scratch. I can only recommend students in education, don't be satisfied with a single sheet of highlights in your textbook, read the original!

Bloom's work works
I have studied Bloom's Taxonomy, as have millions of other educators, and found his work immensely helpful in clarifying educational objectives and outcomes for my students. I was introduced to Bloom in graduate school where I studied Instructional Design. It was clear; those instructors who successfully implemented Bloom's work in their own teaching were of a higher caliber, easy to understand and more successful in helping the students to learn, not just recall facts and figures.

The earlier contributor is way off in their "review" of Bloom's work; and clearly paranoid.

Please ignore the reader from Gold Beach...
This is a must-read, particularly in the field of systematic Instructional Design and specifically regarding learning objectives, criterion-referenced testing, etc. Bloom's work is the foundation for countless strategies, research, models, etc.

The series on all domians is a good addition to any teacher's library, regardless of content or level.

Theordore Adorno rewrite
Benjamin Bloom is a second generation transformational Marxist, dedicated to the destruction of the founding ideals that have made America great.Namely, accountability to a higher authority, the existence of revealed and absolute truth, and that man's heart is despiratly wicked, in need of internal or external restraints.Bloom and his buddies have simply cleaned up Theodore Adorno's work The Authoritarian Personality, for public consumption in teachers colleges.Bloom's work is based on false assumptions of human nature; there is no God, no absolute truth, and man is basically good, evolving, and perfectable.
Read pg. 32 where Bloom claims there is no lasting truths for all time and all places.Compare Bloom's statement with Engel's claim in Ludwig Feuerbach, "nothing is final, absolute, or sacred."In Bloom's affective domain book he blatently acknowledges Adorno and another Frankfort School Marxist as forming his "world view".The progressive restructuring educational movement has destroyed what was great in America.Read it and weep.Protect your children.

Timeless classic
This book was written almost 50 years ago and it is still widely used within education around the world. Bloom set out to create a common framework for categorising academic ability and his resulting taxonomy is still the de facto standard for classifying cognitive skills. Don't be put off by the age of the book - it's very readable - which perhaps reflects the timeless nature of his subject matter. Although some of his examples have aged (and perhaps were never particularly good examples), the book is accessible and interesting - and, as I've said, as useful today as it was 50 years ago. Highly recommended to anyone involved in writing test items. If you're interested, I've tried to provide more up-to-date examples on my Web site.... ... Read more

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Finalist for 2009 The Council on Botanical & Horticultural Libraries Literature Award!

A Fresh Look at Taxonomy

The most fundamental of all biological sciences, taxonomy underpins any long term strategies for reconstructing the great tree of life or salvaging as much biodiversity as possible. Yet we are still unable to say with any certainty how many species are living on the earth. The New Taxonomy describes how a confluence of theory, cyberinfrastructure, and international teamwork can meet this unprecedented research challenge and marks an emerging field, cybertaxonomy.

Taxonomy Meets the Challenges of the Biodiversity Crisis

An in-depth discussion of the future of descriptive taxonomy, the book examines the efforts of several international groups to catalog the world’s biodiversity and make it accessible. An answer to Julien Huxley’s The New Systematics, the book marks the beginning of an upward trajectory of taxonomy to meet the unprecedented challenges of the biodiversity crisis. Contemporary taxonomists reclaim the unique mission, goals, and importance of taxonomy as an independent science. They cover technologies such as DNA evidence and its applications, computer-assisted species identification, digital morphology, and E-typification. The book also provides insight into effective ways of organizing taxonomic information and discusses what benefits can be leveraged from a rapid growth of taxonomic knowledge.

A Vision and A Strategy for the Future

Not much has changed since E.O. Wilson pointed out how little we know of Earth’s species in 1985. This book offers a vision and a strategy for changing all that. The first current, unapologetic look at morphology and descriptive taxonomy that points out their incredible importance to science and society, this book frames one of the most constructive responses to biodiversity crises. It is a call to action for the taxonomy and museum communities to come together and to organize, plan, innovate, and initiate the most ambitious period of exploration in the long history of taxonomy.

Product Description
This is the standard and definitive reference for virus taxonomy, generated by the ICTV approximately every 3 years. The VIII ICTV Virus Taxonomy Report provides information on 3 orders of viruses, 73 families, 9 subfamilies, 287 genera and 1938 virus species, illustrated by more than 429 pictures and diagrams, most of them in color.

* The standard official ITCV reference for virus taxonomy and nomenclature, compiling data from 500 international experts
* Covers over 6000 recognized viruses, organized by family with diagrams of genome organization and virus replication cycle
* Provides data on the phylogenic relationships between viruses belonging to the same or different taxa
* Now includes information about the qualitative and quantitative relationships between virus sequences ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Virus Taxonomy Classification
Physicians and other people this book is very descriptive and places viruses in each specific catagory.We keep a copy of the set at my lab.It is very good to read. ... Read more

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Taxonomy: Evolution at Work unfolds as a story explaining the strategies in which the different plant groups evolved over time and their struggle for survival by developing new and better characters. The problems faced by the primitive group of land plants are explained and the methods by which the plants intelligently outwit the adversaries such as insects, herbivores, parasites etc. or adverse environmental situations are described. The adaptations thus achieved by the plants made them an evolved taxon. The plants of this taxon, in turn, when faced by new unfavorable situations, elaborated still better characters and formed a third taxon. Similarly fourth, fifth and the n th taxa evolved. All plant groups are described in terms of their successful adaptational characters (intelligence!) and the study of these processes is the study of evolution at work and this is precisely the subject of taxonomy. ... Read more

Product Description
How do we group different subjects on a variety of variables? Should we use a classification procedure in which only the concepts are classified (typology), one in which only empirical entities are classified (taxonomy), or a combination of both?

Kenneth D Bailey addresses these questions and shows how classification methods can be used to improve research. Beginning with an exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of classification procedures, the book covers topics such as: clustering procedures including agglomerative and divisive methods; the relationship among various classification techniques; how clustering methods compare with related statistical techniques; classification resources; and software packages fo ... Read more

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The Third Edition of Microbiology with Diseases by Taxonomy is the most cutting-edge microbiology book available, offering unparalleled currency, accuracy, and assessment.  The state-of-the science approach begins with a compelling focus on emerging diseases and diseases you will encounter in clinical settings. Your comprehension is ensured with end-of-chapter practice that encompasses both visual and conceptual understanding. With this revision, both you and your instructors will benefit from the practice and assessment available with the new, unrivaled MasteringMicrobiology™ program.

Customer Reviews (1)

Get the version with etext access!
I'm half way through my first microbiology course, a nursing prereq at my community college. This text is well-written with very helpful, easy-to-read illustrations and graphs. The depth of detail on the biochemistry is much more than we really need to know so it can be easy to lose your way reading the chapter, trying not to get confused by all the technical bits we don't need (forest for the trees). However, I really need to say how much I love, love, love the Mastering Microbiology access.

I've been using the online textbook access in class rather than dragging the huge paper version around. That's been helpful but isn't of course absolutely necessary. However, in studying for last week's midterm I used all the online animations and quizzes and thought they were wonderful. I understand things about electron transport chain better now than I have ever before and will never forget them because I have this beautiful movie to play in my head. That alone probably helped me get three tricky questions right on my exam. I ended up acing the midterm and had the highest score. I think I'm the only one in my course using Mastering Microbiology. I'm a believer.

The version of the text sold at my CC's bookstore doesn't include the online access. I was totally psyched when I realized that by ordering through Amazon I not only paid $30 less but I got the Mastering Microbiology too. Score! ... Read more

Product Description

Current access paradigms for the Web, i.e., direct access via search engines or database queries and navigational access via static taxonomies, have recently been criticized because they are too rigid or simplistic to effectively cope with a large number of practical search applications. A third paradigm, dynamic taxonomies and faceted search, focuses on user-centered conceptual exploration, which is far more frequent in search tasks than retrieval using exact specification, and has rapidly become pervasive in modern Web data retrieval, especially in critical applications such as product selection for e-commerce. It is a heavily interdisciplinary area, where data modeling, human factors, logic, inference, and efficient implementations must be dealt with holistically.

Sacco, Tzitzikas, and their contributors provide a coherent roadmap to dynamic taxonomies and faceted search. The individual chapters, written by experts in each relevant field and carefully integrated by the editors, detail aspects like modeling, schema design, system implementation, search performance, and user interaction. The basic concepts of each area are introduced, and advanced topics and recent research are highlighted. An additional chapter is completely devoted to current and emerging application areas, including e-commerce, multimedia, multidimensional file systems, and geographical information systems.

The presentation targets advanced undergraduates, graduate students and researchers from different areas – from computer science to library and information science – as well as advanced practitioners. Given that research results are currently scattered among very different publications, this volume will allow researchers to get a coherent and comprehensive picture of the state of the art.

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Product Description
Taxonomies have been fundamental to organizing knowledge and information for centuries.Now they are the backbone of well organized information systems and the lynchpin of findability in an online world.This book is the first taxonomy primer to present how to design, create, apply and maintain structured vocabularies, including taxonomy, thesauri, ontology and folksonomy, specifically for digital information. This comprehensive and accessible guide explains how to make sure both content creators and content consumers are speaking the same language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great book
This is a great book. It is written in a simple and clear language, yet it is far from being simplistic or shallow. It strikes a good balance between WHAT, HOW and WHY of taxonomies catering mostly to the big-picture-loving, philosophically-minded audiences. This is not a technical guide on how to createtaxonomies. Instead, the author explores various issues that plague the world of information / content management (including search, retrieval and structuring) and provides an overview of the most fundamental concepts and methods designed to alleviate those problems.Hence taxonomies are not treated as the panacea but rather as one of the better tools one could use to mitigate some of the pain. This book is fun to read. It is filled with all kinds of meaningful examples, diagrams and pictures and in the end it produces what it claims to produce - an enhanced understanding of the subject matter.

Beyond Google -- Good Introductory Resource for the Aspiring Knowledge Engineer
A good introduction to building conceptual taxonomies to organize information.My interest is primarily legal in nature I found the following article a good secondary resource and my main stimulus for buying (and reading) this book: [...] Trying to organize my own thoughts (my blog) has become progressively more complicated [...] using keywords and topical guides are difficult (the tower of babel provides a good analogy and apt cover illustration).Massive information overload makes work so much harder: (1) difficult to find appropriate references, (2) difficult to build upon the intellectual capital of others in your company, and (3) the lack of a conceptual framework to hold a given topical area makes retaining a working knowledge of the information more difficult.I am particularly interested in legal taxonomic research.I picked up a copy of this book to fill in the gaps in my own knowledge on the subject: there are a lot of excellent research papers on the application of legal taxonomies.I recommend this book (especially in the e-discovery space) that are frustrated by gigabytes of potentially useful information and how to separate the wheat from the chafe.

Just use Google!
The book aspires to teach a reader everything about building enterprise taxonomies. There are chapters dedicated to managing the project of taxonomy' building, procedures one should follow to refine terms and so on. At the same time, author describes what XML is, what are the tables in the database and even tries to give the reader some understanding of object-orientation. Obviously, the book ends up barely scratching the surface in all the areas it talks about. Quite frankly, I could not figure out who's the target audience for this book. I went as far as reading the bios of the reviewers with giving the book positive reviews, unfortunately that didn't help me understand the situation.
On top of that, author looks at everything from the usability to web search point. Nothing on the surface of the book prepared me for that and there are so many other areas where people need taxonomy and ontology, machine reasoning being heavily used one.
At last, but not at least, the book is monumentally, terminally boring. Government manuals and regulations would certainly beat it, but this book could give those a fair fight.
I suggest looking at the table of content and googling for most interesting terms. That will save you a lot of time and money.

Good, clear recommendations for strategy, excellent primer
Of all the canonical books on enterprise information management, such as Rockley's or Rosenfeld and Morville's, Stewart's recent book speaks with less authority but gets the message across in a more precise, terse, and actionable way. For good or not, Stewart does not get mired in conceptual quibbles and does not break any new ground. Unlike when Information Architecture and the World Wide Web was first introduced, Building Enterprise Taxonomies has not launched a revolution of practice and thought. Yet, Building Enterprise Taxonomies isn't really an in-the-trenches technical book either, it describes the technologies but never bothers to give you exact instructions on how to implement the strategy it sets out. So, being neither a ground-breaking conceptual book nor a technical how-to, what does Building Enterprise Taxonomies offer? A lot, actually.

More than anything, Building Enterprise Taxonomies is a first-rate resource for decision making--either helping toformulate your own strategy or providing framing arguments for convincing reluctant executives and stakeholders. Stewart does not take it for granted that people in purchasing roles will understand the value of an enterprise taxonomy; he spends considerable time offering ways to frame the decision, in addition to providing current research data (both economic and process-oriented). Building Enterprise Taxonomies would make an excellent companion to a technical resource: first you frame the situation with Stewart's data and logic, then you roadmap the process with his strategy recommendations, familiarize yourself with the technology with his jargon-free descriptions, and then find a technical manual (or hire a developer) to make the ideas come to reality. For example, in chapter 4 Stewart recommends the development of a content model, as part of an overarching content management strategy, and makes a convincing case for its development, but he never describes the exact process. It's surely a tough balance to strike, seeing both the forest and the trees, and in general Stewart gets the balance right, at least right enough for a reasonably technically-savvy information architect to benefit.

Although Stewart eschews technical jargon, he does clearly favour a particular sort of rhetoric. Perhaps in an effort to reinvigorate the field with its roots, Stewart tends to describe the conceptual issues in terms familiar to library and information science studies. As a librarian, I think he is both historically and conceptually correct, but some translation may have to occur when presenting this information to some computer science types. For example, in chapter 3 Stewart describes the variants and components of a taxonomy and refers to the parts in what are clearly their library names: synonym rings, authority files, etc. Further, Stewart describes facets not by their logical and digital parts, but rather as a librarian would. This kind of straight-forward language is useful in an enterprise setting, however, since it highlights aspects that are of central concern to corporate issues, such as the instability of information, the pace of change, the requirement for authority, the need for speed, and so on. Stewart does bring newer (but now "traditional") information architecture concepts and strategies into a library melee. For example, Stewart's description of card sorting (chapter 6) is very useful, and while news to a librarian, is old hat to an information architect.

The more "technical" sections of Building Enterprise Taxonomies are precise in terms of naming and recommending technologies for strategy, but broad in terms of instruction for implementation. Because Stewart describes technologies by their precise and historically-contingent names, in 5 years Building Enterprise Taxonomies is going to look as dated as those old books with the diskette in the back cover that you find for 25 cents. The issues are sure to still be relevant, but any future peoples will have to update the names and conventions. Stewart gives ANSI/ISO names and numbers where appropriate (chapter 5, factoring and term construction), mentions software packages by name (chapter 6), and describes not merely core technologies such as XML but specific implementations of the logical models (chapter 9, RDF/OWL).

Building Enterprise Taxonomies is a fairly short book, and covers a lot of material, which means Stewart often has to gloss over important details. Stewart does a great job of conceptually linking disparate ideas (e.g., his typology of metadata in chapter 2), but it frequently seems too quick and too simple. Building Enterprise Taxonomies certainly does not read like an academic book, it's cavalier about facts and recommendations, and while it presents a persuasive thesis, it certainly doesn't tackle the critics or alternatives (especially in chapter 1).

The physical book is well constructed and utilitarian in design. The typography is simple and borderline inelegant, but gets the job done. There are very few editorial errors or typos, although a few references to figures and images are mixed-up or missing. References are collected in chapter-specific sections at the back of the book, and the index is decent if not sometimes a little long in the tooth for broad categories. Any slight issues with the index are not a problem if you actually familiarize yourself with the content of the book, since the chapters are clear and well organized, which allow you to easily flip to the appropriate section (after all, Building Enterprise Taxonomies is hardly a canonical reference book, it reads more like a story than a technical manual). Stewart includes many useful diagrams and examples (chapter 8 on RDF is one of the best pictorial descriptions I have ever seen).

Overall Building Enterprise Taxonomies is good book. There are some slight flaws, but it's more a matter of balance than egregious errors. I disagree with some of the balance at times, but another person may find Stewart's balance spot on. Stewart's advice is straight-forward and far from revolutionary, but you'll have a difficult time finding a better primer, and it is a useful reference for ready-to-go strategy advice. Stewart offers tried-and-true advice that is neither full of hype nor outmoded. Stewart clearly believes in certain technologies (such as XML, which is a leitmotif throughout), but I think his thesis is a sound one.

(The copy of the book for review was supplied by the author to mefree of charge.)

For a chapter by chapter review, visit my blog entries at: http://www.iqdupont.com/blog/category/building-enterprise-taxonomies

Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (VOICES)

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

but Mokita Press should hire a proofreader
As it is the first book I have read on taxonomies I cannot compare it to others, but I found it fairly readable.It includes many examples and illustrations which aid in understanding the text.The quotes at the beginning of chapters and some of the sidebars add a little welcome levity to a dry topic while sometimes adding insight as well.My only complaint is that this is the most poorly proofread book I have ever encountered, with an inordinate number of the kinds of errors that a spell-checker might miss but a human editor would be expected to correct. ... Read more