Bloom's Taxonomy
Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical model created by Benjamin Bloom to classify learning objectives by levels of complexity and specificity. Bloom’s Taxonomy is hierarchical, meaning that learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels. You will often see Bloom’s Taxonomy displayed as a pyramid graphic to help demonstrate this hierarchy. See the image below.
Image: The University of Florida, Center for Instructional Technology and Training
The Six Levels of Learning Further Explained
- Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long‐term memory.
- Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
- Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure for executing or implementing.
- Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts and determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
- Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.
- Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.
Revised Bloom's Taxonomy Process Verbs, Assessments ,and Questioning Strategies
The table below is adapted from Texas A&M International University Bloom's Taxonomy Guide.
| Level of Taxonomy | Definition | Process Verbs | Assessments | Question Stems |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creating | Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things. Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing. | Act, arrange, assemble, combine, compose, construct, create, design, develop, devise, formulate generate, improve, infer, invent, imagine, plan, predict prepare revise, show, write | Advertisement, blueprint, cartoon, collage, film, formulas, invention, new game, newspaper, painting, plan, play song, poem, story, video | Can you design a... to...? Can you see a possible solution to...? How would you devise your own way to...? What would happen if...? How many ways can you...? Can you create new and unusual uses for...? |
| Evaluating | Justifying a decision or course of action. Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, judging. | Argue, assess, choose, compare, conclude, criticize, debate, decide, defend, determine, evaluate, justify, prioritize, rate, recommend, support, tell why, value | Conclusion, debate, editorial, investigation, judgment, opinion, recommendations, report, survey, verdict | Is there a better solution to...? What do you think about. ..? Do you think... is a good or bad thing? How would you feel if...? How effective are...? What are the pros and cons of...? |
| Analyzing | Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationship. Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, interrogating, finding. | Calculate, categorize, classify, compare, contrast, diagram, differentiate, discover, distinguish, examine, experiment, group, interpret investigate, order, organize, question relate, research, sequence solve, survey | Chart, checklist, database, diagram, graph, illustration, investigation, list, outline, plan, questionnaire, report, spreadsheet, summary | Which events could not have happened? How is...similar to...? What are some other outcomes? Why did...occur? What was the problem with...? |
| Applying | Using information in another familiar situation. Implementing, carrying out, using, executing. | Adapt, apply, calculate, change, compute, demonstrate, dramatize, draw, experiment, illustrate, list, make, manipulate, practice, produce, sequence, show, solve, teach, use | Demonstration, diagram, experiment, illustration, journal, lesson, map, model, performance, poster, prediction, presentation, report, scrapbook, simulation | Do you know of another instance where...? Can you group...? Which factors would you change...?What questions would you ask of...? From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about...? |
| Understanding | Explaining ideas or Observe concepts. Interpreting, summarızing, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining | Ask, calculate, convert, describe, discuss, explain, give examples, identify, locate, observe, recognize, report, research, retell, review, summarize, tell | Debate, definition, dramatization, example, explanation, label, list, outline, quiz, recitation, reproduction, story problems, summary, test | Can you write in your own words? How would you explain...? What could happen next? Who do you think...? What was the main idea...? |
| Remembering | Recalling information. Recognizing, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding. | Choose, cite, define, describe, give example, group, know, label, list, listen, locate, match, memorize, name, quote, recall, recite, record, repeat, select, underline | Definition, fact, label, list, quiz, reproduction, test, workbook, worksheet | What happened after...? How many...? What is...? -Who...? Can you name...? Which is true or false? |
Additional Information and Technical Support
Additional information is available in the solution articles Obtaining Learning Objectives from the Knowledge Management System (KMS) and Course Alignment and Course Mapping.
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