BLOOM'S TAXONOMY OF EDUCATIONAL

OBJECTIVES
One of the most widely used ways of organizing levels of expertise is according to Bloom's Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives. (Bloom et al., 1994; Gronlund, 1991; Krathwohl et al., 1956.) Bloom's Taxonomy (Tables
1-3) uses a multi-tiered scale to express the level of expertise required to achieve each measurable student
outcome. Organizing measurable student outcomes in this way will allow us to select appropriate classroom
assessment techniques for the course.

There are three taxonomies. Which of the three to use for a given measurable student outcome
depends upon the original goal to which the measurable student outcome is connected. There are knowledge-
based goals, skills-based goals, and affective goals (affective: values, attitudes, and interests); accordingly, there
is a taxonomy for each. Within each taxonomy, levels of expertise are listed in order of increasing complexity.
Measurable student outcomes that require the higher levels of expertise will require more sophisticated
classroom assessment techniques.

The course goal in Figure 2--"student understands proper dental hygiene"--is an example of a
knowledge-based goal. It is knowledge-based because it requires that the student learn certain facts
and concepts. An example of a skills-based goal for this course might be "student flosses teeth
properly." This is a skills-based goal because it requires that the student learn how to do something.
Finally, an affective goal for this course might be "student cares about proper oral hygiene." This is an
affective goal because it requires that the student's values, attitudes, or interests be affected by the
course.

Table 1: Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives for Knowledge-Based Goals

Level of Example of Measurable
Description of Level
Expertise Student Outcome

Recall, or recognition of terms, ideas, procedure, theories, When is the first day of
1. Knowledge
etc. Spring?

Translate, interpret, extrapolate, but not see full

2. What does the summer
implications or transfer to other situations, closer to literal
Comprehension solstice represent?
translation.

What would Earth's seasons

Apply abstractions, general principles, or methods to
3. Application be like in specific regions
specific concrete situations.
with a different axis tilt?

Separation of a complex idea into its constituent parts and

an understanding of organization and relationship between Why are seasons reversed
4. Analysis the parts. Includes realizing the distinction between in the southern
hypothesis and fact as well as between relevant and hemisphere?
extraneous variables.

5. Synthesis Creative, mental construction of ideas and concepts from If the longest day of the
Table 1: Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives for Knowledge-Based Goals
Level of Example of Measurable
Description of Level
Expertise Student Outcome

multiple sources to form complex ideas into a new, year is in June, why is the
integrated, and meaningful pattern subject to given northern hemisphere hottest
constraints. in August?

What would be the

To make a judgment of ideas or methods using external
important variables for
6. Evaluation evidence or self-selected criteria substantiated by
predicting seasons on a
observations or informed rationalizations.
newly discovered planet?

Table 2: Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives for Skills-Based Goals

Level of Example of Measurable
Description of Level
Expertise Student Outcome

Some of the colored samples you see will need dilution

Uses sensory cues to guide before you take their spectra. Using only observation,
Perception
actions how will you decide which solutions might need to be
diluted?

Demonstrates a readiness to
Describe how you would go about taking the absorbance
Set take action to perform the task
spectra of a sample of pigments?
or objective

Guided Knows steps required to Determine the density of a group of sample metals with
Response complete the task or objective regular and irregular shapes.

Performs task or objective in a

Using the procedure described below, determine the
somewhat confident,
Mechanism quantity of copper in your unknown ore. Report its mean
proficient, and habitual
value and standard deviation.
manner

Performs task or objective in a

Complex Overt Use titration to determine the Ka for an unknown weak
confident, proficient, and
Response acid.
habitual manner

You are performing titrations on a series of unknown

Performs task or objective as
acids and find a variety of problems with the resulting
above, but can also modify
Adaptation curves, e.g., only 3.0 ml of base is required for one acid
actions to account for new or
while 75.0 ml is required in another. What can you do to
problematic situations
get valid data for all the unknown acids?

Recall your plating and etching experiences with an

Creates new tasks or
aluminum substrate. Choose a different metal substrate
Organization objectives incorporating
and design a process to plate, mask, and etch so that a
learned ones
pattern of 4 different metals is created.
Table 3: Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives for Affective Goals
Example of Measurable
Level of Expertise Description of Level
Student Outcome

When I'm in class I am attentive to

Demonstrates a willingness to participate
Receiving the instructor, take notes, etc. I do
in the activity
not read the newspaper instead.

Shows interest in the objects, phenomena,

I complete my homework and
Responding or activity by seeking it out or pursuing it
participate in class discussions.
for pleasure

Internalizes an appreciation for (values) I seek out information in popular

Valuing
the objectives, phenomena, or activity media related to my class.

Begins to compare different values, and Some of the ideas I've learned in
Organization resolves conflicts between them to form my class differ from my previous
an internally consistent system of values beliefs. How do I resolve this?

I've decided to take my family on a

Characterization by a Adopts a long-term value system that is
vacation to visit some of the places
Value or Value Complex "pervasive, consistent, and predictable"
I learned about in my class.

To determine the level of expertise required for each measurable student outcome, first decide which of these
three broad categories (knowledge-based, skills-based, and affective) the corresponding course goal belongs to.
Then, using the appropriate Bloom's Taxonomy, look over the descriptions of the various levels of expertise.
Determine which description most closely matches that measurable student outcome. As can be seen from the
examples given in the three Tables, there are different ways of representing measurable student outcomes, e.g.,
as statements about students (Figure 2), as questions to be asked of students (Tables 1 and 2), or as statements
from the student's perspective (Table 3). You may find additional ways of representing measurable student
outcomes; those listed in Figure 2 and in Tables 1-3 are just examples.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a convenient way to describe the degree to which we want our students to understand
and use concepts, to demonstrate particular skills, and to have their values, attitudes, and interests affected. It is
critical that we determine the levels of student expertise that we are expecting our students to achieve because
this will determine which classroom assessment techniques are most appropriate for the course. Though the
most common form of classroom assessment used in introductory college courses--multiple choice tests--might
be quite adequate for assessing knowledge and comprehension (levels 1 and 2, Table 1), this type of assessment
often falls short when we want to assess our students knowledge at the higher levels of synthesis and
evaluation (levels 5 and 6).4

Multiple-choice tests also rarely provide information about achievement of skills-based goals. Similarly,
traditional course evaluations, a technique commonly used for affective assessment, do not generally provide
useful information about changes in student values, attitudes, and interests.

Thus, commonly used assessment techniques, while perhaps providing a means for assigning grades, often do
not provide us (or our students) with useful feedback for determining whether students are attaining our course
goals. Usually, this is due to a combination of not having formalized goals to begin with, not having translated
those goals into outcomes that are measurable, and not using assessment techniques capable of measuring
expected student outcomes given the levels of expertise required to achieve them. Using the CIA model of
course development, we can ensure that our curriculum, instructional methods, and classroom assessment
techniques are properly aligned with course goals.

Note that Bloom's Taxonomy need not be applied exclusively after course goals have been defined. Indeed,
Bloom's Taxonomy and the words associated with its different categories can help in the goals-defining process
itself. Thus, Bloom's Taxonomy can be used in an iterative fashion to first state and then refine course goals.
Bloom's Taxonomy can finally be used to identify which classroom assessment techniques are most appropriate
for measuring these goals.

The taxonomy of educational objectives was supposed to help teachers speak

the same language and thus “facilitate the exchange of information about
their curricular developments and evaluation devices.”
Though it was designed primarily for college professors, it finally became popular among educators, from K-12
teachers to corporate trainers.

Since its publication, the book has been translated into more than twenty languages and is now used for
instructional design worldwide. However, it is currently more often applied in its revised version .

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

To provide learners with clearer instructional goals, a group of researchers led by Bloom’s colleague David
Krathwohl and one of Bloom’s students, Lorin Anderson, revised the taxonomy in 2001.
In the new variant, nouns were replaced by action verbs. Also, the two highest levels of the taxonomy were
swapped. The new learning stages are Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create.
The authors also defined cognitive processes associated with these instructional goals. For example, the
ability to remember requires recognizing and recalling.

Bloom’s Taxonomy levels

Let’s take a closer look at each learning stage, based on the book describing the revised framework A
Taxonomy For Learning, Teaching and Assessing by Krahtwohl and Anderson. The authors recommend
reading the name of each learning category as though preceded by the phrase “The student is able to…” or
“The student learns to…”

1. Remember
This stage of learning is about memorizing basic facts, dates, events, persons, places, concepts and patterns.
At this level, educators might ask learners simple questions like:

 What are the most spoken languages of Latin America?

 What is the chemical formula of water?

 Who was the first president of the United States?

The associated cognitive processes, as already noted, are:

 Recognizing means locating knowledge in long-term memory related to presented material

(e.g., recognizing the dates of important historical events).
  Recalling is retrieving knowledge from long-term memory (e.g., recalling the dates of
important historical events).

2. Understand
At this point, learners might be asked to explain a concept in their own words, describe a mathematical graph or
clarify a metaphor.
The processes associated with understanding are:
 Interpreting implies changing from one form of representation to another. It might be transforming
numerical information into verbal.

 Exemplifying is finding a specific illustration of a concept or principle. It may be giving several

examples of Suprematist paintings.

 Classifying is determining a category of something. An example is the classification of mental

disorders.

 Summarizing means retrieving a general theme of significant points (e.g., writing a short summary of
a story).

 Inferring is drawing a logical conclusion from given information. It may be formulating grammatical
principles of a foreign language from the presented examples.

 Comparing is finding correspondences between two ideas or objects (e.g., comparing historical
events to their contemporary analogues).

 Explaining is constructing a cause-and-effect model of a system, for example, explaining the causes
of the French Revolution.

3. Apply
Now, it’s time to use learned facts and abstractions in new contexts and particular situations.

For example, students might be asked to discuss phenomena described in one scientific paper using terms and
concepts of another paper.

The processes of cognition corresponding to this stage are:

 Executing is applying a procedure to a familiar task (e.g., calculating the root of a number).

 Implementing is about applying a procedure to an unfamiliar task (e.g., using Newton’s Second Law
in a new situation).

4. Analyze
At this level, students are supposed to break down concepts and examine their relationships.

For instance, they might be asked to recognize the genre of a painting or describe the leading causes of the Great
Depression.
The three particular processes associated with this stage are:

 Differentiating means distinguishing important from unimportant parts of presented material (e.g.,
distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant numbers in a mathematical word problem).

 Organizing involves identifying how elements fit or function within a structure (e.g., finding the
hypothesis, method, data and conclusion in a research report).

 Attributing means determining a point of view, bias, values, or intent underlying presented material.
An example would be to identify the author’s point of view of an essay.

5. Evaluate
In this stage, learners are expected to use their knowledge and skills to appraise a situation, justify their stand or
criticize others’ opinions. They should be able to point out logical fallacies in arguments or compare a work to the
highest standards in its field.

They might be asked, for example:

 In your opinion, is online piracy ethical?

 Do you consider jazz music to be high art?

 What are the most absurd arguments against vegetarianism?

Evaluating is divided into checking and critiquing.

 Checking means detecting inconsistencies or fallacies in a process or product. For example, it’s
determining if a scientist’s conclusions follow from observed data.

 Critiquing involves finding inconsistencies between a product and external criteria. For instance, it’s
judging which of two methods is the best for solving a problem.

6. Create
This is the most complex stage of the learning process and the top of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.

At this level, learners combine known patterns, ideas and facts to create original work or formulate their solution to a
problem.

They might be asked to compose a song, rewrite a story in another setting or formulate a hypothesis and propose a
way of testing it.

The three associated cognitive processes are:

 Generating involves coming up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria. An example might be
devising multiple solutions for a social problem.

 Planning is about coming up with a procedure for completing a task (e.g., preparing an outline of an
article).
  Producing means inventing a product (e.g., writing a short story that takes place during the American
Revolution).

Why Bloom’s Taxonomy is important.

Bloom’s Taxonomy can help educators map learning within a single lesson or even a whole course.

Using the taxonomy as a guide, trainers can identify clear instructional goals corresponding to each taxonomy level
and create plans to achieve them.

By setting achievable objectives for learners, instructors make them more active and responsible for their education.

The taxonomy can also be useful for evaluating learners correctly. An essay, for example, is probably not the best
form of testing when learners only need to remember basic facts and terminology related to the topic. But it will be
appropriate at the evaluation stage when they are expected to formulate their opinion on an issue.

Bloom’s taxonomy allows educators to gauge the learners’ progress. It helps teachers determine which level every
learner is on and assign them an individual task.

Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs

When talking about Bloom’s taxonomy, action verbs associated with the categories and cognitive processes are
often mentioned. Instructors use these verbs to describe activities required for achieving educational objectives
corresponding to each level.

For instance, at the analyzing level, the Azusa Pacific University recommends using verbs
like “compare”, “distinguish”, and “simplify” when formulating instructional tasks.

There is a list of Bloom’s taxonomy verbs, created by the University of Arkansas. Using these verbs can help learners
explicitly navigate what they must do to demonstrate their mastery of the objective.
However, neither Bloom’s original book nor his followers’ book contains a list of such verbs. The authors of a study of
47 verb lists collected from 35 universities and textbooks note: “There was very little agreement between these lists,
most of which were not supported by evidence explaining where the verbs came from.”

Nevertheless, given that such lists of verbs are being created anyway, the authors identified verbs that appeared in
more than 50% of the listings. Then they identified verbs for which 50% of their appearances were in one specific tier.
Using these verbs, the authors constructed “A Master List of Action Verbs for Learning Outcomes.”