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Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework that organizes levels of thinking from remembering and understanding to applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating — helping designers align objectives, practice, and assessment.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Think About the Level of Thinking You Want Learners to Use

Bloom's Taxonomy organizes learning into levels of cognitive thinking, from remembering information to creating something new.

Instructional designers can use the framework to make learning objectives more specific and align practice and assessment with what learners actually need to do.

Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create

The Six Levels Describe Different Types of Thinking

Each level suggests a different kind of learner performance. The goal is not to make every activity reach the highest level.

1
Remember Recall facts, terms, steps, or information.
2
Understand Explain ideas or interpret meaning.
3
Apply Use knowledge or a process in a situation.
4
Analyze Break information apart and examine relationships.
5
Evaluate Judge options using criteria or evidence.
6
Create Produce, design, develop, or construct something new.

Use Observable Verbs to Clarify the Objective

Bloom's Taxonomy can help turn vague objectives into clearer descriptions of what learners should demonstrate.

Too vague
“Understand the escalation process.”

It is difficult to observe “understanding” directly. What should learners actually be able to do with the process?

Identify Recognize when escalation is required.
Apply Follow the correct escalation steps.
Compare Distinguish between two escalation paths.
Evaluate Choose the best response for a situation.
The verb should describe the evidence you expect learners to produce.

Match the Learning Activity to the Thinking Level

If the objective requires application or judgment, learners need more than content exposure. Give them an activity that uses the same kind of thinking.

Remember
Recall the steps

Learners review the sequence and identify the correct order.

Example: sequencing activity or quick knowledge check
Apply
Use the process

Learners encounter a realistic situation and select the correct action.

Example: scenario, simulation, or guided practice
Evaluate
Judge the response

Learners compare possible approaches and defend or select the strongest option.

Example: case study, critique, or decision activity

Align the Objective, Practice, and Assessment

The level of thinking in the objective should carry through the learning experience. Avoid asking learners to practice one thing and then assessing something else.

Objective
Apply

Use the escalation process in a customer situation.

→
Practice
Scenario

Learners decide whether and how to escalate.

→
Assessment
Application

Learners respond correctly to a new scenario.

If the objective says “apply,” a recall-only quiz may not provide enough evidence.

Higher Is Not Automatically Better

Bloom's Taxonomy is often shown as a pyramid, but learning does not always need to climb neatly from Remember to Create.

Use the level the job requires

A learner who only needs to recognize a safety symbol may not need an Analyze or Create activity.

Right level beats highest level.
Learners may move between levels

Real work can involve remembering one piece of information, applying another, and evaluating a decision in the same task.

Think flexibly, not mechanically.
Bloom's Taxonomy is a planning tool, not a requirement to make every learning experience increasingly complex.

Use Bloom's Taxonomy as an Alignment Check

Before development begins, use the framework to check whether the learning objective, activity, and assessment ask learners to use compatible levels of thinking.

✓
Objective Is the expected learner performance observable?
✓
Level Does the thinking level match what the job requires?
✓
Practice Do learners practice that type of thinking?
✓
Assessment Does the assessment collect the right evidence?
Simple test
Do the objective, practice, and assessment ask learners to do the same kind of thinking?

If not, one of those pieces may need to change.

Bloom's Taxonomy is most useful when it improves alignment — not when it simply adds a verb to an objective.

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