Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Improve Student Learning

Whether practiced for an individual lesson or during an entire school year, Bloom’s Taxonomy is a powerful tool for defining key learning objectives. These frameworks have helped educators structure classroom teaching, communication, and assessment “to create effective and meaningful instruction…[when] plan[ning] new or revis[ing] existing curricula; test[ing] the relevance of course goals and objectives; design[ing] instruction, assignments, and activities; and develop[ing] authentic assessments.”

Created in 1956, the original list outlined six progressive steps in student learning: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. These steps received an update in the 2001 Revised Taxonomy to better reflect the active nature of learning: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create. The team behind this revision also defined four types of knowledge powering these processes: Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, and Metacognitive.

Defining Learning Objectives

Bloom’s Taxonomy is hierarchical; it builds skills successively. Both teachers and students have a game plan for working through learning objectives such as understanding, remembering, or moving quickly into higher-level skills.

In addition, Bloom’s provides an organizing structure for creating and implementing learning objectives, which helps teachers work through often-changing curriculum standards and assessment methodologies. Educators at the University of Central Florida credit Bloom’s with “offer[ing] a guiding framework for breaking [a confusing array of standards and curriculum requirements] down into accessible chunks which can be used to direct day-to-day lesson plans and can be easily compared to their own goals for the class.”

Access to a common terminology when describing classroom learning goals can make cooperation between educators and students – and between educators and other educators – even more effective.

Creating Classroom Activities

The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy uses verbs instead of nouns to more directly connect learning objectives to actions, skills, and activities. Educators can use those action words to generate potential questions to ask students in the classroom. Those questions can then lead to activities designed to give students opportunities for answering those questions and gaining the skills outlined in the taxonomy. 

Assessing Learning Goals

Educators “can also apply Bloom’s Taxonomy to existing quizzes and examinations questions to assess what levels of cognition they cultivate.” This table provides an outline of how different assessment types align with different levels and their corresponding verbs. For the “Analyze” knowledge level, for example, suggested verbs include “appraise,” “differentiate,” and “outline.” Suggested assessments include surveys, case studies, graphs, and questionnaires. Applied to assessment methodologies along with learning objectives and classroom activities, Bloom’s Taxonomy can help educators “maintain consistency between assessment methods, content, and instructional materials and identify weak areas.”

For additional ideas about how to apply Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom, check out these resources:

• Critical Thinking and Information Literacy: Bloom's Taxonomy
• Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Outcomes