Employing Bloom’s Taxonomy
When Developing Course Outcomes
By their nature (developing knowledge, capabilities and skills) course outcomes naturally imply
a hierarchy of learning and are well suited to employ Bloom’s Taxonomy during their writing.
Ideally, as the student progresses in the curriculum, there will be evidence of that the student is
acquiring higher-level learning skills.
Make sure your course outcomes reflect the appropriate cognitive level that the course
develops in the students.
The following table shows these levels and the verbs that can be used to indicate that level in
an outcome.
Outcome Verbs at Each Bloom Taxonomy Level
Cognitive level
Knowledge
Definition
Illustrative verbs
Recalling or remembering
arrange, define, describe, duplicate,
previously learned information
without necessarily understanding, identify, label, list, match, memorize,
name, order, outline, recognize,
using, or changing it.
relate, recall, repeat, reproduce, select,
state
Comprehension
Understanding (grasping the
meaning) information that has
been communicated without
necessarily relating it to anything
else.
classify, convert, defend, describe,
discuss, distinguish, estimate,
explain, express, extend, generalized,
give example(s), identify, indicate,
infer, locate, paraphrase, predict,
Application
Using a general concept to solve
problems in a particular situation.
Applying knowledge to actual
situations. Using learned material
in new and concrete situations
1
recognize, rewrite, report, restate,
review, select, summarize, translate
apply, change, choose, compute,
demonstrate, discover, dramatize,
employ, illustrate, interpret,
manipulate, modify, operate, practice,
predict, prepare, produce, relate
schedule, show, sketch, solve, use,
write
Analysis
Synthesis
1. Breaking down ideas into
simpler parts and seeing how the
parts relate and are organized.
May focus on identification of
parts or analysis of relationships
between parts, or recognition of
organizational principles
analyze, appraise, breakdown,
calculate, categorize, compare,
contrast, criticize, diagram,
differentiate, discriminate, distinguish,
examine, experiment, identify,
illustrate, infer, model, outline, point
out, question, relate, select, separate,
subdivide, test
Creating something new by putting arrange, assemble, categorize, collect,
parts of different ideas together to combine, comply, compose,
make a whole. Rearranging
construct, create, design,
component ideas into a new
develop, devise, explain, formulate,
whole.
generate, plan, prepare, propose,
rearrange, reconstruct, relate, reorganize,
revise, rewrite, set up, summarize,
Evaluation
Judging the value of material or
methods as they might be applied
in a particular situation. Making
judgments based on internal
evidence or external criteria
2
synthesize, tell, write
appraise, argue, assess, attach,
choose, compare, conclude,
contrast, defend, describe,
discriminate, estimate, evaluate,
explain, judge, justify, interpret,
relate, predict, rate, select,
summarize, support, value