instructional design worldwide. However, it is currently
more often applied in its revised version.
What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Bloom’s Taxonomy attempts to classify learning stages
from remembering facts to creating new ideas based on
the acquired knowledge.
The idea of Bloom’s Taxonomy is that learning is a
consecutive process. Before applying a concept in real
life, we must understand it. Before we understand a
concept, we must remember the key facts related to it.
Therefore, although initially described as a framework, it
is now often depicted as a pyramid.
The basis of the pyramid is Knowledge, the first level of
learning. Above it
lies Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis a
nd Evaluation. Each level above builds upon the one
below, so you can only move up the pyramid one step at
a time.
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.
Original Bloom’s Taxonomy
The original taxonomy was first described in 1956 in the
book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by American
educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his
coauthors Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and
David Krathwohl. Their book classifies learning goals
into one of the categories mentioned above (from
Knowledge to Evaluation).
Their goal was to provide teachers with a common
vocabulary to discuss curricular and evaluation problems
with greater precision.
The language teachers had been using to explain what
they expected of their students was, according to the
authors, no more than “nebulous terms.”
“For example, some teachers believe their students
should ‘really understand,’ others desire their students to
internalize knowledge, still others want their students to
grasp the core or essence or comprehend. Do they all
mean the same thing?” asked the authors.
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
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:

Comparing is finding correspondences
between two ideas or objects (e.g.,

comparing historical events to their
What are the most spoken languages of
contemporary analogues).
Latin America?


What is the chemical formula of water?

Who was the first president of the
effect model of a system, for example,
explaining the causes of the French
Revolution.
United States?
The associated cognitive processes, as already noted,
are:
Explaining is constructing a cause-and-
3. Apply
Now, it’s time to use learned facts and abstractions in
new contexts and particular situations.

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
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:
dates of important historical events).

2. Understand
Executing is applying a procedure to a
familiar task (e.g., calculating the root of
a number).
At this point, learners might be asked to explain a
concept in their own words, describe a mathematical
graph or clarify a metaphor.

Implementing is about applying a
procedure to an unfamiliar task (e.g.,
using Newton’s Second Law in a new
The processes associated with understanding are:
situation).

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
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.
may be giving several examples of
Suprematist paintings.

The three particular processes associated with this stage
are:
Classifying is determining a category of
something. An example is the
classification of mental disorders.

Differentiating means distinguishing
important from unimportant parts of


Summarizing means retrieving a
presented material (e.g., distinguishing
general theme of significant points (e.g.,
between relevant and irrelevant
writing a short summary of a story).
numbers in a mathematical word
problem).
Inferring is drawing a logical
conclusion from given information. It

Organizing involves identifying how
may be formulating grammatical
elements fit or function within a
principles of a foreign language from the
structure (e.g., finding the hypothesis,
presented examples.
method, data and conclusion in a
research report).

Attributing means determining a point
criteria. An example might be devising
of view, bias, values, or intent
multiple solutions for a social problem.
underlying presented material. An
example would be to identify the

Planning is about coming up with a
procedure for completing a task (e.g.,
author's point of view of an essay.
preparing an outline of an article).
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?

(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.
What are the most absurd arguments
against vegetarianism?
Evaluating is divided into checking and critiquing.

Producing means inventing a product
Checking means detecting
inconsistencies or fallacies in a process
or product. For example, it’s
determining if a scientist’s conclusions
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.
follow from observed data.

Critiquing involves finding
inconsistencies between a product and
external criteria. For instance, it’s
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.
judging which of two methods is the
best for solving a problem.
6. Create
Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs
This is the most complex stage of the learning process
and the top of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.
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.
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
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.”