Bloom’s Taxonomy for the Cognitive Realm with Outcomes and Sample Assessments:
With increasing amounts of information available, educators are valuing the integration and application of information above the rote
memorization of increasing amounts of factual knowledge. Bloom’s levels of cognition, from lowest to highest are below. 2 terms:
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Learning Outcomes describe the student behaviors that indicate what the students know and can do after completing the course of study.
Assessments: the projects or student work upon which the student will be assessed.
Level:
Learning Outcomes:
1. Knowledge:
The ability to recall memorized information.
count, define, describe,
draw, enumerate, find,
identify, label, list, match,
name, quote, read, recall,
recite, record, reproduce,
select, sequence, state, tell,
view, write
May involve remembering a wide range of material from
specific facts to complete theories, but all that is required is the
bringing to mind of the appropriate information. Represents the
lowest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain.
Learning outcomes at this level: recall common terms, recall
specific facts, recall methods and procedures, recall basic
concepts, recall principles.
Question verbs: Define, list, state, identify, label, name, who?
When? Where? What?
Examples of Assessments:
 An oral quiz where students recognize the
correct answer, picking it out from a list of
terminology
 A slide lecture where students name the
colors present
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2. Comprehension:
The ability to grasp the meaning of material.
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Classify, cite, conclude,
convert, describe, discuss,
estimate, explain,
generalize, give examples,
illustrate, interpret, locate,
make sense of, paraphrase,
predict, report, restate,
Translating material from one form to another (words to
numbers), interpreting material (explaining or summarizing),
estimating future trends (predicting consequences or effects).
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An oral quiz where students recall the
correct answer, state the correct term from
memory
A multiple choice or T/F (Objective) exam
whereby students name the elements of a
crime
A multiple choice exam where students
supply definitions
An oral quiz where students explain what
the term means
A multiple choice exam where students
supply information or compare slight
differences between similar concepts
Goes one step beyond the simple remembering of material, and
represents the lowest level of understanding.
From the Office of the Chabot Learning Assessment Coordinator, Carole Splendore csplendore@chabotcollege.edu 10.21.10
review, summarize, trace,
understand
Learning outcomes at this level: understand facts and
principles, interpret verbal material, interpret charts and graphs,
translate verbal material to mathematical formulae, estimate the
future consequences implied in data, justify methods and
procedures.
Question verbs: Explain, predict, interpret, infer, summarize,
convert, translate, give example, account for, paraphrase x?
3. Application:
act, administer, articulate,
assess, change, chart,
choose, collect, compute,
construct, contribute,
control, demonstrate,
determine, develop,
discover, dramatize, draw,
establish, extend, imitate,
implement, interview,
include, inform, instruct,
paint, participate, predict,
prepare, produce, provide,
relate, report, select, show,
solve, transfer, use, utilize
4. Analysis:
The ability to use learned material in new and concrete
situations.
Applying rules, methods, concepts, principles, laws, and
theories. Learning outcomes in this area require a higher level
of understanding than those under comprehension.
Learning outcomes at this level: apply concepts and principles
to new situations, apply laws and theories to practical
situations, solve mathematical problems, construct graphs and
charts, demonstrate the correct usage of a method or procedure.
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An oral quiz where, when given two terms,
students explain how the concepts are
related to each other or the whole
A quiz where students name the key
concepts from a video that was presented,
in an oral application whereby they are
simulating business scenarios
Balance chemical equations
A multiple choice exam where students
apply Miranda rights to a fact pattern
Question verbs: How could x be used to y? How would you
show, make use of, modify, demonstrate, solve, or apply x to
conditions y?
The ability to break down material into its component
parts.
break down, characterize,
classify, compare, contrast,
correlate, debate, deduce,
diagram, differentiate,
discriminate, distinguish,
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Identifying parts, analysis of relationships between parts,
recognition of the organizational principles involved.
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A essay or multiple choice exam whereby
students compare and contrast two different
theories regarding the atom
A multiple choice exam where students
apply Miranda rights to a fact pattern while
analyzing the relevancy of the facts
It is possible an analysis is necessary before
From the Office of the Chabot Learning Assessment Coordinator, Carole Splendore csplendore@chabotcollege.edu 10.21.10
examine, focus, illustrate,
infer, limit, outline, point
out, prioritize, recognize,
research, relate, separate,
subdivide
Learning outcomes here represent a higher intellectual level
than comprehension and application because they require an
understanding of both the content and the structural form of the
material.
Learning outcomes at this level: recognize unstated
assumptions, recognizes logical fallacies in reasoning,
distinguish between facts and inferences, evaluate the relevancy
of data, analyze the organizational structure of a work (art,
music, writing).
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Question verbs: Differentiate, compare / contrast, distinguish x
from y, how does x affect or relate to y? Why? how? What
piece of x is missing / needed?
5. Synthesis:
The ability to put parts together to form a new whole.
adapt, anticipate,
categorize, collaborate,
combine, communicate,
compare, compile,
compose, construct,
contrast, create, design,
develop, devise, express,
facilitate, formulate,
generate, incorporate,
individualize, initiate,
integrate, intervene, invent,
make up, model, negotiate,
organize, perform, plan,
pretend, produce, progress,
propose, rearrange,
reconstruct, reinforce,
reorganize, revise, rewrite,
Learning outcomes in this area stress creative behaviors, with major
emphasis on the formulation of new patterns or structure.
By definition, synthesis cannot be assessed with multiple-choice
questions. Learning objectives could be: a production of a unique
communication (theme or speech), a plan of operations (research
proposal), or a set of abstract relations (scheme for classifying
information).
Learning objectives at this level: write a well organized paper,
give a well organized speech, write a creative short story (or
poem or music), propose a plan for an experiment, integrate
learning from different areas into a plan for solving a problem,
formulate a new scheme for classifying objects (or events, or
ideas).
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an application, for it to be an appropriate
application; with thought, as needed in
business, such as if there are multiple
possible solutions, but some are more
appropriate than others
The facts drive the analysis. How do you
filter the facts into a model within the
equation.
Include exam questions whereby students
are driven to apply critical thinking, which
most likely resides at the analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation levels. More than
one answer is possible.
an oral quiz where a student is asked, “a
patient comes in the emergency room with
the following symptoms:….what is wrong
with them?
an oral quiz where a student is asked, “a
person has had a stroke in this area of the
brain, what are their symptoms?”
students perform a high-tech simulation
whereby students identify the symptoms
and identify the correct treatment, while
troubleshooting. Evaluation is achieved by
reviewing a video
Put together a term project whereby
students combine software elements and
geographical facts and concepts previously
learned, to address problems such as where
to locate a new shopping center: graphs,
maps, tables of data
A group project where students determine
From the Office of the Chabot Learning Assessment Coordinator, Carole Splendore csplendore@chabotcollege.edu 10.21.10
structure, substitute,
validate
Question verbs: Design, construct, develop, formulate, imagine,
create, change, write a short story and label the following
elements:
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5. Evaluation:
appraise, argue, assess,
choose, compare and
contrast, conclude, criticize,
critique, decide, defend,
evaluate, interpret, judge,
justify, predict, prioritize,
prove, rank, rate, reframe,
select, support
The ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel,
poem, research report) for a given purpose.
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The judgments are to be based on definite criteria, which may
be internal (organization) or external (relevance to the purpose).
The student may determine the criteria or be given them.
Learning outcomes in this area are highest in the cognitive
hierarchy because they contain elements of all the other
categories, plus conscious value judgments based on clearly
defined criteria.
Learning outcomes at this level: judge the logical consistency
of written material, judge the adequacy with which conclusions
are supported by data, judge the value of a work (art, music,
writing) by the use of internal criteria, judge the value of a
work (art, music, writing) by use of external standards of
excellence.
Question verbs: Justify, appraise, evaluate, judge x according to
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and create an original artwork
presentations whereby students evaluate the
relationships between concepts in organic
chemistry, and their uses
Allow the course to sacrifice some content,
and focus more on the deeper messages
within
The lab is coordinated with the lecture,
whereby they apply the content to
experiments which speak to the deeper
themes
A lab report where students identify two
unknown compounds, by way of physical
and stetroscopic tests
Give students a business case which they
analyze the benefits and disbenefits of a
business that they would like to start. This
is extra credit, but the ones who did the
project are now helping the others, the
others try it, and the class is up from 1/3rd to
2/3rd trying it. Last 1/3rd will be evaluating
the work of the others.
(All quizzes and homework are online, so
course content is adequately covered in
class.)
A summary critique of someone else’s
scholarly work, a video regarding the
unevenness of development around the
world, which they then critically assess this
theory
Provide good models of evaluation. They
have 3-5 think pieces, which are 2 page
papers wherby they provide their opinions
on the basic sociological elements of crime.
They get practice at evaluation, and this will
be on the test. Hand out the best ones back
From the Office of the Chabot Learning Assessment Coordinator, Carole Splendore csplendore@chabotcollege.edu 10.21.10
given criteria. Which option would be better/preferable to party
y?
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to the class.
Thus learning should be built throughout
the semester, while the concepts at hand are
fresh.
Evaluation could be real-world written
analysis of a defibrulator
Challenge students with examples for the
actual bar exam, or structure the course as it
were a UC Berkeley course,
From the Office of the Chabot Learning Assessment Coordinator, Carole Splendore csplendore@chabotcollege.edu 10.21.10