However, we don’t always start with lower-order skills and step through
the entire taxonomy for each concept you present in your course. That
approach would become tedious–for both you and your students! Instead,
start by considering the level of learners in your course:
1. Are lots of your students freshmen? Is this an “Introduction to…”
course? If so, many of your learning objectives may target the lower-
order Bloom’s skills, because your students are building
foundational knowledge. However, even in this situation, we would
strive to move a few of your objectives into
the applying and analyzing level, but getting too far up in the
taxonomy could create frustration and unachievable goals.
2. Are most of your students juniors and seniors? Graduate students?
Do your students have a solid foundation in much of the terminology
and processes you will be working on in your course? If so, then you
should not have many remembering and understanding level
objectives. You may need a few, for any radically new concepts
specific to your course. However, these advanced students should
be able to master higher-order learning objectives. Too many lower-
level objectives might cause boredom or apathy.
How Bloom’s works with learning objectives
Fortunately, there are “verb tables” to help identify which action verbs
align with each level in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
You may notice that some of these verbs on the table are associated with
multiple Bloom’s Taxonomy levels. These “multilevel verbs” are actions
that could apply to different activities. For example, you could have an
objective stating “At the end of this lesson, students will be able
to explain the difference between H2O and OH-.” This would be
an understanding-level objective. However, if you wanted the students
to be able to “…explain the shift in the chemical structure of water
throughout its various phases.” This would be an analyzing-level verb.
Adding to this confusion, you can locate Bloom’s verb charts that list
verbs at levels different from what we list below. Just keep in mind that it
is the skill, action, or activity you will teach using that verb that
determines the Bloom’s Taxonomy level.
Bloom’s
Level Key Verbs (keywords) Example Learning Objective
By the end of this lesson, the stude
design, formulate, build, invent, able to design an original homewor
create, compose, generate, dealing with the principle of conser
Create derive, modify, develop. energy.
choose, support, relate, By the end of this lesson, the stude
determine, defend, judge, able to determine whether using
grade, compare, contrast, argue, conservation of energy or conserva
justify, support, convince, select, momentum would be more appropr
Evaluate evaluate. solving a dynamics problem.
classify, break down, categorize, By the end of this lesson, the stude
analyze, diagram, illustrate, able to differentiate between poten
Analyze criticize, simplify, associate. kinetic energy.
calculate, predict, apply, solve,
illustrate, use, demonstrate, By the end of this lesson, the stude
determine, model, perform, able to calculate the kinetic energy
Apply present. projectile.
describe, explain, paraphrase,
restate, give original examples By the end of this lesson, the stude
Understa of, summarize, contrast, able to describe Newton’s three law
nd interpret, discuss. motion in her/his own words
list, recite, outline, define,
Rememb name, match, quote, recall, By the end of this lesson, the stude
er identify, label, recognize. able to recite Newton’s three laws