Psychology · A classification tool usable for any session length.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy classifies learning objectives into six cognitive levels, from remembering facts to creating something new. The revised version (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create) is widely used to write objectives and to check that activities and assessments reach the intended level of thinking.

When to use Bloom's Taxonomy

Use it when writing learning objectives, choosing activity types or checking whether a session goes beyond information transfer.

How Bloom's Taxonomy works

Activities progress through cognitive levels, building to higher-order thinking.

Phases of Bloom's Taxonomy

  1. Remember: Recall facts, terms and basic concepts. Quick quizzes, recall rounds or listing exercises work here.
  2. Understand: Explain ideas in one's own words, summarise, classify and give examples. Pair explanations and teach-back activities fit this level.
  3. Apply: Use knowledge in a new but familiar situation, such as solving a problem or carrying out a procedure. Practice cases and exercises belong here.
  4. Analyze: Break information into parts, compare and find relationships or causes. Case analysis, sorting and root-cause activities fit this level.
  5. Evaluate: Judge options against criteria and justify a decision. Debates, critiques and prioritisation exercises work well.
  6. Create: Combine elements into something new: a plan, design, product or proposal. Design challenges and action planning sit at this level.

Key principles

  • Objectives written as observable verbs
  • Align activities and assessment with the level
  • Higher levels build on lower ones
  • Aim beyond recall

Best for

  • Writing learning objectives
  • Assessment design
  • Curriculum and course design
  • Checking session depth

Considerations

  • The levels are not a strict hierarchy; learning often moves back and forth between them.
  • Covers the cognitive domain only; affective and psychomotor domains need other taxonomies.
  • Verb lists can become box-ticking if the activity does not actually demand that level.

Attribution & sources

Developed by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues, 1956 (revised by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl, 2001)

Primary source

Design a session with Bloom's Taxonomy

METODIC builds a complete Bloom's Taxonomy-based session — methods, timing, worksheets, and facilitator guides — in minutes.

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