Bloom's Taxonomy
A hierarchical framework for classifying educational learning objectives into six levels of complexity.
What is Bloom's Taxonomy?
Bloom's Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification system created by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in 1956, revised by Anderson and Krathwohl in 2001. It organizes cognitive skills into six levels: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create — from lower-order to higher-order thinking.
The Six Levels
Remember — Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory (define, list, recall).
Understand — Construct meaning from instructional messages (explain, summarize, classify).
Apply — Carry out a procedure in a given situation (use, execute, implement).
Analyze — Break material into parts and determine relationships (differentiate, organize, attribute).
Evaluate — Make judgments based on criteria (critique, judge, justify).
Create — Put elements together to form a coherent whole (design, construct, produce).
Why It Matters for Teachers
Bloom's Taxonomy helps educators design assessments and instruction that target specific cognitive levels. A well-designed lesson moves students through multiple levels, not just recall. When writing learning objectives, use verbs associated with each level to ensure clarity and measurability.