Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning, created in the 1950s, is frequently used by educators to help define and visualize the kinds of learning that we hope our students will achieve. The taxonomy identifies fundamental learning levels (remember, understand), application levels (apply, analyze) and integration levels (evaluate, create). A common diagram of Bloom’s Taxonomy uses a pyramid shape with foundational learning at the bottom; however, that pyramid suggests that “creation” learning — located in the small top triangle of the pyramid — is not only higher but less frequently integrated into coursework than fundamental learning.
Stearns Center recommends thinking about all levels of this taxonomy as crucial to student learning in the 21st century: information recall is necessary but not sufficient for students to move into post-collegiate professional fields. The diagram below gives a more evenhanded representation.
Stearns Center also recommends helping your students understand when you are asking them to do a task that requires only foundational level learning, and when you are asking them to “raise their game” to move into application or integration of learning. For more information about how to represent learning opportunities to your students, please see our Innovations in Teaching and Learning Keynote speech by Dr. Saundra McGuire about strategies to increase students’ awareness of their own learning and their reflective practice.
Finally, while reflective practice is not originally part of Bloom’s Taxonomy, current research into learning emphasizes the value of metacognitive and/or reflective practices: students are more successful at retaining and transferring learning when they can articulate what they have learned and how; who can identify how they plan to apply course concepts to novel situations; how their learning connects to their own key goals, principles, and responsibilities; and/or how they plan to continue learning and adapting.
| LEVEL | DEFINITION | SAMPLE VERBS |
|---|---|---|
| REMEMBERING | Student is able to recall or recognize ideas, information, and principles that were learned. | Recall Define Identify List Label Match State Describe |
| UNDERSTANDING | Student is able to explain and comprehend ideas and concepts based on prior learning. | Summarize Paraphrase Compare Explain Recognize Illustrate Infer Interpret |
| APPLYING | Student is able to select, transfer, and use data and principles to complete a task or solve a problem in another familiar situation. | Compute Solve Implement Demonstrate Apply Use ___ to ___ Construct |
| ANALYZING | Student is able to break down knowledge into parts to explore understandings and relationships; sees how parts relate to each other and an overall structure/purpose. | Analyze Critique Assess Interpret Compare Contrast Question Distinguish Differentiate Organize |
| EVALUATING | Student is able to justify a decision or course of action through assessing and critiquing ideas and concepts using specific standards and criteria. | Recommend Critique Judge Hypothesize Evaluate |
| CREATING | Student is able to develop, integrate, and combine ideas into a product, plan or way of viewing things that is new to him or her. | Construct Design Theorize Invent Synthesize Connect Arrange Compose Design Propose Integrate |
| REFLECTING: Although this is not part of Bloom’s original Taxonomy, reflective practice is crucial for long-term learning. | Student is able to identify strategies that support learning and articulate plans to transfer concepts between settings and fields | Reflect on… Identify challenges of… Predict options for… Adapt strategies for… Improve ability to… Take responsibility for… Create habits of… Articulate values for… Demonstrate engagement with… |
(Download a pdf of the chart here)
Some material on this page was adapted from Vanderbilt University and from Robert Noyd (2001).