To the Course Directors:

It was suggested that a set of useful vocabulary be made available for the generation of learning objectives for your classes. It is hoped that the following will help toward that end.

Educationally, we tend to think of objectives as driving the learning, and when we want to drive learning well, we look to Bloom’s taxonomy. Bloom’s work outlined six cognitive levels of abstraction dealing with the learning process:

  • Knowledge—recall of data
  • Comprehension—understanding the meaning of data
  • Application—use data in a new or unprompted way
  • Analysis—understand the organizational structure of the data
  • Synthesis—use data to create structures/patterns from diverse elements
  • Evaluation—critically examines the value of data in context

Of course, the goal is to create learning engagements that move well beyond the first two levels whenever practical, but clearly there are times when abstraction can properly remain on the Knowledge and Comprehension levels.

Implied in the hierarchy is the nested nature of each level. In other words, if a student is asked to evaluate, she almost surely will have to synthesize, analyze, apply, comprehend, and know the material. However, what Bloom points out most clearly is that knowing is different from analyzing, is different from evaluating. Consequently, different objectives require different wording to indicate the level of abstraction we will measure in our students.

The following set of verbs can be helpful in the preparation and writing of those objectives

Knowledge: arrange, define, label, order, describe, locate, identify, memorize

Comprehension: classify, discuss, explain, compare, paraphrase, select, identify

Application: apply, choose, dramatize, illustrate, interpret, demonstrate, employ, operate

Analysis: appraise, deduce, calculate, contract, critique, differentiate, argue

Synthesis: arrange, organize, create, develop, formulate, modify, combine, design, assemble, manage

Evaluate: argue, defend, judge, predict, support, weigh, consider, assess, appraise

You will notice that some verbs appear in more than one of Bloom’s levels, which means at times you will have to be clearer than just applying the proper verb. For example, an objective asking the student to argue for a particular treatment or test is at a different level from an objective asking the student to argue for the value for a kind of treatment or test. The former assesses the learner’s understanding of the treatment or test, while the latter assesses the learner’s appreciation and understanding of the interactions that occur within and because of that treatment of test.