So, what exactly is Bloom's Taxonomy?
Think of it less like a stuffy academic theory and more like a ladder for your brain. It’s a way of looking at learning that goes way beyond just memorizing facts. Instead, it guides learners up a series of rungs, starting with the basics and climbing all the way to the top—where they’re creating something entirely new.
For instructional designers navigating today's tech-driven landscape, this isn’t just a nice-to-have model; it’s our secret weapon for building courses that actually work, powered by tools from the Articulate Suite to AI.
At its heart, Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework that organizes learning objectives into a hierarchy. It gives educators and designers a shared playbook for building a logical learning journey. This ensures that our courses do more than just throw information at people; they build real, lasting skills.
This way of thinking is critical for crafting any kind of modern learning, whether it’s a massive corporate course in a Learning Management System (LMS) or a quick five-minute microlearning module.
The whole thing started back in 1956 with educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his team. After 16 years of research, they published a system to help educators design better curricula and assessments. The goal was to create a clear path that takes a student from basic knowledge to complex, real-world problem-solving. The original six levels were Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.
Let's use a real-world example. Imagine you're learning to cook a new dish. You wouldn't just jump in and invent a Michelin-star recipe on day one, right? You’d naturally follow a process that lines up perfectly with Bloom’s Taxonomy.
This step-by-step progression is what makes Bloom's Taxonomy such a game-changer. It makes sure learners build a solid foundation before we ask them to tackle the heavy lifting of critical and creative thinking. It’s a principle that guides the structure of everything from corporate training built with the Articulate Suite to a 4th-grade science lesson.
The framework we rely on today isn't some relic gathering dust on a shelf. For Bloom's Taxonomy to stay relevant, it had to evolve. And it did. The first big shake-up came in 2001, spearheaded by Lorin Anderson, one of Bloom’s original students.
This wasn’t just a fresh coat of paint. It was a fundamental shift in perspective. The original, static nouns like 'Knowledge' and 'Comprehension' were swapped out for active, doing words: 'Remembering' and 'Understanding'.
Why was that so important? It reframed learning entirely. It stopped being about something you have and started being about something you do. This little tweak underscored that thinking is an active process, which fits perfectly with the hands-on, practical training we design today.
The 2001 revision didn't just change the words; it shifted the mindset. By moving from passive nouns to active verbs, the taxonomy became a more dynamic and actionable tool for course creators.
This shift from nouns to verbs was a game-changer, making the taxonomy a much better fit for building courses in a modern Learning Management System (LMS) or a Learning Experience Platform (LXP). But technology didn't stand still, and neither could the framework.
That's where Bloom's Digital Taxonomy comes in. Andrew Churches introduced this concept around 2007 to directly map digital skills onto the classic six levels. It finally answered the question on every instructional designer's mind: where do modern skills like programming, video editing, or even blogging fit into a model from the 1950s?
Take the top of the pyramid, Creating. Back in the day, that might have been writing an essay. Today? It looks a whole lot different. It could mean:
This digital adaptation keeps the taxonomy from becoming a historical artifact. It's the living blueprint we use to structure everything from a bite-sized microlearning video to an intricate, personalized learning journey. By connecting digital actions to cognitive levels, the taxonomy remains our most reliable guide for building training that actually works. You can even explore a detailed timeline to see just how it has kept pace over the decades.
To really get what Bloom's Taxonomy is all about, you have to look at it one level at a time. The best way to picture it is like a ladder. You can't just leap to the top rung; you have to climb, and each step up represents a more sophisticated way of thinking. Every skill builds on the one before it, creating a really solid foundation for learning that actually sticks.
Let's start at the bottom and make our way up.
The whole journey kicks off with Remembering. This is the most fundamental cognitive skill—the bedrock of learning. It’s purely about recalling facts, key terms, and basic concepts. Think of it as pulling a file from a cabinet in your brain. You can retrieve the information, but you might not fully grasp what it all means just yet.
Next, we take a step up to Understanding. This goes beyond simple memorization. It’s where you start explaining ideas and concepts in your own words. When someone reaches this level, they can interpret information, sort it into categories, and summarize the main points. They're starting to connect the dots and figure out the "why" behind the what.
The graphic below shows how these first two rungs work together.
As you can see, you can't truly understand something until you have the basic facts down pat.
Once you have a good handle on the basics, you're ready to start Applying what you've learned. This is where the rubber meets the road. It’s all about taking that knowledge and using it in a new situation, whether that’s following a new process or solving a real-world problem. This is the crucial stage where abstract knowledge becomes a practical, usable skill.
From there, we climb to Analyzing. This is where you put on your detective hat. At this stage, learners break down information into its individual parts to see how everything is connected. It’s about spotting the difference between fact and opinion, comparing and contrasting different ideas, and really understanding how all the pieces contribute to the bigger picture.
We're getting close to the top now with Evaluating. This level is all about making informed judgments. It requires learners to look at information, measure it against a set of standards or criteria, and then defend their position. It’s where critical thinking really shines.
At the Evaluating level, learners shift from being passive consumers of information to active critics. They have to weigh the value of an idea or the quality of an argument, which is a vital skill for any professional today.
Finally, we reach the very top of the ladder: Creating. This is the pinnacle of cognitive skill in Bloom's framework. Here, learners aren't just absorbing information; they're producing something entirely new. They pull together everything they've learned to design, invent, or construct an original piece of work. This is where true innovation happens.
Mastering these higher-order skills is the goal of any great learning program. To dig deeper, check out our guide on instructional design best practices.
When you're writing learning objectives, using the right verbs is everything. The verb you choose signals the cognitive level you're targeting. This table is a handy cheat sheet with some powerful action verbs to get you started for each of the six levels.
Keep this table bookmarked! It’s an invaluable tool for ensuring your training challenges learners at the appropriate level and guides them up the cognitive ladder.
It's one thing to understand the theory behind Bloom's Taxonomy, but the real magic happens when you see how it connects to the tools you use every day. This framework isn't just some dusty academic concept; it's a practical blueprint for building learning experiences that align with the latest trends in instructional design.
You can map each level of the taxonomy directly to features inside your favorite instructional design software. Suddenly, that ladder of cognitive skills becomes a tangible project plan, helping you create experiences that are much more than just a glorified information dump.
Let’s start at the bottom of the pyramid with Remembering and Understanding. These levels are all about getting the basics down—recalling facts and explaining concepts. This is the perfect place for microlearning.
A simple module in your Learning Management System (LMS) can deliver quick, bite-sized pieces of information. Using authoring tools like the Articulate Suite, you can build simple activities to nail down these foundational skills:
These kinds of activities make sure everyone has a solid footing before you ask them to tackle anything more complex. They’re the essential building blocks.
Once learners start climbing into Applying, Analyzing, and Evaluating, your design strategy has to change. It's time to move away from just delivering content and start encouraging active participation. This is where interactive scenarios and collaborative tools really come into their own.
At these higher levels, the goal is to shift learners from being passive consumers of information to active problem-solvers. You’re creating a safe space for them to practice new skills and make critical judgments.
For instance, you could use Adobe Captivate to build a branching scenario where learners have to apply a new sales technique in a simulated conversation with a client. Or, to get them analyzing and evaluating, you could use a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) for a group project. Imagine asking a team to critique several case studies and work together to choose the best solution.
This entire process lines up nicely with structured frameworks like the ADDIE model, where your design and development phases are driven by clear learning objectives. If you want to dive deeper, our guide to the ADDIE model for training is a great place to start.
At the very top of the pyramid, we have Creating. This is where learners take everything they've learned and make something entirely new. Modern tech gives us some incredible ways to make this happen. You could ask learners to design a new workflow in a shared Google Doc or even build a small prototype using a no-code app builder.
This is also where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a true partner in learning. AI can now generate personalized assessments that adapt on the fly, pushing learners to think more critically. Even better, it can act as a creative assistant, helping learners brainstorm ideas or structure a project, which frees them up to focus on the high-level strategic thinking that the Creating stage is all about.
So, with all the high-tech tools and AI we have now, why are we still talking about a framework from the 1950s? Simple. Because it works. At its heart, Bloom's Taxonomy is the secret weapon for creating training that actually sticks.
Think of it as the blueprint for a building. You wouldn’t just throw materials on a pile and hope a house appears. In the same way, you can't just dump a bunch of facts on learners and expect them to build real skills. The taxonomy gives you the structure to design a true learning journey, guiding people from remembering basic facts all the way up to creating something entirely new.
One of the most powerful things Bloom's Taxonomy does is force you to write crystal-clear learning objectives. These are the promises you make to your learners—the specific things they'll be able to do once they've finished your course.
Without a framework, it's easy to write vague goals like, "The learner will understand project management." Understand? What does that even mean? With Bloom's, you get specific. You can say the learner will be able to "create a project timeline" or "evaluate three different project bids." That's a target you can actually aim for and measure.
Bloom’s Taxonomy gives you a complete structure for learning, covering the cognitive (thinking), affective (feeling), and psychomotor (doing) domains. While everyone talks about the cognitive part, this complete view helps us design for the whole person, not just their brain.
When your objectives are that clear, designing assessments becomes a thousand times easier. The taxonomy helps you match your tests to your goals, so you're measuring what people can actually do, not just what they can parrot back.
It’s the difference between asking someone to list the steps for handling a customer complaint and putting them in a simulation where they actually have to do it. One tests memory, the other tests a real skill.
This is especially critical for adult learners who need to see how training connects directly to their job. When assessments mirror real-world tasks, motivation goes through the roof. We talk more about this in our guide to proven adult learning techniques, which pairs perfectly with this model.
Ultimately, by using Bloom's to line up your content, activities, and assessments, you create a seamless and powerful experience. It's the key to moving beyond just sharing information and actually building real, lasting competence.
So, you can see how Bloom's Taxonomy offers a solid framework for instructional design. But as with any model, the real questions pop up when you try to apply it to your own projects. Let's tackle a few common ones I hear from designers all the time.
One of the first things people wonder is if the taxonomy is a rigid ladder. Do learners really have to master Remembering before they can even touch Understanding? The short answer is no. While the levels do build on each other in terms of complexity, real learning is rarely that neat and tidy.
Think of it less like a staircase and more like a set of building blocks. A learner might jump from grasping a new concept (Understanding) straight to trying to build something new with it (Creating). That very act of creating then forces them to go back and sharpen their analysis and evaluation skills. The levels are interconnected, constantly feeding into one another.
Alright, so how do we use this thing to write clear, measurable learning objectives? There’s a simple formula that I’ve found works like a charm. Just pair an action verb from the right cognitive level with the specific skill you're trying to teach.
It boils down to this:
[Action Verb from Bloom's] + [Specific Course Content]
For instance, let's ditch a fuzzy objective like, "The learner will know our safety procedures." That's not something you can easily measure. Instead, we can break it down using the taxonomy for much more clarity:
See the difference? This approach gives you a concrete target for your course design. It also makes it a heck of a lot easier to build assessments that prove your learners actually got it.
Bloom's Taxonomy is a fantastic tool, but it's not the only one in the shed. It sometimes gets a rap for being a bit too linear and not quite capturing the beautifully messy reality of how people learn. It’s best viewed as one powerful lens among many.
It's also good to know that other models are out there offering different ways to think about learning. Frameworks like the SOLO (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) Taxonomy or Fink's Taxonomy of Significant Learning give you alternative ways to structure and think about your training.
At the end of the day, truly understanding what is Bloom's Taxonomy means knowing its strengths and its weaknesses. It’s an incredible foundation for thinking about cognitive skills, but great instructional designers know how to be flexible. They use it as a guide, not a rulebook, to create well-rounded learning experiences that push people to think—whether that’s in an Adobe Captivate simulation or a collaborative project on an LXP.