Bloom's Taxonomy and Backward Design

Let's begin identifying the desired results by creating intentional learning goals. We’ll use Bloom’s Taxonomy to answer the questions: 

• What do I want my students to know at the end of my course? 
• What do I want my students to be able to do when they complete my course? 

This taxonomy model was created by Benjamin Bloom and a team of researchers in the 1950s, then revised in 2001 to focus on measurable activities. It’s used to classify the different types of active learning outcomes.  

Bloom’s Taxonomy includes six levels of learning. While they typically build upon one another, it doesn’t have to be set in stone. The more crucial part is that the learning activities and assessments need to align with your desired learning outcomes. The “lower order thinking skills” near the base of the pyramid represent basic knowledge such as recalling facts. As you move up the pyramid, the learning levels continue progressing toward “higher order thinking skills.” The corresponding learning activities require more critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the topic.  

Each learning outcome of your course should begin with a phrase such as, “By the end of this module, students will be able to...” and include one measurable verb.

Explore the interactive image below to see example learning objectives for each level.

Looking at what levels of learning outcomes we expect for our students can help us identify the desired results. While introductory courses may focus on the first three levels, it’s ideal to include learning outcomes and activities from the top half of the pyramid whenever possible. Incorporating higher-order thinking skills has multiple benefits, including: 

• Preparing students for their future careers by ensuring they have opportunities to create and practice critical thinking.  
• Prompting students to develop 21st-century cognitive skills that will help them face uncertainty such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving.  
• Challenging students to expand their understanding and abilities. 
• Encouraging learners to practice using their own abilities and submit original work rather than referring to the answers of others.  

Once we’ve identified our desired results, we can move to the next step: determining acceptable evidence. This evidence is usually an assignment, project, or assessment. It lets the instructor determine whether the student is on the right track by evaluating their submission. The key to a highly effective course is ensuring that we’ll have a way to assess whether students have indeed met each of the learning goals.  

The type of evidence you’ll use depends on the level of learning outcome. For example, when looking to determine whether a student has met the “remember,” “understand,” or even “apply” levels of knowledge, activities such as a well-designed quiz or discussion board will often work effectively. However, a more in-depth assignment or project is likely needed to assess the student’s ability to “analyze,” “evaluate,” or “create.” 

As you’re determining the acceptable evidence, be sure to think about how you’ll evaluate students’ work. We’re big proponents of using rubrics to provide an objective grade and feedback that students will be able to understand and put into action. Rubrics are also helpful as the instructor to more definitively know whether the student has gained mastery of the learning objective. 

By completing steps 1 and 2 of the Backward Design process, you’ll have a basic outline of the course ready to go. You know what your students should learn and how you’ll evaluate their knowledge... Now for the fun part: planning learning activities and instruction. 

The key to planning learning activities is ensuring students have opportunities to practice using the level of knowledge that aligns with your learning objectives. For example, if your final assessment requires higher order thinking skills, make sure learners get to use those skills in their learning activities beforehand (Agarwal, 2019). Creating activities that build on one another can be a great way to help learners understand the course's flow. They’ll also be able to see their growth, which is a wonderful benefit that will help them feel a sense of satisfaction from completing the course. If the final objective of your course is to create something, it’s best to think through what smaller skills students will need to complete their final project. Those can become the learning activities along the way to ensure the student’s success and scaffold their knowledge. 

Since we’ve determined very purposeful objectives and assessments, we can fill in all the most important information to be included in the instruction. Be sure to also take this opportunity to get rid of anything that seems redundant or superfluous. We want our students to be 100% focused on retaining the most vital information to meet their learning goals. A great strategy for ensuring you cover all the important content is scripting out your pre-recorded videos along with meaningful visuals that help the learning process. Creating short videos (10 minutes or less) that chunk up the material so students can watch one segment at a time can also increase their retention. This will help students apply what they’ve learned more effectively. 

As you can see, the partnership of Backward Design and Bloom’s Taxonomy is an ideal way to create a purposeful course. By identifying desired results, determining acceptable evidence, then planning learning activities and instruction that all align you’ll create a powerful learning experience that helps ensure student success. If you have any questions about implementing these two strategies, send us an e-mail or request a consultation. Our instructional designers are here to help! 

We’ve put together a verb chart for easy reference as you’re creating purposeful learning outcomes.  

Remember that each learning outcome should use one verb from this chart to effectively measure student success. For example, in a marketing course, one desired result may be for students to come up with a marketing plan. The learning outcome may look something like this, “By the end of this course, students will create a marketing plan.” The verb “create" is considered measurable and falls into the top half of Bloom's Taxonomy. Students will be putting together something complex that must be submitted to the instructor so they can verify and evaluate the student’s competency with the learning outcome.   

Often, when a final course objective is to “create,” that may mean that we need additional smaller objectives along the way to scaffold our students’ knowledge and skills. These objectives should be equally well-defined to ensure a seamless learning experience. For example, before creating the marketing plan above, students will likely first need to be able to describe an effective marketing plan or evaluate other marketing plans to determine what elements must be included for the plan to be successful.  

Download the PDF below as a quick-reference guide for verbs that match each of Bloom’s levels of knowledge. Bloom's Taxonomy Verbs.pdf 

Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval Practice & Bloom’s Taxonomy: Do Students Need Fact Knowledge Before Higher Order Learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189–209. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000282   

History and Development of Bloom’s Taxonomy. LSA. (n.d.). https://lsa.umich.edu/technology-services/services/learning-teaching-consulting/teaching-strategies/active-learning/bloom_s-taxonomy-history-and-development/history-and-development.html    

Mcdaniel, R. (1970, June 10). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/understanding-by-design/  

Miri, B., David, B.-C., & Uri, Z. (2007). Purposely teaching for the promotion of higher-order thinking skills: A case of critical thinking. Research in Science Education, 37(4), 353–369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-006-9029-2   

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Outcomes. Teaching Innovation and Pedagogical Support. (2022, July 26). https://tips.uark.edu/using-blooms-taxonomy/