What is Bloom's taxonomy?

Bloom's taxonomy is a framework that sorts learning goals into levels of thinking, from recalling facts to creating something new. Its revised version has six levels (Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create) and is widely used to write learning objectives and match assessments to them.

Reviewed by Clark Quinn, Chief Learning Strategist Updated October 28, 2026

Example

An insurance company’s claims training ends with a quiz in which every question asks learners to recall a definition. Learners pass easily, but new claims handlers still struggle to decide whether a claim needs to be escalated. The L&D team maps the course objectives to Bloom’s taxonomy and finds the problem: the job requires the Evaluate level, and the training only tests Remember.

They keep a few recall questions for terminology and add scenario questions in which learners read a short case file and decide whether to approve the claim, request more information or escalate it. Feedback explains the right call in each case. The objectives, the practice and the assessment now sit at the same level as the job.

How it works

Benjamin Bloom and a committee of educators published the original taxonomy in 1956 as a way to classify educational objectives. In 2001, a group led by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl published a revised version, which is the one most trainers use today.

The six levels

In the revised taxonomy, each level builds on the ones below it. From lowest to highest:

1. Remember: recall facts and basic concepts. Example verbs: list, define, name, recall.
2. Understand: explain ideas or concepts in your own words. Example verbs: explain, summarize, classify, describe.
3. Apply: use information in a new, concrete situation. Example verbs: use, carry out, calculate, demonstrate.
4. Analyze: break information into parts and see how they relate. Example verbs: compare, differentiate, organize, troubleshoot.
5. Evaluate: justify a decision or judgment against criteria. Example verbs: assess, judge, prioritize, recommend.
6. Create: put elements together to produce something new. Example verbs: design, plan, draft, build.

Other domains

Bloom’s original work covered the cognitive domain, which is about thinking. Related taxonomies cover the affective domain (attitudes and values) and the psychomotor domain (physical skills). When people say “Bloom’s taxonomy” without qualification, they almost always mean the cognitive levels above.

Original vs revised Bloom’s taxonomy

The 2001 revision changed the framework in three main ways:

• Nouns became verbs. Knowledge became Remember, Comprehension became Understand, Application became Apply, and Analysis became Analyze. Verbs make it easier to write objectives directly from the levels.
• The top two levels changed. The original placed Synthesis fifth and Evaluation at the top. The revision renamed Synthesis as Create and placed it above Evaluate.
• A knowledge dimension was added. The revision crosses the six levels with four types of knowledge (factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive), which gives designers a grid for classifying each objective more precisely.

How to use Bloom’s taxonomy in training

Start from the job, not the taxonomy. Decide what level of thinking the task requires, then work backward:

• Set the target level. Not every course needs to reach Create. A safety procedure may only need Apply, while a course for team leads on handling complaints may need Evaluate.
• Write objectives with verbs from that level. Bloom’s verb lists are the standard tool for writing measurable learning objectives.
• Match the assessment to the level. Multiple-choice recall questions test Remember. Scenario-based learning and branching scenarios test Apply, Analyze and Evaluate.
• Cover the foundations. Learners usually need to remember and understand the basics before they can apply them, so higher-level practice often follows a short recall section.

The levels are a guide, not a strict ladder. Real tasks mix several levels, and a verb alone does not fix the level: “describe the procedure” is a recall task, while “describe why the procedure failed” is analysis.

Why it matters for L&D teams

• Objectives that match the job. The taxonomy makes it obvious when a course teaches at a lower level than the work demands.
• Assessments that test the right thing. Mapping each question to a level stops quizzes from testing only recall when the job needs judgment.
• A shared vocabulary. “This needs to reach Apply” is a clear brief for subject matter experts and course designers.
• Better use of interactive formats. Knowing the target level tells the team when a simple quiz is enough and when a scenario is worth building.