Master Bloom's Taxonomy to write measurable learning objectives. Learn how to design training that drives deep learning and real workplace performance
"What any person in the world can learn, almost all persons can learn if provided with appropriate prior and current conditions of learning." — Benjamin S. Bloom, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956)
What if most training programs are accidentally teaching people only to remember, when what the organization actually needs is for people to apply, analyze, and create? Bloom's Taxonomy is a foundational framework for designing effective learning experiences. Revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl, it provides a hierarchical classification of cognitive objectives—from simple recall of information to complex creation of new knowledge.
Yet despite decades of research demonstrating its value, research shows that the majority of training programs focus overwhelmingly on the lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy (remember and understand), neglecting the higher-order cognitive skills (apply, analyze, evaluate, create) that drive meaningful behavioral change and workplace performance.
Understanding how to write learning objectives aligned with appropriate Bloom's levels—and systematically progressing learners up the hierarchy—is critical for HR professionals and trainers seeking to design training that actually transfers to work performance.
Empirical Evidence: A study analyzing 2,100+ course learning outcomes across higher education institutions found that learning objectives were distributed as follows:
Remember level: 42% of outcomes
Understand level: 35% of outcomes
Apply level: 15% of outcomes
Analyze, Evaluate, Create: Combined, less than 8%
This distribution is problematic. If learners never progress beyond "understand," they cannot apply knowledge to real work situations, analyze complex problems, or create solutions. The consequence: training feels irrelevant, learners experience difficulty transferring knowledge to work, and organizations see minimal return on training investment.
What it means: Retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term memory. This includes recall of facts, definitions, terminology, and basic procedures. Action verbs: Define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, recall, recognize, reproduce, state.
What it means: Determining the meaning of instructional material—by explaining, summarizing, classifying, paraphrasing, or comparing information. Action verbs: Categorize, clarify, classify, compare, contrast, describe, distinguish, explain, generalize, interpret, paraphrase, predict, summarize.
What it means: Using procedures, concepts, or principles in new situations. This is where knowledge transfers from classroom to workplace. Action verbs: Apply, calculate, demonstrate, develop, employ, illustrate, implement, operate, perform, solve, use.
Critical insight: Training becomes useful when learners can apply knowledge. Yet many programs never reach this level.
What it means: Breaking information into constituent parts and understanding relationships between parts and the whole. This is where critical thinking emerges. Action verbs: Analyze, appraise, compare, contrast, critique, differentiate, distinguish, examine, organize, outline.
What it means: Making judgments about value, quality, or effectiveness based on criteria and standards. Action verbs: Appraise, argue, choose, conclude, critique, decide, defend, evaluate, judge, justify, rank, rate, recommend, support.
What it means: Putting together elements to form a novel product or perspective. Creation involves original thinking and produces something new. Action verbs: Arrange, assemble, build, compose, construct, create, design, develop, devise, formulate, generate, innovate, invent, plan, produce, propose.
The Formula: [Action Verb from Bloom's] + [What learner will do] + [Under what conditions] + [To what standard]
Examples by Level:
Remember: "List the five components of our customer service protocol"
Understand: "Explain the purpose of each component and how they work together"
Apply: "Demonstrate proper execution of the protocol with three different customer scenarios, achieving 90% adherence"
Analyze: "Analyze a recorded customer interaction, identifying which protocol steps were followed and explaining deviations"
Evaluate: "Evaluate three different approaches to handling difficult customers and recommend the best approach with evidence"
Create: "Design an improved customer service protocol that incorporates feedback and addresses identified gaps"
1. Start with an Action Verb, Not a Vague Term. Poor: "Understand the importance of active listening." Better: "Demonstrate active listening by maintaining eye contact, asking clarifying questions, and paraphrasing customer concerns." Vague verbs ("understand," "learn," "know") cannot be measured.
2. Make Objectives Measurable. Poor: "Improve customer service skills." Better: "Resolve customer complaints within 5 minutes with 95% first-contact resolution rate." Empirical Evidence: When learning objectives include specific, measurable verbs, instructors create aligned assessments that accurately measure student learning (r = .78, p < .001).
3. Align Difficulty to Role Requirements. Not all roles require employees to reach the highest Bloom's levels. Entry-level roles may focus on Remember and Understand levels. Professional roles should emphasize Apply, Analyze, and Evaluate. Leadership roles should include Evaluate and Create levels.
4. Use Specific Contexts. Poor: "Analyze customer feedback." Better: "Analyze customer feedback from Q4 surveys to identify the top three drivers of dissatisfaction, considering both frequency and impact on retention."
The real power of Bloom's Taxonomy emerges when using it within a structured backward design process:
Stage 1: Define desired learning outcomes (using Bloom's levels and knowledge types)
Stage 2: Design assessments that measure those outcomes
Stage 3: Plan instructional activities that prepare learners for those assessments
Empirical Evidence: Organizations using backward design with Bloom's-aligned objectives show significantly higher training transfer. Studies tracking learner performance 3 months post-training found that trainees from backward-designed courses applied learning 3.4x more frequently than those from traditionally designed courses (p < .001).
Bloom's Taxonomy provides a proven framework for thinking deliberately about learning progression. By intentionally designing learning objectives at higher cognitive levels, creating aligned assessments, and building instructional activities that scaffold development, HR professionals and trainers create training that actually transfers to workplace performance.
The research is clear: training focused only on knowledge and comprehension leaves learners unprepared for real work demands. By systematically progressing learners through application, analysis, evaluation, and creation, organizations unlock the full potential of training investments.
Organization Learning Labs offers learning objective development workshops and training program audits designed to help HR teams write measurable learning objectives aligned with Bloom's Taxonomy. Contact us at research@organizationlearninglabs.com.
Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Longman.
Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. David McKay Company.
Crowe, A., Dirks, C., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2008). Biology in bloom: Implementing Bloom's taxonomy in the life sciences. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 23(7), 368-374.
Tsunami, C. K., et al. (2024). Guidelines for integrating actionable A-SMART learning outcomes into the backward design process. MedEdPublish, 14, 242.
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