Classroom

Learning Outcomes with Blooms Verb Guide

Author: Ben McGrae

Writing learning outcomes is the first step in creating your teaching. Whether for a single session, a module you’re leading, or a complete programme, learning outcomes form the foundation of what you want to teach and how your students learn. Bloom’s taxonomy (1956) of different objectives and skills includes six levels of learning that can help you structure effective learning outcomes, teaching activities and assessments (“Bloom’s Taxonomy | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University,” n.d.).

Benefits

Using Bloom’s taxonomy allows you to link your outcomes to the tasks you want your students to demonstrate. It also can act as a guide on what level of learning you want your students to achieve.

This can be linked to Biggs’ theory (2005) of constructive alignment. This refers to students being able to construct meaning by engaging in learning activities designed by the teacher, who aligns activities and assessments with desired learning outcomes. In this way, both students and teachers understand the purpose of the learning (“Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Objectives | Teaching Innovation & Pedagogical Support,” n.d.).

Anderson and Krathwohl’s revised Bloom’s taxonomy (2001) is more relevant for analysing student cognitive skills and includes these 6 areas, increasing in complexity: (“Anderson and Krathwohl - Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised - The Second Principle,” n.d.)

Putting it into practice

Verb guides based on Bloom’s taxonomy can help you decide what verbs are best to describe what you want your students to achieve. The image above will give you ideas about what verbs to include in your outcomes, and also about what type of activities you would like your students to carry out.

When writing session or module outcomes, it can often be helpful for external examiners and students to see how they align to your assessment or programme outcomes. External examiners are then able to see a consistent learning experience through a programme and students are able to see how the skills learnt can map against future employment or further education.

Challenges

Using Bloom’s isn’t a case of progressing up the hierarchy in sequence. You don’t have to restrict yourself to the lower levels in the early part of a module or programme, or to the higher levels in later stages.

For instance, you could introduce a new concept in a third year module which would require your students to Understand before they could Evaluate. The focus of each session should be on what you as a teacher want the students to learn and for the students to understand.

References

Anderson and Krathwohl - Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised - The Second Principle. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2019.

Bloom’s Taxonomy | Center for Teaching | Vanderbilt University. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2019.

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Objectives | Teaching Innovation & Pedagogical Support. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2019.

Help and Feedback

Can you help us improve this resource or suggest a future one? Do you need this resource in an alternative format? Please contact us at cie@liverpool.ac.uk

 

Creative Commons Licence
Learning Outcomes with Blooms Verb Guide by Ben McGrae is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.