Assessment
Name the thinking you want to see.
Bloom’s taxonomy orders thinking from recalling facts to creating something new, giving faculty a shared vocabulary for outcomes and assessment.
Interactive
Explore the six cognitive levels
Select a level · higher-order thinking at the top
Use arrow keys to move between levels.
Level 4 of 6
Analyze
The learner distinguishes relevant from irrelevant information, finds patterns and works out how parts relate to the whole.
Example action verbs
- analyze
- differentiate
- organise
- examine
- attribute
- investigate
- Sample course outcome
- “Analyze a small enterprise’s sales data to identify trends that affect stock decisions.”
- Evidence that could show it
- A cleaned spreadsheet and short dashboard built from a de-identified dataset.
Examples are illustrative, not prescribed outcomes.
Using it well
Tag outcomes and assessments to the same level
When every assessment is tagged with the course outcome and cognitive level it measures, teams can see whether a course’s assessment actually reaches the level its outcomes promise.
Higher is not automatically better. Introductory courses rightly emphasise understanding and application; a capstone should reach evaluation and creation.
All levels at a glance
| Level | Sample verbs |
|---|---|
| 6. Create | design, develop, construct, formulate |
| 5. Evaluate | justify, evaluate, critique, assess |
| 4. Analyze | analyze, differentiate, organise, examine |
| 3. Apply | calculate, solve, use, implement |
| 2. Understand | explain, summarise, classify, compare |
| 1. Remember | define, list, identify, recall |
Based on the revised taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001), which renamed Bloom’s original 1956 categories as verbs. Examples are illustrative.
Continue the guide
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