Bloom's taxonomy in corporate training: levels, verbs and examples

"By the end of this course, participants will understand our negotiation process." It's one of the most common training objectives there is, and one of the least useful. What does "understand" look like? How would anyone know whether it has happened? And is understanding even the point, when what the business needs is people who negotiate better?

Bloom's taxonomy was created to answer exactly those questions. It gives training designers a shared language for describing what learners should be able to do, at what level of complexity, and how to check whether they can.

What is Bloom's taxonomy?

Bloom's taxonomy is a framework that classifies learning objectives into levels of increasing complexity, from recalling facts to creating something new. It was developed by a group of educators led by the American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and published in 1956 as Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I, Cognitive Domain.

Its core idea is simple: learning builds in layers. Someone can't analyse a sales pipeline properly if they don't understand what each stage means, and they can't design a better sales process if they can't analyse the current one. Each level relies on the ones below it.

The original taxonomy and the 2001 revision

The 1956 version described six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. In 2001, a team led by Lorin Anderson, a former student of Bloom, and David Krathwohl, one of the original authors, published a revised version that made two important changes.

First, they replaced the nouns with verbs, to make clear that each level describes something the learner does. Second, they swapped the top two levels, placing creating above evaluating. The revised version is the one most widely used today.

The six levels of Bloom's taxonomy, with workplace examples

1. Remember

Recalling facts, terms and basic concepts. It is the foundation, but training that stops here produces people who can pass a quiz and still struggle on the job.

Workplace example: listing the five stages of the company's sales process.

2. Understand

Explaining ideas in your own words, summarising, classifying and comparing. Understanding shows that information has been processed rather than memorised.

Workplace example: explaining to a new colleague why the qualification stage matters before a proposal is sent.

3. Apply

Using knowledge in a new, concrete situation. This is where most workplace training should aim at a minimum, because it is the first level that changes what people actually do.

Workplace example: using the company's objection-handling technique in a call with a real prospect.

4. Analyse

Breaking information into parts, identifying patterns and working out causes. It is the level of diagnosis.

Workplace example: reviewing the last ten lost deals to identify at which stage they stalled and why.

5. Evaluate

Making judgements against criteria and justifying a decision. Managers spend much of their time at this level.

Workplace example: choosing between two proposals for a key account and explaining the reasoning to the team.

6. Create

Combining elements to produce something new: a plan, a process, a solution. It is the most complex level and the one closest to innovation.

Workplace example: designing a new sales approach for a market the company hasn't entered before.

Bloom's taxonomy verbs for learning objectives

Action verbs are what make the taxonomy practical. Each level has its own, and choosing the right one turns a vague objective into one that can be observed and measured.

Verbs such as "understand", "know" or "be aware of" are best avoided in objectives, because they describe something that happens inside someone's head and can't be observed directly.

How to write learning objectives with Bloom's taxonomy

A good objective has three parts: who will do it, what they will do (an observable verb at the right level) and in what context or to what standard.

• Weak: "Participants will understand how to handle complaints."
• Better: "Participants will apply the four-step complaint process in a simulated customer call, resolving the issue without escalating it."

The second version tells the designer what to practise, tells the participant what is expected and tells the assessor exactly what to look for.

How to use Bloom's taxonomy in corporate training

Set the target level before designing anything

Decide how far each role needs to go. A new hire in customer service may need to reach "apply" with the refund policy, while a team leader may need to "evaluate" exceptions to it. The target level determines the content, the activities and the assessment.

Climb the levels in order

People can't evaluate options they don't understand. Structure programmes so that each level supports the next, especially for people new to a subject. This also helps with adult learners, who, as andragogy shows, engage more when they can see how each step connects to their real work.

Match activities to the level

Reading and quizzes work for "remember". Case discussions build "understand" and "analyse". "Apply", "evaluate" and "create" need practice: role plays, real projects and training simulations, where people have to make decisions and live with the consequences.

Assess at the same level you trained

If the objective is to apply a technique, a multiple-choice test that only checks whether people remember it won't tell you much. The assessment has to reach the same level as the objective. This also makes it easier to measure the impact of training later on, using frameworks such as the Kirkpatrick method.

Beyond the cognitive domain

Bloom's best-known taxonomy deals with thinking, but the original project also covered attitudes and values (the affective domain, published in 1964) and physical skills (the psychomotor domain, developed later by other authors). For soft skills training this matters: being able to explain what active listening is (cognitive) is not the same as valuing other people's views (affective) or doing it naturally under pressure. Our guide to soft skills training for employees looks at how to train these behaviours.

Common mistakes when using Bloom's taxonomy

• Stopping at "remember" and "understand". Much corporate e-learning never gets beyond these two levels, which is one reason it changes so little on the job.
• Treating the levels as a rigid ladder. In real work, people move between levels constantly. The taxonomy is a design tool, not a strict sequence.
• Using verbs that can't be observed. "Understand" and "know" are hard to assess. Choose a verb that describes behaviour.
• Misaligning objective and assessment. An "apply" objective needs an "apply" assessment.

Reaching the higher levels through practice

The higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy are where training starts to pay off, and they are the hardest to reach in a classroom. They require people to use what they know in realistic situations, weigh options and make decisions. That is what simulations are built for. As our article on Piaget's theory of cognitive development explains, people revise their thinking when they act and see the result, not when they only listen.

Our catalogue includes more than 70 video games designed to take skills such as negotiation, leadership and customer service to the "apply" level and beyond, available in up to 20 languages. Book your demo to see how they work.

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