Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom: a practical guide with verbs and question stems

You’ve probably seen the pyramid. What may be less familiar is what it looks like in an actual lesson — when a Year 9 student moves from the bottom to the top in a single sitting. That’s what this article is for.

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a six-level framework for classifying learning objectives, from basic recall through to original thinking at the top. Developed by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl, it gives teachers a shared language for designing questions, tasks, and assessments at the right level of thinking for their students.

Bloom’s Taxonomy at a glance

Level	Thinking skill	Useful verbs
1 Remember	Recall information	define, list, identify, name, recall, match
2 Understand	Explain meaning	explain, describe, compare, summarise, predict
3 Apply	Use knowledge in a new context	solve, demonstrate, classify, calculate, modify
4 Analyse	Examine relationships and patterns	analyse, differentiate, investigate, deduce, contrast
5 Evaluate	Make a reasoned judgement	assess, justify, critique, defend, decide
6 Create	Produce something original	design, formulate, develop, compose, hypothesise

Why does the order matter?

The levels are not arbitrary. As the revised taxonomy by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) explains, each level depends on the one below it. A student cannot apply knowledge they haven’t understood, and they cannot evaluate an argument they haven’t learned to analyse.

This is why EP lessons are “carefully scaffolded, chunked and paced to allow all students the opportunity to experience success” with instructional material interwoven with questioning throughout, and students given instant feedback before moving on. Questions move from “simple recall and comprehension of newly presented material through to scaffolded practice and extensive independent practice,” with each stage building on the last.

Picture a Year 10 Science class studying chemical reactions. A well-sequenced lesson doesn’t open with “design an experiment.” It opens with “what are the products of this reaction?”, then builds.

How does EP use Bloom’s Taxonomy?

Bloom’s Taxonomy isn’t a reference point for EP — it’s built into how lessons are made.

EP’s Learning Cycle whitepaper (Drury, 2026) states that Bloom’s taxonomy, as revised by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001), “guides the general sequencing of EP lessons. Students work through activities that ask them to remember and understand, move on to application and analysis activities, and conclude with tasks that challenge their evaluative thinking and creative skills.”

That decision has a history. Shane Smith, one of EP’s founders, describes the shift directly: “We were catering incredibly well to one of the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. But teachers were trying to teach the whole taxonomy. And so to support them… we needed to build a platform that genuinely was able to map these different shapes.” The result was lessons built around the full six-level sequence — scaffolded information before questioning, explicit separation between learning and assessment, and adaptive pathways that tie assessment data back to which lessons each student needs next.

The 2001 revised version, which reframed the six levels as action verbs rather than nouns, is the version EP works from, because “analyse” tells you more than “learn about.”

In practice, this means three things.

Section headings use Bloom’s language directly. The screenshot below shows the EP States of Matter lesson in progress. The left-hand navigation panel labels sections as “Remembering: Changing States” and “Applying: Changing States.” The taxonomy is visible before students begin a single question.

Cognitive verbs are embedded into question prompts. The QCAA cognitive verbs list — define, identify, explain, analyse, evaluate, justify, compose — maps directly onto Bloom’s levels and appears throughout EP lesson scripts and question banks. A question that asks students to account for the perspective of a historical source isn’t using that phrase by accident; account for sits at the Analyse level.

Mastery is required before progression. Bloom (1968) argued that “most students (perhaps over 90 per cent) can master what we teach“. The goal is finding the methods and materials to help the largest proportion of students reach it. EP puts this into practice: “completing an EP lesson requires a student to eventually answer every question correctly.” Students can’t skip ahead. Get a question wrong, and the lesson gives feedback, shows a model answer, and tries a different version of the question until you get it right, then moves on. The taxonomy isn’t just labelling what’s happening. It’s determining what happens next.

What are the six levels, and what do they look like in practice?

Level 1 — Remember: Can they recall it?

definelistlabelrecallnameidentifystatematchrecognise

This is the foundation. Students retrieve information they’ve been taught: nothing more, nothing less. It’s the entry point to every new topic, and it’s not something to rush past. Students who can’t recall the basics can’t build on them.

Level 2 — Understand: Can they explain it?

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Understanding is demonstrated when a student can go beyond reciting a fact — when they can put it in their own words or anticipate consequences. “True or false” questions sit at Level 1; “explain why” sits at Level 2.

Level 3 — Apply: Can they use it?

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Application is where knowledge stops being abstract. Students take what they’ve understood and use it in a new context.

Level 4 — Analyse: Can they break it apart?

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Analysis asks students to look inside something; to examine its structure, find patterns, and understand how the parts relate to the whole. This is where critical thinking begins in earnest.

Level 5 — Evaluate: Can they judge it?

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Evaluating means forming and defending a view. Students aren’t just describing or analysing, they’re making a case.

Level 6 — Create: Can they make something new?

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Creation is not “make it pretty.” It’s producing something original — a plan, a piece of writing, an experiment design, an argument — that draws on everything learned at the levels below.

How does this look as a full lesson sequence?

The States of Matter lesson is a good illustration of how the levels sequence through a single topic, and how EP makes that sequence visible. The left-hand navigation panel tells you the cognitive arc at a glance: recall first, then application. Students work through each section completely before the next unlocks.

That’s not just a structural convenience. It reflects how Bloom argued learning actually works: each level is only accessible once the level beneath it is secure. EP builds this into the platform so the sequencing happens by design, not by chance.

The same logic applies to any well-sequenced lesson. The questions at the start of a topic are different in kind from the questions at the end — not just harder, but requiring a different type of thinking.

What’s the most common mistake when using Bloom’s?

Treating it as a grading tool rather than a design tool. Bloom’s works best when it shapes what you ask, not just how you mark. A lesson built around Level 1 and 2 questions only, even good ones,  is unlikely to build the deeper thinking students need.

The second common error is using high-level verbs for low-level tasks. Asking students to “analyse” a text when the task only requires them to summarise it doesn’t move their thinking forward, it just uses a more impressive-sounding word.

FAQs

What is Bloom’s Taxonomy in simple terms?
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a six-level framework — Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create — that helps teachers design questions and tasks at the right level of thinking. Each level builds on the one before it, so students develop genuine understanding rather than surface recall.

What are the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Remember (recall), Understand (explain), Apply (use in a new context), Analyse (break apart and examine), Evaluate (judge with evidence), Create (produce something original). The 2001 revised version, by Anderson and Krathwohl, uses verbs rather than nouns, making the levels easier to apply in lesson planning.

What verbs go with each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy?
Each level has associated action verbs: Remember — define, list, recall; Understand — explain, summarise, compare; Apply — solve, demonstrate, classify; Analyse — examine, differentiate, investigate; Evaluate — justify, assess, critique; Create — design, compose, formulate.

How do you use Bloom’s Taxonomy in a lesson?
Start a unit with Level 1 and 2 questions to build the foundation. Move into Level 3 and 4 as understanding develops. Reserve Level 5 and 6 tasks for the end of a unit, when students have enough knowledge to form and defend an original view or produce something new.

Do students have to complete every level in every lesson?
Not necessarily. A single lesson might only target two or three levels. What matters is that over a unit, students are taken all the way up the pyramid — not left at recall and comprehension alone.

How does EP use Bloom’s Taxonomy?
According to EP’s Learning Cycle whitepaper (Drury, 2026), Bloom’s taxonomy guides the general sequencing of EP lessons — from recall and comprehension through to evaluative thinking and creative tasks. Section headings use Bloom’s language directly, cognitive verbs are embedded into question prompts, and students must answer every question correctly before progressing to the next level.