Bloom's Taxonomy for the Australian Classroom: Complete Guide
The six levels of thinking, the verbs that target each one, and example questions you can use straight away.
Quick Answer: Bloom's Taxonomy describes six levels of thinking, from lowest to highest order: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, and Create. Each level has associated verbs (like list, explain, apply, compare, justify, design) that help teachers write learning intentions and questions targeting a specific level of cognitive demand.
In This Guide:
The Six Levels
Bloom's Taxonomy orders thinking skills from simple recall to complex creation:
- Remember — recalling facts and basic concepts
- Understand — explaining ideas in your own words
- Apply — using information in a new situation
- Analyse — breaking information into parts and finding relationships
- Evaluate — making a judgement based on criteria
- Create — producing new or original work
Each level builds on the one before it — a student generally needs to remember and understand a concept before they can meaningfully apply, analyse, evaluate, or create with it.
Verbs and Example Questions by Level
| Level | Example Verbs | Example Question Starter |
|---|---|---|
| Remember | list, name, define, recall, identify | "List the..." / "What is..." |
| Understand | explain, summarise, describe, classify | "Explain why..." / "Summarise the..." |
| Apply | use, solve, demonstrate, implement | "Use this method to solve..." |
| Analyse | compare, categorise, differentiate, examine | "Compare and contrast..." |
| Evaluate | justify, critique, defend, assess | "Justify your choice of..." |
| Create | design, compose, construct, formulate | "Design a solution for..." |
Using Bloom's Taxonomy in Lesson Planning
Bloom's Taxonomy is most useful for two things in day-to-day planning:
- Writing learning intentions — choosing a verb from the right level makes the intended level of thinking explicit (e.g. "We are learning to compare two texts" targets Analyse, not just Remember).
- Planning a spread of questions — mixing lower-order questions (to check basic understanding) with higher-order questions (to stretch thinking) within the same lesson or assessment.
Pro tip: MyCurriculumMate's worksheet and quiz generators tag generated questions by Bloom's level, making it easy to check a task has the right balance of lower- and higher-order thinking before you use it.
Common Mistakes
- "Higher-order thinking means harder vocabulary." It doesn't — a Create-level task can use simple language; what matters is the type of thinking required, not the difficulty of the words.
- "Every lesson needs all six levels." Most effective lessons focus on two or three levels that suit the learning intention.
- "Bloom's levels are a strict ladder every student must climb in order." In practice, teachers often move between levels depending on the task and student needs, rather than working through them in strict sequence every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy?
From lowest to highest order of thinking: Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, and Create.
What are Bloom's Taxonomy verbs used for?
They're used to write learning intentions and assessment questions that clearly target a specific level of thinking, such as "list" for Remember or "justify" for Evaluate.
Is Bloom's Taxonomy still used in Australian schools?
Yes, it remains widely used in Australian teacher training and classroom practice for planning questions, tasks, and learning intentions at different levels of cognitive demand.
How do I write higher-order thinking questions using Bloom's Taxonomy?
Use verbs from Analyse, Evaluate, or Create (compare, justify, design) instead of lower-level verbs like list or define. Higher-order questions typically ask students to make a judgement, find a pattern, or produce something new.
Should every lesson include all six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy?
No. Most effective lessons focus on two or three levels suited to the learning intention — trying to hit all six in every lesson usually spreads it too thin.
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