Bloom’s Taxonomy: Developing Measurable Learning Objectives

Measurable learning objectives are crucial to ensuring that a continuing education (CE) activity is structured to achieve clear learning outcomes. Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a framework for creating objectives that move learners through stages of cognitive development, from basic understanding to advanced application. This guide will show you how to use Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop measurable objectives that reflect the needs identified in your practice gap statement.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Understanding Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s Taxonomy categorizes learning into six levels, progressing from lower-order to higher-order cognitive skills:

• Remember: Recall facts and basic concepts
• Understand: Explain ideas or concepts
• Apply: Use information in new situations
• Analyze: Draw connections among ideas
• Evaluate: Justify a decision or course of action
• Create: Produce new or original work

2. Link Learning Objectives to Practice Gap
Start by reviewing the previously developed practice gap. Determine what learners should be able to do differently from this activity to improve from current practice to best practice. Then, select the level of Bloom’s Taxonomy that aligns with the learning needs. For example:

• If the gap is a knowledge deficit, focus on the lower levels: Remembering or Understanding
• If the gap relates to the application of skills: Applying or Analyzing
• If the gap relates to decision-making or competency: Evaluating or Creating

3. Use Action Verbs
Each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy has a set of action verbs that describe the learner’s abilities at that stage. Avoid vague words that cannot be quantified, like understand, learn, appreciate or enjoy. When writing your objectives, always start with specific and measurable verbs. Below are just a few examples of verbs for each level.

• Remember: List, define, recall, recognize, reiterate, identify
• Understand: Explain, summarize, describe, interpret, classify
• Apply: Implement, use, demonstrate, solve, execute
• Analyze: Compare, contrast, differentiate, organize, examine
• Evaluate: Judge, critique, defend, support, justify, select
• Create: Design, construct, develop, formulate, compose

4. Write Measurable Objectives
Structure your learning objectives to be measurable, clear and concise. Each objective should include:

• Action (what the learner will do)
• Condition (under what circumstances)
  Example: Given a patient recovering from a musculoskeletal injury, apply clinical reasoning to determine the appropriate use of dry needling within a rehabilitation plan, justifying the decision based on patient presentation, contraindication and the expected outcomes.

5. Ensure Alignment with Learning Activities and Assessment
Objectives should directly guide the design of learning activities and assessments. For instance:

• If an objective is to analyze, one option would be to provide learners with case studies to compare
• If an objective is to evaluate, one option would be to give them scenarios requiring judgment and decision-making
  Ensure your assessments (quizzes, tests, role-playing, etc.) measure the objectives at the corresponding Bloom’s level.
  Note: Starting Jan. 1, 2026, BOC AP standards require all CE activities to include a competence assessment linked to at least one application-level (or higher) learning outcome (e.g., apply, analyze, evaluate, create). The assessment must demonstrate how learners will apply their learning in practice. CE activities may also include knowledge- or performance-based assessments and objectives as appropriate.

6. Test for Measurability
To confirm that your objectives are measurable:

• Verify that the action can be measured by observing the learner (e.g., listing, summarizing, creating)