Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Frame Objectives, Lessons and Activities as Questions

Framing learning objectives as questions offers lots of opportunities.

The technique encourages a sense of enquiry, provides a means to judge progress through the course of a lesson (by assessing the extent to which learners can successfully answer the question), and promotes engagement.

(The latter is driven by learners wanting to find out an answer to the question.)

We can also use questions to frame the lesson as a whole and to underpin individual activities.

For example, we might give our lesson a title in the form of a question and then present a learning objective like:

• ‘To produce a detailed, reasoned answer to the question by the end of the lesson.’

Here, we are communicating to learners from the moment they enter the room that we are engaged in a shared endeavour and that the endeavour is concerned with the development of our understanding.

Another option is to have sub-questions as activity titles.

This then sees learners working through each task, trying to answer the question that has been set.

Frequently, learners find this motivational.

The answering of the question becomes an end towards which the activity aims; achieving the goal is a mission learners want to fulfil.

Using Bloom’s Taxonomy

To develop challenging, engaging questions in both these cases we can turn to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

One option is to break down a lesson into a series of separate activities with each based on one or more levels of the taxonomy.

It’s then easy for us to frame the activities using questions.

We simply take the activity we have planned, remind ourselves of the levels of the taxonomy to which it refers, and shape a question accordingly.

(For a set of Bloom’s-Based question stems and a Bloom’s keyword list, see: Change how you think about questioning with sixty ready-to-go, tried-and-tested question stems covering each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy)

In terms of framing the lesson, we might first use the taxonomy to write a learning objective and set of outcomes and then pare these down into a single question which, if answered effectively, will allow learners to display the knowledge and understanding they have developed during the lesson, therefore meeting the objective and fulfilling the outcomes.

Finally, it is worth noting that the framing of lessons can be extended to the framing of an entire topic.

Here, we set an overarching question concerned with the topic as a whole.

To ensure a high level of challenge, this is based on one of the top levels of the taxonomy.

Then, we plan a series of separate questions which, if answered, will allow us to answer the wider question.

These separate questions form the basis of our individual lessons.

Here’s an example from GCSE Sociology to illustrate:

• Topic Question: To what extent is Marxism an outmoded and outdated theory of society?
• Lesson One Question: What characterises Marxist explanations of society?
• Lesson Two Question: How do Marxist explanations compare to other theories?
• Lesson Three Question: Is it possible to modify Marxism to fit with the modern world?
• Lesson Four Question: To what extent does Marxism overemphasise the role of class?
• Lesson Five Question: Why do some sociologists still use Marxism as the basis of their work?
• Lesson Six Question: How can we best assess the critiques of Marxist thought?

By focussing on the higher levels of the taxonomy (analysis, synthesis and evaluation) in the construction of the questions and by planning the lesson questions through the lens of the topic question, we have been able to produce the outline of a challenging, enquiry-based unit of work.

You can apply this approach to medium-term planning with most age groups and most areas of the curriculum.

Using Bloom’s to Tailor Your Questioning

Tailored questioning is where we adapt and modify our questions, so they more closely meet the needs of the learners in front of us.

If we want to question effectively, we would be unlikely to consider it sensible to ask the same questions to all learners, at all times.

Such an approach would fail to take account of the differences in learners’ knowledge and understanding.

However, tailoring questions is not always easy.

First, we need a reasonably accurate idea of where learners are at, then we need to understand where we want to take their learning before, finally, creating a question, or series of questions, that allow us to achieve this.

For the first part, understanding where learners are at, we need to ask diagnostic questions.

That is, questions that elicit the information necessary for us to appreciate what learners know and what they don’t know, what they can do and what they can’t do, and what they understand as well as what they don’t understand

The taxonomy provides an excellent basis for this.

We can pose questions based on the levels we think appropriate to the learner in question.

For example, we might start with a series of comprehension questions (level two) before moving onto application (level three) and ascertaining that this is where the learner in question is running into trouble.

Depending on the answers we elicit, we can move up the taxonomy more quickly or more slowly until we find the point of challenge for the learner in question.

Having found it, we can then pursue this, using Bloom’s-based questions stems and keywords to help us form the questions that will push learners’ thinking, or help them to unlock ideas with which they are struggling.

In summary, the method works as follows:

• Remind yourself of the taxonomy
• Ask learners questions that climb up the levels of the taxonomy
• Stop when you hit a level with which learners have difficulty
• Pursue this by asking questions at or around this level that promote thinking and/or help to unlock understanding for your learners

Using the taxonomy in this way means we are consistently applying the idea of mastery learning and the delineation of cognitive processes to our questioning.

In so doing, we tailor it so that the questions we ask are closely tied to the needs of the learners we teach.

This leads to better outcomes and faster progress.