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Action Verbs for Anderson and Krathwohl used for Writing Instructional Objectives

The key here is to use verbs that indicate a clearly observable and measurable action. Appropriate action verbs for the cognitive domain are listed below.

Bloom's Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain

Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive learning, originated by Benjamin Bloom and collaborators in the 1950's, describes several categories of cognitive learning.

ORIGINAL BLOOM COGNITIVE TAXONOMY
Category	Description
Knowledge	Ability to recall previously learned material.
Comprehension	Ability to grasp meaning, explain, restate ideas.
Application	Ability to use learned material in new situations.
Analysis	Ability to separate material into component parts and show relationships between parts.
Synthesis	Ability to put together the separate ideas to form new whole, establish new relationships.
Evaluation	Ability to judge the worth of material against stated criteria.

This taxonomy was revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl to change the category names from nouns to verbs, and to switch the Evaluation and Synthesis levels in the hierarchy.

REVISED ANDERSON AND KRATHWOHL COGNITIVE TAXONOMY
Category	Description
Remember	Ability to recall previously learned material.
Understand	Ability to grasp meaning, explain, restate ideas.
Apply	Ability to use learned material in new situations.
Analyze	Ability to separate material into component parts and show relationships between parts.
Evaluate	Ability to judge the worth of material against stated criteria.
Create	Ability to put together the separate ideas to form new whole, establish new relationships.

Many people also call the analysis, synthesis/create, and evaluation categories “problem solving.”

ACTION VERBS APPROPRIATE FOR EACH LEVEL OF BLOOM’S/ANDERSON & KRATHWOHL’S TAXONOMY (Cognitive Domain)
Remember	Understand	Apply	Analyze	Evaluate	Create
Define	Choose	Apply	Analyze	Appraise	Arrange
Identify	Cite examples	Demonstrate	Appraise	Assess	Assemble
List	of	Dramatize	Calculate	Choose	Collect
Name	Demonstrate	Employ	Categorize	Compare	Compose
Recall	use of	Generalize	Compare	Critique	Construct
Recognize	Describe	Illustrate	Conclude	Estimate	Create
Record	Determine	Interpret	Contrast	Evaluate	Design
Relate	Differentiate	Operate	Correlate	Judge	Develop
Repeat	between	Operationalize	Criticize	Measure	Formulate
Underline	Discriminate	Practice	Deduce	Rate	Manage
	Discuss	Relate	Debate	Revise	Modify
	Explain	Schedule	Detect	Score	Organize
	Express	Shop	Determine	Select	Plan
	Give in own	Use	Develop	Validate	Prepare
	words	Utilize	Diagram	Value	Produce
	Identify	Initiate	Differentiate	Test	Propose
	Interpret		Distinguish		Predict
	Locate		Draw		Reconstruct
	Pick		conclusions		Set-up
	Report		Estimate		Synthesize
	Restate		Evaluate		Systematize
	Review		Examine		Devise
	Recognize		Experiment
	Select		Identify
	Tell		Infer
	Translate		Inspect
	Respond		Inventory
	Practice		Predict
	Simulates		Question
			Relate
			Solve
			Test
			Diagnose

References

Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl (Eds.). (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Bloom, B.S. and Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. NY, NY: Longmans, Green.

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