Frameworks and Taxonomies of Learning

In the pursuit of helping instructors develop effective courses, instructional designers and educational psychologists have developed learning frameworks and taxonomies. These tools provide educators with the necessary resources needed to successfully transmit learning material to their students.

The Instructional Design team at Utah State University will frequently use these theories and models when assisting instructors in developing their courses – no matter the delivery format.

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Taxonomies of Learning

Taxonomies are tools used to help in classification. Instructional designers frequently use taxonomies when developing objectives and outcomes. These taxonomies are often divided into categories based on how well a student internalizes and applies the material they are learning in the classroom. 

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy is one of the most common and well-known taxonomies used by instructional designers. In Bloom’s taxonomy, he identifies 6 categories that encompass all of the different levels of thinking and learning. The categories are listed below in order from least to most complex – each building upon the one before it.

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy pyramid with Creating at the top and working down it says Evaluating, Analyzing, Applying, Understanding, and Remembering.

Source: https://citt.ufl.edu/resources/the-learning-process/designing-the-learning-experience/blooms-taxonomy/blooms-taxonomy-graphic-description/

The categories are listed below in order from least to most complex – each building upon the one before it.

  1. Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
    • Example: Describe where Goldilocks lived. 
  2. Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining. 
    • Example: Summarize what the Goldilocks story was about. 
  3. Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing. 
    • Example: Construct a theory as to why Goldilocks went into the house. 
  4. Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing. 
    • Example: Differentiate between how Goldilocks reacted and how you would react in each story event. 
  5. Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing. 
    • Example: Assess whether or not you think this really happened to Goldilocks. 
  6. Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing. 
    • Example: Compose a song, skit, poem, or rap to convey the Goldilocks story in a new form. 

When developing course objectives, you always want to include what you want your students to be able to do by the end of the course. These will always consist of a verb. These verbs will determine which category the objective falls in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. To get a better understanding of the verbs that could be used for each of the categories, see the list below: 

A chart with different colored columns that contain lists of verbs within each column.

Source: https://www.valamis.com/hub/blooms-taxonomy

Frameworks

A framework is a basic structure underlying a system or concept. In other words, a framework is like a skeleton where all of the bones have properly been set in place so that you can add the meat.

To see how to apply the following frameworks into your own course, see our Course Development worksheet .

ADDIE

The ADDIE Model represents a systematic process for designing and developing educational and training programs in a clear and structured way.

  • Analyze: Analyze the goals, needs, and sequence of the course. This step also covers defining learning objectives and identifying the unique needs and characteristics of the prospective students.
  • Design: Design the content, assignments, activities, and assessments around the learning objectives defined in the Analyze phase. This phase is also the time to determine the media that will be used throughout the content’s delivery.
  • Develop: Develop everything from the Design phase in your Canvas course.
  • Implement: Implement and begin running the new course.
  • Evaluate: Evaluate feedback and student performance and implement identified improvements as needed. 

Backwards Design

When designing a course, it is common practice for instructors to start by developing content, followed by designing assignments and assessments. Relevant learning objectives are then attached to each of these activities.

In contrast to this method, the Backwards Design framework has the instructor begin with the end in mind:

  1. Identify learning objectives – What knowledge or skills should your students have by the end of the course?
  2. Determine appropriate assessment methods – What are the best forms of evidence to assess whether the student has learned the material?
  3. Plan learning activities and instruction – What assignments, activities, and instructional methods will best prepare students for the identified assessments? 

Additional Resources

Learning Frameworks

ADDIE Model

Bloom's Taxonomy