Behavior verbs useful in writing student-centered objectives.
1. Student-centered objectives describe the ability we want the student to display after the instruction.
2. Lesson objectives normally have the form, "The objective of this lesson is for the student to...."
3. Objectives are often categorized according to Bloom's Taxonomy (adapted from Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Handbook I: Cognitive Domain, edited by B. S. Bloom, et. al., New York, David McKay, 1956). Levels of learning are determined by the purpose of the instruction, the students abilities, the teacher and school, and are frequently described in content standards.
4. Objectives written to the Bloom's ascending levels of learning may use some of the verbs in the table (verbs are not absolute). Some verbs from IEEE Reference Guide for Instructional Design and Development.
| Level-of-Learning | Definition | Example Objective Verbs |
| Knowledge | Recall previously learned material (facts, theories, etc.) in essentially the same form as taught. | list, name, match, describe, define, state, outline, identify, select, explain, give example, record |
| Comprehension | Seeing relationships, concepts, and abstractions beyond the simple remembering of material. Typically involves translating, interpreting, and estimating future trends. | explain, compare, contrast, differentiate, predict, summarize, generalize, paraphrase, distinguish, solve, compute, identify, give example, classify, describe, estimate, understand |
| Application | The ability to use learned material in new and concrete situations including the application of rules, methods, concepts, principles, laws, and theories. | solve, compute, prepare, use, develop, construct, assemble, modify, conduct, identify, teach, assess, determine, implement, produce, provide, report |
| Analysis | The ability to break down material into its component parts so that the organizational structure may be understood, including the identification of the parts, analysis of the relationships among the parts, and recognition of the organizational principles involved. | identify, analyze, recognize, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, illustrate, separate, subdivide |
| Synthesis | The ability to put parts together to form new patterns or structures such as unique communications (a theme or speech), a plan of operations (a research proposal), or a set of abstract relations (schemes for classifying information). | create, conceive, hypothesize, categorize, compare, compile, contrast, design, devise, facilitate, formulate, generate, incorporate, integrate, plan, revise, structure |
| Evaluation | The ability to judge the value of material for a given purpose. Learning at this level is the highest in the cognitive hierarchy because it involves elements of all the other categories plus conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria. | evaluate, judge, compare & contrast, conclude, critique interpret, justify, support |