Blooming Your Objectives

Identifying the Problem 

I want you to think of a training course you built in the past where learners completed the training, aced the quizzes, but they went back to work and didn’t do what they were trained to do. 

It has happened to every developer I know.  

When this happens, you can either move on, thinking that you’ve done your part (and hey, they are passing the training course, after all), or you can dig into it and try to discover what went wrong. 

Let’s assume you are the second person. 

Realistically, there are dozens of possible problems, but for now let’s look at one: low-level learning objectives. 

Yes, those troublesome little statements that junior developers tack on as an after though or forget altogether. 

When I say that you may have created low-level learning objectives, what I mean is that you have not created learning objectives that match the actionable results you are trying to achieve. Or think of it this way, you set the bar really low, and the learners easily achieved success. And while everyone is patting themselves on the back for training completions, successful quiz scores, and maybe even a demonstration of knowledge, a short time later it turns out that it seems like they have forgotten it at all, or never even learned it in the first place. So then we blame the learner, sigh, shrug, and move on. But the learner isn’t the problem in this case—the developer is. Why? It starts with writing better learning objectives. 

You can up your game and lead the way amongst your peers by thinking different about learning objectives. Let’s look at how. 

Where the Action Lies 

Learning objectives guide the direction of your training, as any instructional design textbook will tell you. They give you an idea of what will be covered, and ultimately tell you what you should be able to do afterwards. Assuming you have written the objective statements correctly (writing effective learning objectives is covered in a separate article), you will find success raising the bar a little higher.  

I call this blooming the objectives. 

This has nothing to do with flowers, but instead leans on Bloom’s Taxonomy. You should study the details of Bloom’s on your own time if you never have—for now, here’s what you need to know: there are six levels of learning: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. As you can see, the levels of learning start low and work up to a higher comprehension of knowledge. The more the learner comprehends, the easier it will be to apply the knowledge in actionable for. Thus, you will use your knowledge of Bloom’s to find out where the action lies.  

Let’s break these down a little bit. 

Breaking Down Bloom’s 

Now, we need a topic, so let’s assume we’re training on the effectiveness of the Roman Legion versus the Greek Phalanx (I’m just trying to make sure you’ve thought about the Roman Empire today).  

We start with remembering. At this level, you are introducing your learners to terms, details, background, etc. Here, your goal is to make sure your learners can recite terms, define words and recall basic details. It’s pretty low level! Using our example, we might want learners to be able to describe how the Roman Legion operates, how the Greek Phalanx operates, maybe what time period these military formations were used, and how many soldiers were involved in each formation. It is all about knowing facts, figures, and details.  

Next is understanding. From here, information from the previous section is taken farther. Learners begin to comprehend the content so that, if necessary, it can be explained or rephrased. Whereas at the previous level learners can recite information, at this level they can explain it. It has meaning. In the case of our example, learners would be able to explain how each of the military formations works, even being able to diagram it on paper, and explain why the formations are effective. 

Next, we have the application level. This is an important one! Now that the content is understood, it can be applied. At this level, a learner should be able to take what they comprehend about the content and apply it in real world situations. We might require learners to demonstrate how to physically set up a Roman Legion or Greek Phalanx, or perhaps to describe when to use a particular military formation based on the situation. They know the facts and the meaning of those facts, now they need to put it in motion. 

The analyzing level comes next. Analysis requires the learner to essentially deconstruct the content into smaller components that can be reviewed in closer detail. Doing this will reveal how these smaller pieces of content are related and connected to each other, and what patterns might exist in the overall structure. At this stage learners can examine the techniques and flexibility of the Roman Legion’s formation, or how smaller tactical units within support the larger group. We could even ask the learners to compare and contrast the two formations. Doing this will enable to learners to analyze any random formation and identify similarities to the Roman Legion or Greek Phalanx. Or similarly, they should be able to analyze what appears to be a proper formation for internal errors.  

Evaluating comes next. Evaluation goes beyond analysis in that it allows the learner to make judgments based on the material learned. At this stage the learner can form opinions and assessments, and even defend them if necessary. For example, we could provide various scenarios and ask the learner to determine which tactic would work best. Or we can create a mock battle with specific parameters and ask the learner to make a case for who they think would win the battle. Or similarly, we could ask the learner to create a scenario in which the Legion would win, and another in which the Phalanx would win. 

The final stage is Creating. This is the last stage listed in Bloom’s Taxonomy. At this stage the learner is able to recreate the content in a new way so as to promote a new kind of solution or improvement. This does not necessarily mean that they are recreating the training course, by the way! Instead, the learners may take the best feature of both the Legion and the Phalanx and create a new military formation with a unique tactical strategy.  

Hopefully it is becoming clear why incorporating Bloom’s Taxonomy into your learning objectives is important. The question you need to ask yourself is: How high up the pyramid do I need to take the content in order to achieve the results I’m looking for? 

Blooming Your Objectives  

Let’s go back to our opening scenario. Learners are passing the quiz, but they’re not following the training content. When this happens, my guess is that the objectives were written at Level 1 or Level 2—Remembering or Understanding. At Level 1, they can recite terms, define words, and recall what things are. This is not impressive. Kids do this in school when they cram for a Vocab Test. Parrots do this when they want a treat. At Level 2, now there is a why behind the what. There’s a little more meaning to the definitions, a little more purpose in the process. This is all well and good, but it’s not enough. This isn’t where the action is. 

I’ve reviewed hundreds of training courses over my career and the bad habit of many developers is that they don’t think of the training content as larger than the training content. In other words, they don’t think of it as more than just information. Because of this, the objectives end up ensuring that the information is learned while the actionable behavior that should follow is entirely missed. However, if you are going to elevate your game, the information needs to lead to some kind of action. This doesn’t even begin until at minimum Level 3—Application, but perhaps you want to take it even farther than that. The point is to make sure that your objectives match your goals, and you can bridge that gap by blooming your objectives.  

So, the next time you need to write your learning objectives for a training, take a minute to review how far up the pyramid you need to go (what level of Bloom’s you need to reach), then write your objectives in such a way that they align with that stage of learning. 

In the next article, we will go a step further and look at how you can use this information to write effective learning objectives. Until then!