How to Write Competencies

Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy to Developing Educational Objectives

Jun 19, 2009

Creating competencies for lessons and courses can be accomplished by applying Bloom's taxonomy to the desired outcomes.

Bloom’s taxonomy provides a structured way to develop educational objectives. It also can be extended to the new demands for competencies that are being introduced in K-12 schools. These competencies, popular with businesses and some higher educational institutions, are related to learning objectives but specifically describe the behaviors, skills and knowledge necessary for success in a course or series of courses.

Structure of a Competency

Competencies can be written by building their structure upon Bloom’s taxonomy; from the lowest to highest level in the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains. Each one should introduce the skills, knowledge and behaviors necessary for successful completion and being ready for the next level of courses or success in a chosen career.

Each individual competency should be specific to the attribute being described. It should start with an action verb followed by an object, such as, “Analyze local, regional, national, or global problems or challenges.” Competencies should be performance based and measurable, for example, “in which scientific inquiry can be or has been used to determine a solution.” In this example the words used are not relative but specifically relate to the desire that students can take an example and determine how science can or has been used to solve the problem.

Importance of Verb Choice

The action verb used to start each competency is very important. In the above example the competency starts with the verb analyze. Analyze is from the analysis level of the Cognitive Domain in Bloom’s taxonomy. If the course is more basic, the competency writer might choose a word from a lower level, such as recognize. A course that emphasizes higher order thinking skills might use a verb from a higher level, such as the verb justify.

A verb list for Bloom’s taxonomy, such as one that can be found online and downloaded as a Word document, can assist with determining which verb is appropriate for different competencies. Start by choosing whether the competency will describe a behavior (affective domain), skill (psychomotor domain) or knowledge (cognitive domain) and whether it will be a lower or higher level. Then the list of verbs can provide a starting point for writing the sentence.

Writing competencies can seem a daunting task. When coupled with the familiar structure of Bloom’s taxonomy they become easier to create and identify. Remember to start with an action verb, followed by an object and complete the competency with specific information describing the outcome. The action verb can be changed depending on how high of a level the student should be able to achieve in the associated domain.

The copyright of the article How to Write Competencies in Teaching Strategies/Mentorship is owned by Tammy Andrew. Permission to republish How to Write Competencies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.