Competence

Skills Demonstrated

Knowledge

(drawing out factual answers, and testing recall and recognition)

• observation and recall of information
• knowledge of dates, events, places
• knowledge of major ideas
• mastery of subject matter

Question Cues:
list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, when, where, who, which one, what, how, what is the best one, why, match, choose, how much, select, omit, what does it mean, etc.

Comprehension (translating, interpreting, and extrapolating)

• understanding information
• grasp meaning
• translate knowledge into new context
• interpret facts, compare, contrast
• order, group, infer causes
• predict consequences

Question Cues:
summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend, state in your own words, classify, which are facts, what does this mean, judge, is this the same as, give an example, infer, select the best definition, condense this paragraph, show, what would happen if, indicate, explain what is happening, what part doesn't fit, tell, explain what is meant, what expectations are there, translate, read the graph or table, what are they saying, select, this represents, what seems to be, match, is it valid that, what seems likely, explain, show in a graph or table, which statements support, represent, demonstrate, what restrictions would you add, etc

Application

(to situations that are new, unfamiliar or have a new slant for students)

• use information
• use methods, concepts, theories in new situations
• solve problems using required skills or knowledge

Question Cues:
apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover,  predict what would happen if, explain, choose the best statements that apply, identify the results of, judge the effects, select, what would result, tell what would happen, tell how, when, where, why, tell how much change there would be, etc

Analysis

(breaking down into parts, forms)

• seeing patterns
• organization of parts
• recognition of hidden meanings
• identification of components

Question Cues:
analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer,  distinguish, what is the function of, identify, what's fact or opinion, what assumptions, what statement is relevant, what motive is there or related to or extraneous to or not applicable, what conclusions, what does author believe or assume, make a distinction, state the point of view of, what is the premise, what ideas apply, what ideas justify conclusion, what's the relationship between, the least essential statements are, what's the main idea or theme, what inconsistencies or fallacies, what literary form is used, what persuasive technique, implicit in the statement is, etc

Synthesis

(combining elements into a pattern not clearly there before)

• use old ideas to create new ones
• generalize from given facts
• relate knowledge from several areas
• predict, draw conclusions

Question Cues:
combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite, how would you test, make up, tell, propose an alternative, make, solve the following, do, plan, how else would you choose, design, state a rule, develop, etc

Evaluation

(according to some set of criteria, and state why)

• compare and discriminate between ideas
• assess value of theories, presentations
• make choices based on reasoned argument
• verify value of evidence
• recognize subjectivity

Question Cues
assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize,  appraise, what fallacies or consistencies or inconsistencies appear, which is more important or moral or better or logical or valid or appropriate, criticize, find the errors, defend, etc