As educators and instructional designers, we use Bloom’s Taxonomy when teaching and designing instruction within the cognitive domain. We use Krathwhol and Bloom’s Affective Taxonomy when teaching and designing instruction within the affective domain. But, what about those times when we are teaching and designing instruction for skill-based learning? That’s when Dave’s Psychomotor Taxonomy comes in handy!

What is Dave’s Psychomotor Taxonomy?

Dave’s Psychomotor Taxonomy is a classification system for categorizing different types of learning objectives related to physical movement, motor skills, coordination, and performance. These are typically assessed by speed, precision, procedure, and technique. Skills range from simple motor skills to complex tasks.

Dave’s Psychomotor Taxonomy was developed in the 1970s by R.H. Dave, an educational psychologist, and includes desired levels of performance. This taxonomy is commonly used in areas like sports coaching, physical education, medical and surgery training, and other psychomotor domain learning.

What are Dave’s Psychomotor Taxonomy Levels of Performance?

Below are the major categories of this taxonomy and a learning objective example from a physical education unit of tennis instruction.

Imitation – Can the student copy the behavior while observing a demonstration?

• Observe the instructor performing a tennis serve and imitate the stance, grip, and throwing motion.

Manipulation – Can the student perform certain actions from memory or from a set of directions?

• Perform a tennis serve 10 times in a row over the net according to instructions.

Precision – Can the student perform the skill with precision and without assistance?

• Execute a tennis serve placing 8 out of 10 shots accurately into the correct service box.

Articulation – Can the student coordinate and adapt actions for consistency and novelty?

• Perform different types of tennis serves (slice, topspin) adapting technique in game situations.

Naturalization – Can the student perform the skill from memory without much thought?

• Display consistent, effective tennis serve technique automatically without conscious effort.

Choosing Measurable Psychomotor Verbs

When it comes to writing effective learning objectives, psychomotor objectives should be written with measurable verbs. Below is a list of verbs you might consider.

Conclusion

Dave’s Psychomotor Taxonomy serves as a framework for developing learning objectives and assessment tasks targeting motor skill development. The categories represent a progression from basic imitation to highly skilled and natural technique in any motor skill domain. The learning objectives aim to facilitate and assess students along this development process.

If you would like help developing appropriate learning objectives for your course or unit of instruction, let me know!