Achieving effective transfer of theoretical knowledge to clinical practice requires knowledge of thinking paradigms in relation to specific nursing content.  It is a challenge to develop instructional designs for teaching and assessing implicit thought processes involved in clinical reasoning.  However, the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson, et.al., 2001) provides a framework to include explicit objectives that focus on metacognitive knowledge.  This study adopted an action research approach to address the question:  How could nurse educators use the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to design instruction that promotes development of thinking skills involved in clinical reasoning?  This study took place among a group of nursing students who enrolled in the clinical laboratories of a Medical-surgical Nursing course. Methods of data collection included observations, interviews, students’ written assignments (diagnostic reasoning worksheet and clinical journal), and teacher reflections.  The experience of this study explored how the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy helped educators get a better understanding of the intended learning objectives for developing thinking skills.  This understanding not only facilitated planning congruent/appropriate instruction and assessment methods, but also helped educators analyze and reflect on the implementation process. During the course of this action research, educators continuously monitored the student’s progress, evaluated the results of actions, identified areas for improvement, and modified the teaching plan for subsequent actions. This study suggests that the instructional design based on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy facilitated development of thinking skills involved in clinical reasoning as evidenced by students’ achievement of intended learning.

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