Two useful tools for defining teaching aims
Bloom's taxonomy
B. Bloom's taxonomy (1956) revised by D.Krathwohl (2001), is a methodological base that allows us to identify learning objectives. Bloom set up a classification in six categories, originally in order to test the acquisition of knowledge.
Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
All the action verbs correspond to these six categories. They help to identify the learning objectives and to explicitly state the aims and activities of the learning.
To find out more about this look at this PDF made available by the CAFOC (Centre Académique de Formation Continue/Academic Centre for continuing Education) Auvergne.