When less is more: a pragmatic Constructive Alignment Taxonomy for Learning and Instruction (CATLI)

Constructive alignment—coherence among learning goals, instruction, and assessment—is essential for effective learning and teaching. Yet existing alignment taxonomies are often overly differentiated, limiting their practical use and coherent integration across studies. By avoiding unnecessary differentiation while preserving validity, we introduce the Constructive Alignment Taxonomy for Learning and Instruction (CATLI), supporting researchers and practitioners in describing and designing learning environments and advancing a common language for research and practice.

Eckart Zitzler for their thoughtful and constructive feedback on an earlier draft of this manuscript. We also thank Denise Zhu for her support in preparing the manuscript and in reviewing learning-goal taxonomies and frameworks, and Beate Hartwig for her contributions to designing the graphical representation of the CATLI. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Education and Educational Psychology, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany Institute for Research on Instruction and Subject-Specific Education, Schwyz University of Teacher Education, Goldau, Switzerland The authors declare no competing interests. Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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When less is more: a pragmatic Constructive Alignment Taxonomy for Learning and Instruction (CATLI). npj Sci. Learn. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00456-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00456-0