Exploring the Cognitive Level of Final Exams in Iranian High Schools: Focusing on Bloom’s Taxonomy

Abstract

This study investigates the cognitive level of first and second grade of Iranian high-school final exam questions based on Blooms’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Cognitive dimension of Bloom’s Taxonomy consists of six levels: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These levels have a cumulative hierarchy from knowledge as the lowest level to evaluation as the highest one. A content analysis research was conducted to examine the items and the reliability was assured by establishing inter-coder and intra-coder reliability of the procedure. Content analysis of questions revealed that all the items of first and second grades were at the first three levels of the taxonomy which was mostly the lower order of thinking. The Chi Square test, which was run to investigate the possible specific pattern of frequencies of the items, gave a significant result for both series of questions. It was concluded that there was no specific pattern for the frequencies of the questions. Moreover, there was no difference between first and second grade questions with regard to cognitive levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. The results of this study can be useful for raising the knowledge and awareness of test designers and teachers regarding the cognitive level of the items they design. The taxonomy can also be used for planning effective test specifications since it takes both higher and lower cognitive level of items into account.