Identifying The Cognitive Complexity Of Teacher-made Examination Questions Through The Lens Of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Résumé: Bloom's Taxonomy is widely acclaimed as a framework for ordering learning objectives and promoting the students’ higher-order thinking skills. The current study aims to investigate the categories of the examination questioning patterns formulated by teachers of Master in Foreign Language Didactics at the department of English at Constantine 1, Mentouri Brothers University. Particularly, the study seeks to find out the extent to which the teachers emphasize lower-order thinking levels in comparison to higher-order thinking levels in their assessments. Based on general perspectives and observations, it was hypothesized that the teachers predominantly design examination questions that fall within the lower-order thinking levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, prioritizing rote memorization over critical thinking. To check this research hypothesis, a document analysis of 10 selected examination sheets was used. The study findings revealed a significant inclination towards lower-order thinking levels and a lack of emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, particularly in the aspect of creating questions. Accordingly, integrating higher-order thinking skills and aligning assessments with learning objectives to cultivate critical thinking and deeper understanding among students are essentially required.

Publié dans la revue: أطراس