Document Type : Orginal Articles
Author
Soran University
Abstract
Despite the rising concerns about examinations as a traditional means of assessment, they continue to remain as a dominant tool. This implies that exams are less likely to be abandoned and replaced by other assessment instruments. One major issue with examinations has been that they are excessively obsessed with testing lower-order cognitive skills, especially recalling and comprehending which are identified as surface levels of thinking under the Bloom’s Taxonomy. This does not mean that examinations cannot be applied to measure higher cognitive abilities in learners. On the contrary, exams can well be utilized to assess higher order thinking skills. This, however, largely depends on the quality and level of examination questions. This study, therefore, is an attempt to revisit the cognitive level of examination questions within an EFL university context. The study makes use of Bloom’s taxonomy as a framework to guide the analysis and evaluation of examination questions selected. For this purpose, the final examination questions for two successive academic years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 are chosen from two English departments within a certain university context. The findings revealed that a significant emphasis of examination questions goes to lower-order cognitive levels, particularly during the early years of the undergraduate program. The emphasis of examination questions, though, gradually shifts toward higher-order thinking levels, especially the analytical skill, at more senior levels of study. The findings also indicated that the focus of examination questions varied across course categories.
Keywords
Article Title [کوردی]
Revisiting Examination Questions within an EFL University Context: Using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a Guiding Framework
Author [کوردی]
- کارمند حمد
زانکۆی سۆران
Abstract [کوردی]
Despite the rising concerns about examinations as a traditional means of assessment, they continue to remain as a dominant tool. This implies that exams are less likely to be abandoned and replaced by other assessment instruments. One major issue with examinations has been that they are excessively obsessed with testing lower-order cognitive skills, especially recalling and comprehending which are identified as surface levels of thinking under the Bloom’s Taxonomy. This does not mean that examinations cannot be applied to measure higher cognitive abilities in learners. On the contrary, exams can well be utilized to assess higher order thinking skills. This, however, largely depends on the quality and level of examination questions. This study, therefore, is an attempt to revisit the cognitive level of examination questions within an EFL university context. The study makes use of Bloom’s taxonomy as a framework to guide the analysis and evaluation of examination questions selected. For this purpose, the final examination questions for two successive academic years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 are chosen from two English departments within a certain university context. The findings revealed that a significant emphasis of examination questions goes to lower-order cognitive levels, particularly during the early years of the undergraduate program. The emphasis of examination questions, though, gradually shifts toward higher-order thinking levels, especially the analytical skill, at more senior levels of study. The findings also indicated that the focus of examination questions varied across course categories.
Keywords [کوردی]
- Bloom’s taxonomy
- examination questions
- lower-order thinking skills
- higher-order-thinking skills
- cognitive progression
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