Using Bloom’s Revised Cognitive Skills Taxonomy To Evaluate Iranian Students’ Pre-University English Textbook and University Entrance Exams

Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English

مقاله 4، دوره 7، شماره 1، مرداد 2018، صفحه 69-97   

نوع مقاله: Original Research Paper

نویسندگان

Shiva Sadighi^{* 1}؛ Mortaza Yamini²؛ Mohammad Sadegh Bagheri²؛ Mustafa Zamanian²

¹Shiraz Azad University

²Department of English Islamic Azad University Shiraz, Iran

چکیده

The priority attributed to the use of Bloom’s revised cognitive skills taxonomy in any educational system and the scarcity of
research on this type of topic in our EFL context, the researchers attempted to conduct this study. Our primary objectives revolved around
these dimensions. To examine if the pre-university teaching materials
(English 1 and 2) assigned and employed by the teachers to teach their
students at Shiraz followed Bloom’s hierarchy. Likewise, the researchers
attempted to check if the University Entrance Exams administered every year of screening the registered candidates to enter the universities in Iran was compatible with this taxonomy. Finally, to check if the differences between the two dichotomies (lower and higher) in the textbook
were statistically significant. To achieve these goals, the content of the
textbook and that of general and English majors’ tests were evaluated
against Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Analyzing the data through descriptive statistics and a Chi-square test applied to data gathered from
the English book, the results showed that the content of the book was
not aligned with the order of Bloom’s thinking skills. The hierarchy
starts from lower order: remembering, understanding, and applying towards higher order: analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Likewise, the
analysis of the university entrance exams’ content did not reveal any
congruity with Bloom’s hierarchy. So no agreement between the two
sources of input with Bloom’s learning objectives was witnessed. Pedagogical implications and recommendations are presented.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Teaching materials؛ university entrance exams؛ Bloom’s revised taxonomy؛ Textbook evaluation