Analysis of Examination Papers using Bloom's Taxonomy. A Case of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna

Abstract

The extent to which students have reached the cognitive levels set out by the teacher reflects the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process. Six level Bloom's taxonomy is a widely accepted tool in setting question papers. Objective of this study was to determine to what extent the evaluation process of the BSc (Agriculture) degree program of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna (FAUR) follows the revised Bloom's taxonomy in setting the end semester question papers. 772 questions appeared in second semester examination papers representing all four years of the BSc (Agriculture) examinations were scrutinized and grouped into one of the six cognitive domains as identified by Revised Bloom's taxonomy. The mean number of questions of an examination paper was 25.3 (range 57-7). Around 45% of the questions aimed at knowledge level while only 1.3% aimed at creativity. All the examination papers had knowledge and understanding testing components. However, a substantial percentage of examination papers had not tried to test creativity (80%), analysis (40%), evaluation (36%) and application (23%) domains. Knowledge level questions dominated the examination papers of all four years and across all six departments. The highest number of knowledge level questions appeared in 3rd year papers (54%) and in the papers of the Department of Animal Science (79%). It was concluded that attention should be paid in setting the question papers to test higher order of cognitive levels.