Assessment of Papers of English of Sukkur BISE Sindh, Pakistan: An Exploration of the Reflection of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Abstract

This study aims to assess tenth-grade examination papers of English from the boards of intermediate and secondary education (BISEs) in Sindh through the lens of cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy and to identify examination papers for the reflection of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) or lower-order thinking skills (LOTS). In quest for answers, the positivist’s philosophical stance is adopted, and the research approach is quantitative. The examination papers from 2015 to 2019 of tenth-grade English were analyzed. The five years papers were collected from Sukkur BISE. Based on the six levels of the Cognitive Domain, a checklist was developed to examine each item in the question paper. The findings reported that questions in English exam papers represented remember-level as the most dominant in the cognitive domain, while other level representation is negligible. Similarly, another finding informed more LOSTS than HOTS in all the examination papers. The suggestions advocate revamping examination paper setting to align the achievement of specific student learning outcomes for meeting competencies of the national curriculum. Future researchers may consider affective domain to elicit the societal impact of exam papers of other subjects and at various levels of education.

Analyzing Language Assessment from the Cognitive Lens

“…This alludes to contrastive difference between first-three levels and second-three levels, and shows a propensity of prime importance to remembering and knowledge (Tsaparlis, 2020). The study of Zamir and Jan (2023) confirms the dominance boards. However, useful insights can be learnt from the current study.…”

“…In Rawanda, Muhayimana et al (2022) analyzed seventh-grade papers of English for checking the cognitive levels of items; the results reported 1.21% items of higher-order, and 989.79% items of lower-order. In Pakistan, Zamir and Jan (2023) examined Sukkur board exam papers of English of five years (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019); the item-analysis reported 39.47%, 23.2%, 22.66%,14.67% for remember, understand, create, and apply levels respectively, while analyze and evaluate levels were absent. The literature established a tilted picture of LOTS, which alluded to knowledge gap in the context of Mirpur Khas.…”

“…These analyses based on cognitive levels suggest lack of effective item development. Literature also confirms excessive use of low-level items (Muhayimana et al, 2022;Zamir & Jan, 2023). One of the reasons to include more LOTS in the exam items is that previous knowledge sets foundation for the higher-order learning processes because high cognitive levels such as evaluate and create can only be reached if the person gains mastery over lower-levels (Zareian et al, 2015).…”

“…The importance of exams leads researchers to check the quality of exam papers. In this regard, Zamir and Jan (2023) found more lower order thinking skills (LOTS) than higher order thinking skills (HOTS) after examining five-year (2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) annual exam papers of English for grade-ten using the Cognitive Domain of Bloom's Taxonomy (CD-BT) as a framework. Moreover, Chandio et al (2021) examined 12th grade English exam papers from four different Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) over a five-year period (2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018).…”

An Analysis of Karachi Board Papers of English from the Lens of Bloom’s Cognitive Domain

“…Reflection of the Cognitive Domain in the Karachi Board Papers of English of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. The first finding informed that more than half of exam items were set on remember-level; understand and apply stood at the second and third level; evaluate and create levels showed a thin representation, while analyze-level was absent Zamir and Jan (2023). reported similar results while assessing Sukkur Board exam papers in English from 2015 to 2019.…”