Climbing Bloom's taxonomy pyramid: Lessons from a graduate histology course

Abstract

Bloom's taxonomy was adopted to create a subject-specific scoring tool for histology multiple-choice questions (MCQs). This Bloom's Taxonomy Histology Tool (BTHT) was used to analyze teacher- and student-generated quiz and examination questions from a graduate level histology course. Multiple-choice questions using histological images were generally assigned a higher BTHT level than simple text questions. The type of microscopy technique (light or electron microscopy) used for these image-based questions did not result in any significant differences in their Bloom's taxonomy scores. The BTHT levels for teacher-generated MCQs correlated positively with higher discrimination indices and inversely with the percent of students answering these questions correctly (difficulty index), suggesting that higher-level Bloom's taxonomy questions differentiate well between higher- and lower-performing students. When examining BTHT scores for MCQs that were written by students in a Multiple-Choice Item Development Assignment (MCIDA) there was no significant correlation between these scores and the students' ability to answer teacher-generated MCQs. This suggests that the ability to answer histology MCQs relies on a different skill set than the aptitude to construct higher-level Bloom's taxonomy questions. However, students significantly improved their average BTHT scores from the midterm to the final MCIDA task, which indicates that practice, experience and feedback increased their MCQ writing proficiency. Anat Sci Educ 10: 456-464. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

A gross anatomy flipped classroom effects performance, retention, and higher‐level thinking in lower performing students

“…However, few studies have looked into the effect of the flipped classroom on critical thinking by exploring students ability to answer higher‐level analytical examination questions (Day, ; Morton and Colbert‐Getz, ). Bloom's revised taxonomy (Anderson et al, ) can be utilized as informative tool to assess the level of knowledge required to answer multiple choice questions (Thompson and O'Loughlin, ; Zaidi et al, ). This level of analysis can help measure the effectiveness of an assessment in light of critical thinking.…”

“…Multiple‐choice questions (MCQ) are frequently used in anatomical and foundational courses as a mode of assessment, but further analysis of questions based on Bloom's can be extremely informative of the level of cognition obtained by a student (Haak et al, , Thompson and O'Loughlin, ). Although Bloom's was originally designed to be a general non‐discipline specific resource, several discipline specific tools have been developed to assist educators with determining the Bloom's level of MCQs, including “Bloom's Anatomy Tool” (BAT) (Thompson and O'Loughlin, ), “Bloom's Taxonomy Histology Tool” (Zaidi et al, ), and “Blooming Biology Tool” (Crowe et al, ). These tools have allowed for a measurable interrater reliability when assessing the effects of changes in classroom education through the students' performance on MCQ examinations.…”

Construction and validation of a distance Basic Life Support Course

“…We should remember that the elaboration of educational objectives of the course was based on the Bloom's Taxonomy (cognitive, affective and psychomotor). Other researches also used this reference in the elaboration of assessment activities, courses and disciplines with the purpose of assessing cognitive gain in higher levels of learning (20)(21)(22) .…”

Role of comprehension on performance at higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy: Findings from assessments of healthcare professional students

“…Based on the thinking of many researchers about the cumulative hierarchy (Cizek et al, ; Dobson, ; Knecht, ; Harries and Botha, ; Crowe et al, ; Kim et al, ; Thompson and O'Loughlin, ; Choudhury et al, ; Semsar and Casagrand, ; Zaidi et al, ), it was expected that student performance at knowledge and comprehension levels, either individually or on both levels, would be greater than student performances at application and/or analysis levels. This hypothesis provides sufficient flexibility without demanding that the trend in scores be strictly hierarchical (i.e., knowledge would be higher than comprehension, which would be higher than application, which would be higher than analysis).…”

“…They found that the BAT did not improve accuracy or inter‐rater reliability but was easy to use. Expanding on the BAT, Zaidi et al () developed the Bloom's Taxonomy Histology Tool (BTHT) for student use to develop both a deeper level of content mastery and critical thinking. These studies and others like them involve the assumption that Bloom's taxonomy is multi‐tiered along a continuum of simple to complex (Cizek et al, ; Kim et al, ; Semsar and Casagrand, ).…”