Unpacking the South African Physics-Examination Questions According to Blooms’ Revised Taxonomy

Abstract

The quality and standard of South African examination questions for the grade 12 examination have become an important issue for the South African education system. So far, the focus of empirical research has been on factors that lead to poor performance in the Physical sciences as well as the alignment of the grade 12 Physical Sciences examination with the core curriculum in South Africa. On the contrary, this research paper focuses on a different aspect: the weaknesses and the strengths of the Physics examination questions. It addresses the question of how the Physics examination questions cover higher and lower order level questions in the Bloom’s revised taxonomy. To answer this question, the Physics examination questions of the year 2014 and 2015 were analysed using Bloom’s revised taxonomy of learning objectives. The examination questions were codified and the frequencies and percentages of occurrence of different learning objectives were calculated. The results show that third level cognitive skills were more prevalent than other ones. Furthermore, examiners asked questions that require application and few questions requiring the recall of knowledge. Keywords: physics examination, revised Bloom’s taxonomy, quality of education.

Identify Student’s Scientific Reasoning Skill in Straight Motion Material

“…The types of problems in the examination did not contain high-level questions, even though students mastered the Mathematics skills needed to solve problems in Physics. The mathematical skills students mastered did not help them apply concepts to specific contexts in Physics (Motlhabane, 2017). Thus, students' scientific reasoning skills in the correlational reasoning pattern are still low.…”

Alignment Between Curriculum Standards and Assessment in Understanding Chemical Reaction Principles at Upper-Secondary Schools

“…In this research, the 5 levels of cognitive level in the existing SEC analysis method (Porter, 2002;Porter & Smithson, 2002) were adapted and reclassified into three levels according to the curriculum standards and the relevant research findings of subject experts (Ministry of Education of China, 2020; Motlhabane, 2017;Yu et al, 2022). The reason for the adaptation and classification based on the new curriculum was that:…”

Needs Analysis of Integrated Dimensions of Knowledge and Cognitive Process Level on Circular Motion Materials for Physics Learning in Senior High School

“…In the 2013 curriculum, it is expected that learning can lead to the diversity of knowledge that will be obtained by students through the dimensions of knowledge and cognitive processes based on Bloom's revised taxonomy. Thus, to achieve this goal, learning should be designed using a combination of 4 knowledge dimensions and six cognitive level processes [3].…”

“…Procedural knowledge is how to do something in procedures or steps regarding collective skills, techniques, algorithms, and methods. Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge in the form of students' awareness and responsibility for their knowledge and thoughts [3].…”

“…Meanwhile, the cognitive processes in Bloom's revised taxonomy consist of 6 levels of cognitive processes, namely remembering (C1), understanding (C2), applying (C3), analyzing (C4), evaluating (C5), and creating (C6) [2]. The six cognitive processes can be described as follows: 1) The ability to remember is the retrieval of relevant knowledge from memory; 2) The ability to understand is the construction of meaning from the learning process, including oral, written, and picture communication; 3) The ability to apply is an activity to perform or use procedures in unusual situations; 4) The ability to analyze is the ability to break down the material into its parts and determine how the parts are connected between parts, structure, and overall purpose; 5) The ability to evaluate is the ability to make judgments based on criteria and standards, and 6) the ability to create is the ability to put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole and rearrange the elements into a new pattern or structure [3].…”