COGNITIVE DEPTH IN NATIONAL LEVEL SCIENCE TESTS BIOLOGY TASKS FROM 2015 TILL 2017 YEAR

Educational system needs to adapt and change through times. To do that the last educational reform in Latvia was in 2006 and now, after eleven years, Latvia will try to make educational approach based on student’s ability to apply HOCS (higher order cognitive skills). The need for new approach shows in OECD PISA results presented in 2016. They show that in Latvia only 3,8 % of students performance is in accordance to the 5th and 6th level of the deep learning skills framework where they need to apply skills in new contexts. Before making big decisions, it is necessary to analyze results from available and comparable data in order to identify ways how to promote student achievements. Therefore the research goal is to analyze how deep learning skills are approached in biology tasks at National level Science tests from in 9th grade from years 2015 till 2017. Furthermore, the research direction is to analyze the cognitive depth and student results of biology tasks in the Latvia’s National level Science test in which scientific knowledge and skills were measured. From these three years preliminary results show that more than 63% of biology tasks were measuring only 1st and 2nd deep learning skills and only one task was in higher order cognitive skills.