Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to investigate final examinations of third grade high school English book , administered at high schools of Iran, to see whether such examinations assess the six major levels of learning based on Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain or not. To do so, seven sample tests of the final English examinations which were administered during the last seven years were collected, and then they were analyzed carefully. Taking the percentage of occurrence of each subcategories of taxonomy into account, it was found that 82.5 percent of questions assess the first and the second levels (knowledge and comprehension) which are the lowest levels, in other words 40 percent at the knowledge level and 42.5 percent at comprehension level. The other 17.5 percent assess the application level, and none of the questions assess the high levels (analysis, synthesis and evaluation). Whereas, it is necessary for all stake holders to make incentives so that students will be able to become critical thinkers and long life independent learners, and since the significance of enhancing the acquisition of high order cognitive levels is widely recognized , educators should address this and the related issues. Due to the shortcomings observed in such examinations, in this study it was proposed that the first part of final examination of third grade high school English book, dealing with spelling be deleted, and some questions resulting in students’ critical thinking as well as their independency be considered as the last section of the exam.

Keywords:

text book design, Bloom's taxonomy, examination.