The revised Bloom's Taxonomy applied to assessment: a study of Mathematics written tests

Abstract

This article presents an analysis based on the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy of items of Mathematics written test questions prepared by teachers of Secondary School and High School public school. These teachers participated in workshops that discussed the theme "assessment and learning", a project in 2013 and they were asked to analyze the written test that they prepared. The results showed the prevalence of items classified in the lower levels of the cognitive domain of the Taxonomy (remember, understand and apply) and a near absence of items in the most developed levels (analyze, evaluate and create). These results support the need for studies and continuing education projects that encourages the teachers rethink: (i) the assessment instruments that they use (in general, mainly the written test); (ii) the development of the tasks proposed (generally restricted to "exercises-type" present in textbooks) and (iii) its own assessment practice.

Keywords:
Assessment of school learning; Written test; Bloom's Taxionomy