Investigation of question types in high school geography coursebooks and their analysis in accordance with the revised bloom’s taxonomy

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate question types used in high school geography coursebooks inTurkey and analyze them based on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. Two forms were prepared inorder to analyze the data. A total of 1940 questions were analyzed in this study. Descriptive statistics(percentages/ frequencies) were utilized in the analysis of the data. The results indicated that “openendedquestions” and “matching questions”, among traditional assessment tools, were the mostfrequently used type of questions across the four coursebooks. Additionally, the analyses suggestedthat “open-ended” and “multiple-choice” questions have been mainly used at the “understanding”level of cognitive process dimension across all coursebooks. On the other hand, it was found thatmatching questions were predominantly used at the “application” level in the 9th grade coursebook,“remembering” level in the 10th and 11th grade coursebooks, and “understanding” level in the 12thgrade book. The check lists included in the coursebooks were mainly at the application level. “Gapfilling” questions were found to have predominantly been used at the “understanding" level in the 9thgrade coursebook and “remembering” level in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade coursebooks. As for theknowledge dimension analysis, it was found that the open-ended and multiple-choice questions weremainly used at the “conceptual knowledge” level across the four coursebooks. Matching questionswere generally used at the “conceptual knowledge” level in the 9th and 12th grade coursebooks, and atthe “factual knowledge” level in the 10th and 11th grade coursebooks. Checklist used in the 11th gradecoursebook were at the “procedural knowledge” level, and “conceptual knowledge” level in the 10thand 12th grade coursebooks. In the light of these results, it is understood that questions within thegeography coursebooks (9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades) were commonly used at the “understandingand remembering” levels within the cognitive process dimension, and at the “conceptual and factualknowledge” levels within the knowledge dimension.