Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Evaluate the Cognitive Levels of Master Class Textbook’s Questions

This study aimed at evaluating the cognitive levels of the questions following the reading texts of Master Class textbook. A checklist based on Bloom’s Taxonomy was the instrument used to categorize the cognitive levels of these questions. The researchers used proper statistics to rank the cognitive levels of the comprehension questions. The results showed that the author of Master Class emphasized the cognitive level of Comprehension having 52% of the questions, which was much more than the expected frequency, while wrote only 3.7% and 6% of the questions on the cognitive levels of Knowledge and Application respectively. The frequency of questions on the cognitive levels of Evaluation and Analysis were much closer to the expected frequencies. The results indicated that about 40% of the textbook’s questions emphasized higher-order thinking skills, which goes with the requirements of the revised curriculum. Evaluating and choosing a good textbook that goes with the goals of the curriculum is recommended. Such a study would shed light upon the role of textbooks in developing cognitive skills among Arab students.