A Content Analysis of the Fifth-Grade Ministerial Mathematics Exam Questions for Arabic Speakers in Light of Test Construction Quality Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives

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Fifth-grade ministerial mathematics exams for Arabic speakers between 2015 and 2020 disproportionately focused on lower-order cognitive skills like comprehension and application, while significantly underrepresenting higher-order thinking skills such as evaluation and creation. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.INCREMENTAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

Fahdi Ghanem; Adnan Mohsen; Hurrah Atila

doi:10.53796/hnsj79/37

September 1, 2026Humanitarian and Natural Sciences JournalOpen Access

A Content Analysis of the Fifth-Grade Ministerial Mathematics Exam Questions for Arabic Speakers in Light of Test Construction Quality Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives

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Key Points

To evaluate fifth-grade ministerial mathematics examinations for Arabic speakers administered from 2015 to 2020 against test construction quality standards and Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives.
Conducted a quantitative content analysis across six official ministerial mathematics examinations administered between 2015 and 2020 (N=207 analysis units).
Categorized exam items across the six levels of Bloom's cognitive domain taxonomy with documented classification criteria to ensure objectivity.
Questions predominantly assessed understanding (24.6%), application (22.2%), and analysis (21.3%), while evaluation (5.8%) and creation (7.2%) had minimal representation.
Chi-square testing showed a statistically significant difference between the observed cognitive level distribution and the reference standard, showing a medium effect size.
Distribution of cognitive levels showed no statistically significant differences across examination years from 2015 through 2020.

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Implication

Content analysis reveals underrepresentation of higher-order cognitive skills in fifth-grade mathematics exams, highlighting an imbalance in test construction.

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Ghanem et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a9934b4636c6408cfa7c77b https://doi.org/10.53796/hnsj79/37

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A Content Analysis of the Fifth-Grade Ministerial Mathematics Exam Questions for Arabic Speakers in Light of Test Construction Quality Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives

Key Points

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Implication

Abstract

Discussion

Cite This Study

A Content Analysis of the Fifth-Grade Ministerial Mathematics Exam Questions for Arabic Speakers in Light of Test Construction Quality Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Objectives

Key Points

Ask about this paper

Implication

Abstract

Discussion

Cite This Study

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