Is the Bloom taxonomy level of student‐generated exam‐style questions predictive of exam performance?

Abstract

Bloom’s taxonomy provides a learning framework distinguishing low cognitive level recall and understanding from more advanced levels of application and analysis. As undergraduate level instructors, we push students to advance in cognition as they progress though a bachelor’s degree. Rote memorization and savvy test taking strategies allow many students to be successful through the first semesters of college. However, advanced learning practice must be developed to facilitate student success. Though instructors make many study strategy suggestions based on empirical evidence, many students end up “figuring it out for themselves”. Student study strategies, such as completing instructor‐provided practice questions and making/using flashcards may enhance performance, but fail to engage students in identifying what the most important concepts are and how those concepts might be tested. To encourage students to actively participate in the learning process, Genetics (BIO306) and Cell Biology (BIO315) students were asked to write question related to the lecture material several times throughout the semester. BIO306 and BIO315 instructors score student‐written questions based on Bloom’s taxonomy, with the hypothesis that students who write higher cognitive level questions will perform better on exams. End of semester course evaluations assess the students’ perception of the question writing as a study technique. Unexpectedly, the cognitive level of student‐submitted questions did not correlate with exam scores. In the next phase of the project, BIO315 and BIO306 instructors will provide students with some information about Bloom’s taxonomy and levels of cognition prior to students’ submission of questions. It is hypothesized that this intervention will encourage students to submit higher cognitive level questions in an effort to improve study skill and exam performance. This self‐quizzing strategy is being developed for 300‐level biology courses, but the results have the potential to apply to many other disciplines at other levels of education.Support or Funding InformationUniversity of Wisconsin ‐ LaCrosse Faculty Development Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) grant 2019