UC San Diego

In biology, Bloom’s original taxonomy (1956) has been instrumental in facilitating course alignment, identifying assessment objectives in undergraduate courses and standardized tests, and assisting faculty in writing exams that test a variety of cognitive skills. Despite the wide reception of this framework, subsequent studies could not find strong support for the taxonomy’s cumulative hierarchical structure leading to its revision almost two decades ago. Since then, very little research has been done to explore how the revised taxonomy can be used to inform biology instruction. The aim of this study was to explore how Bloom’s revised taxonomy can be understood and applied to biology education, particularly in assessments. This investigation involved a series of studies. First, a biology-specific revised taxonomy was articulated using supporting theoretical frameworks. Subsequent classifications of biology test items from various sources (n=940) using this articulation found that most biology items tested students’ ability to Remember Factual knowledge and Understand Conceptual knowledge. This is consistent with previous literature that suggests biology assessments place an emphasis on memorizing facts rather than deploying other skills associated with critical thinking, problem solving, or learning transfer. A second study examined the relationship between categories of each dimension by considering all types of knowledge and cognitive processes that are involved in solving each item (n=148). In the knowledge dimension, items that drew from Procedural and Conceptual knowledge also involved Factual knowledge. In the cognitive process dimension, items that prompted students to Analyze, Evaluate, and Create simultaneously deployed tasks such as Remember, Understand, and Apply.