Learning Competencies of Two Science Textbooks for Grade 9: A Comparative Content Analysis Based on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain

The K-12 Science curriculum envisions the development of scientifically, technologically, and environmentally literate and productive members of society who are critical problem solvers, innovative and creative citizens, informed decision makers and effective communicators. To achieve these, higher order thinking skills must be developed among the learners. Textbook serves as a vehicle for the promotion of a specific vision of curricula. One of the important parts of the textbook was the stated learning objectives because it serves as the basis for any kinds of assessments. Thus, this study aimed to analyze learning objectives of science textbooks in order to determine if it contribute to the development of higher order thinking skills among the learners of grade 9. The findings revealed that the science textbooks were inadequate for the development of higher-order thinking skills. Science textbooks gave more emphasis to lower order thinking skills instead. Therefore, it is highly recommended that teacher should supplement more activities that promote higher order thinking skills and the authors of the textbook should modify the learning objectives of the science textbooks in a regressive sequence of cognitive process levels and gave more emphasis on the metacognitive knowledge dimension of Bloom's revised taxonomy.