UNDERSTANDING AND APPLICATION OF BLOOM TAXONOMY BY SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN BOTSWANA

The decline in performance of students’ results over years in Botswana secondary schools has been a concern to every stakeholder. If the curriculum goals takes into consideration the levels of cognitive skills, the expectation is that the assessment and learning should do likewise. The level to which teachers take into consideration the cognitive skills for each student when assessing and teaching determine the quality of education. This research is concerned with the extent to which cognitive skills are assessed and taught by teachers from a sample of 20 senior secondary schools. The study is inferential involving surveying with a questionnaire instrument the views and perceptions of a sample of 334 teachers as regards their understanding and application of Bloom’s taxonomy during teaching and test development. The instrument was checked for face and content validity by expects in measurement. Single factor repeated measures were used to analyze data using SPSS at .05 level of significance. The analysis of data from teachers have indicated that there is a significant difference in the level of emphasis they lay on imparting of various skills to learners, assessment by teachers does not favour any particular Bloom’s cognitive skill yet teachers have indicated that there is a significant difference in the level to which they perceive each of the cognitive skills as being desirable for development. Findings were discussed as well as recommendations.