ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1644811
Investigating Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy in a University Entrance Examination Using Cognitive Diagnostic Modeling
Provisionally accepted
- 1Rafsanjan University of Vali Asr, Rafsanjan, Iran
- 2Ilam University, Ilam, Iran
- 3Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
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The aim of this study is twofold. First, this study intends to explore the potential of a high-stakes multiple choice test for measuring cognitive complexity by using Bloom's Taxonomy and applying cognitive diagnostic models. Second, this study seeks to investigate the interplay of cognitive complexity with gender and item difficulty. Data from 1000 applicants to English Ph.D. programs were analyzed. Six experts coded test items based on the cognitive levels they target. Q-matrices were constructed, one for each expert, specifying item-cognition relationships. The G-DINA model was used to assess these relationships. Based on the best-fitting Q-matrix, 27% of the items measured the lowest cognitive level (remember), 50% measured understand, and 23% measured analyze levels. Test takers demonstrated mastery of these levels by 56%, 39%, and 28%, respectively. Findings indicate that the test primarily assesses lower levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. In addition, the results showed that male test takers outperformed female counterparts at higher levels. Furthermore, the analysis showed that cognitive complexity contributed to item difficulty. Finally, implications were discussed, and suggestions were made.
Keywords: Bloom's taxonomy, Levels of cognition, MCQ, Item difficulty, gender, cognitive diagnostic models
Received: 10 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ravand, Shahi and Effatpanah. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Farshad Effatpanah, Technical University Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
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