An Evaluation of Reading Text Questions in the 7th Grade English Coursebook Based on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy

Abstract

The goal of the current research is to reflect critical thinking levels of reading activities in the 7th grade English coursebook. Moreover, it also aims to propose extra activities to complete the missing cognitive levels of the reading passages. Within this perspective, several questions are forwarded. Firstly, the extent of the reading activities was evaluated, so each level was described with an example from the coursebook. What is more, the homogeneity of the total activities was elaborated. Second question deals with the significance between the lower and higher levels. To answer these questions, content analysis was applied as a part of qualitative analysis. Also, Bloom's revised taxonomy was utilized in the coding process as a criterion to match the activities with the right cognitive level. The results showed that a very high percentage of the activities (95%) support lower levels with the predominance of the remembering level. Thus, it was not a homogeneous distribution. Also, a significant difference was found between lower and higher levels as a result of SPSS. Therefore, teachers need to make some adaptations in their lessons. They need to prepare extra materials to cover the missing levels. On the other side, coursebook developers need to make regular adaptations to keep up with the current needs.

Keywords

• critical thinking
• critical reading
• coursebook evaluation
• 21st century skills
• bloom's revised taxonomy

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