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Every year, The Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) administer
examinations as a test mechanism to gauge student’s understanding and their ability on
topical aspects learned. The purpose of this study was to analyze in details the quality
of exams administered to students. A balanced examination test should cover all levels
of learning as summarized by Bloom in his famous Bloom's taxonomy which outlines
the levels of learning as Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis
and Evaluation. Thus, the main objective was to identity the level to which Kenya
National Examination Council examines key areas of learning in biology in accordance
to Blooms’ Cognitive domain and if the examination meet’s the objective of teaching
biology in secondary school in assessing all the cognitive domain. The study adopted
mixed method approach. Document analysis was employed in data collection. The
study analyzed the past KCSE biology examinations dating 2008-2018. Bloom
taxonomy was used as the guiding principles in analyzing the biology question items to
the various levels of the cognitive domain. The criteria in each question was interpreted
based on action verbs prescribed in Blooms Taxonomy and assigned to the relevant
level in the domain. The data sheet was used to capture and tabulate the cognitive levels
of the questions from KCSE examination papers. Information collected was interpreted
via scientific process of coding and systemic variation. The data collected was edited,
coded and classified on the basis of similarity with the themes and then tabulated. The
analyzed data was presented in form of tables and graphs. The finding’s revealed that
KCSE examination conducted by KNEC are not as adequately demanding tasks, as they
should be, most dominant questions are lower-order cognitive question; knowledge,
comprehension and application with 87.25% frequency and 84.49% mark allocation
while analysis, synthesis, and evaluation had lower frequencies of 12.75% and mark
allocation of 15.51%.Higher-order questions was not effectively implemented, thus
examination did not adequately meet the objectives of learning biology education in
secondary schools. The research recommends that, Higher order cognitive skills of
analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating that fosters orientation, concept strategies and
assessment methodologies should be embraced by examination body as teaching focus
in schools. This result is important, as it will help improve educational practices and
programs by all the stakeholders in the process of testing; curriculum developers and
examination designers will know the crucial nature of testing that measures all the
levels of cognitive abilities. People whose main interest may be in assessment will have
a check list on probably how to make a better test. |
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