RATIONALE
Muller (2005) argued that certification exam standards are low cognitive demands. This research study will add to the literature on the cognitive demand of South African NSC physical sciences.
FOCUS OF THE STUDY
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COGNITIVE DEMAND TAXONOMY
Bloom's revised taxonomy seems to be favored by researchers as an instrument to analyze the cognitive demand of exam questions. I then re-evaluated the instrument and began to develop a taxonomy which I found to be more relevant and specific to analyzing the cognitive demand of the NSC physical science exam questions.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The subject matter experts helped to refine the taxonomy created by the researcher and also to verify that the taxonomy is reliable for the cognitive demand analysis of exam questions. Each exam question was broken down into the smallest unit that could be scored using the taxonomy and termed an assessment item in this study.
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
Lane (2004) reports that “advances in the study of cognition and measurement in the 1980s and 1990s prompted individuals to think. Vinjevold (2005) points out that "the cognitive demand of exit-level assessment tasks must be increased and ways must be found to assess a wide range of skills" (p. 2).
COGNITIVE DEMAND
This section examines the commonly used taxonomies in the literature reviewed to classify the cognitive demands of the exam questions. The taxonomy of performance expectations seemed to give her an indication of the cognitive demands of the senior certificate biology exams.
ALIGNMENT STUDIES
96.3% with the remaining 3.7% of the curriculum providing for the higher order categories of "analyze", "evaluate" and "create". The examination paper analysis by Edwards (2010) found that the “apply” category was over-represented for the 2008 and 2009 final examination papers. Mhlolo's (2011) findings indicate that although higher order cognitive skills and processes are consistently emphasized in the curriculum documents, the 2008 examination papers. lower order cognitive skills emphasized.
Leighton (2013) emphasizes that the methods of validating test score inferences have become a topic of concern for researchers and practitioners as interest in using standardized achievement tests to assess students' mastery of knowledge and skills increases. 2008) emphasized the importance of alignment between the written, taught and tested curriculum and suggests that the alignment be anchored in cognitively demanding assessment standards.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In terms of scientific skills, Bloom et al. (1956) refer to application as “the ability to apply scientific principles, postulates, theorems, or other abstractions to new situations” (p. 124). A soldier of mass 80 kg is lifted vertically upwards through a height of 20 m by a cable with a CONSTANT VELOCITY of 4 m.s-1. The tension in the cable is 960 N. A Study of the Cognitive Demands of the National Higher Certificate (NSC) Physical Sciences Examination Papers.
In summary, I am requested to inform you that:-. your participation in this study is voluntary. your responses will be treated confidentially and no restrictions apply. your anonymity will be ensured. a decision not to participate in this study will not result in any negative or undesirable consequences for you. a decision to participate allows you the freedom to withdraw from the research at any stage for. any reason and without any negative or undesirable consequences to you. the study findings will be made available to you upon request.
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
The analysis instrument in this study was validated by the experts before the exam papers could be analyzed by the researcher. In this study, validity was ensured by employing a quantitative deductive analysis design employing an appropriate cognitive demand taxonomy. In this study, this can be measured by the analysis of the five assessors (four experts and the researcher).
Once the taxonomy was found to be reliable by the experts and all the discussions with the experts were taken into account, I proceeded to analyze all the NSC examination papers from 2008 to 2013 using the validated taxonomy to ensure consistency in the classification .
DATA COLLECTION STRATEGY
From 2014 onwards, NSC examinations will be based on CAPS (Department of Basic Education, 2011a). 2011) argue that research quality is determined not only by methodology and instrumentation, but also by sampling strategy. Before starting the analysis, the researcher reads the entire question to get a good understanding of the question before proceeding with the analysis. Some questions took more time than others and the researcher had to discuss some questions with some of the subject matter experts.
When all the exam questions were analyzed a final check was made by the researcher and where there were questions they were discussed and resolved with the science education professor who was part of the subject matter expert group.
ETHICAL ISSUES
I decided to compare the screening analysis to the recommended DBE levels to see if what was tested in the NSC screening was aligned with what was recommended in the NCS.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE STUDY TAXONOMY
The above item is classified as "recall" as it requires the student to recall the name of the gas produced. The above item is classified as "basic understanding" as it requires the student to demonstrate some basic understanding of familiar reaction rate concepts. The above item is classified as "basic understanding" as it requires the student to demonstrate some basic understanding of familiar reaction rate concepts.
The above item is classified as "retrieval" as it requires the learner to recall the factors that increase the rate of the response.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Only 7% of the total marks were awarded to questions requiring higher order thinking skills of the "application" type. The aim of this study was to determine the cognitive question of the NSC physical sciences examination papers. How do the cognitive demands of the NSC physical sciences exam papers compare with the weighting of cognitive levels recommended in the national curriculum statement?
This ensured rater consistency and ensured the reliability of the cognitive question taxonomy used to conduct the analysis.
ANALYSIS OF EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPERS
On average over a six-year period, 93% of the total marks in Paper 1 (Physics) were awarded to questions requiring lower-order "recall" mental abilities. Percentage of total marks for physical sciences (physics) exam paper 1 from 2008 to 2013 at the cognitive level. Percentage of total marks for physical sciences (chemistry) exam paper 2 from 2008 to 2013 at the cognitive level.
No points have been awarded for testing the higher order thinking skills of 'analyzing and reasoning' as described in the TASSK, Department of Education (2008a) and Department of Basic Education (2011a) taxonomies in any of the chemistry articles from the six-year period from 2008 to 2013.
COMPARISON OF THE TASSK AND DBE ANALYSIS
The DBE analysis classifies this question as a level 3/4 cognitive requirement (Department of Basic Education, 2011e, pp. 124-125). The results of the DBE analysis for November 2011 Paper 2 (Chemistry) are compared with the findings from the TASSK typology analysis in this study and are presented in Table 4.7 below. The TASSK analysis shows that "routine execution" seems to correspond better to DBE.
The TASSK analysis showed that none of the questions required higher order thinking as described in the "analysis and reasoning" category, while the DBE analysis showed that 7% of the questions were categorized as "evaluation" and.
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
By combining the averages of the physics and chemistry papers, the cognitive demand of the physical sciences papers for the period was determined. To answer my research question two, comparisons were made with the cognitive demand of the examination papers and the recommendations made by the Department of Education (2008). An analysis of the alignment of the grade 12 physical sciences examination and the core curriculum in South Africa.
I am a Master of Education (M Ed.) student in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal and my research focuses on the cognitive question of the National Senior Certificate (NSC).
LIMITATIONS
The judges in this study were trained in the cognitive question taxonomy and strove to be as objective as possible. Further resources and more time could have been beneficial for the development of the cognitive question taxonomy and the understanding of the cognitive question of exam assessment items. The researcher could have consulted with recent NSC examiners to improve the validity of the taxonomy.
They can use this study as a starting point for discussions and further research in this area to find a common understanding of cognitive domain categories in taxonomies used to measure the cognitive demand of the high-stakes NSC research.
IMPLICATIONS
The literature survey revealed that some studies such as Crowe (2012), Edwards (2010), Liu et al. 2008), Muller (2005), Näsström (2009) and Umalusi (2009) focused on standards, alignment and cognitive demand, there have been limited in-depth studies on cognitive demand in physical science exam questions. The findings of this study may stimulate discussions with relevant stakeholders to address the issue of low cognitive demand of NSC physical science exam papers. As a result of the findings, future examiners and stakeholders charged with NSC examinations in accordance with the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (Department for Basic Education, 2011a) may recognize the low cognitive demand of NSC examinations in physical sciences.
The research could lead stakeholders to focus on using cognitive question taxonomies to analyze questionnaires and ensure tests and exams meet recommended requirements.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Teachers and examiners must ensure that students are given the opportunity to engage in higher order thinking at all stages of their development, be it in the classroom and or in the exam room. A balance between lower order and higher order skills and knowledge should be taught and tested at all youth levels. The cognitive demand of the NSC final high school exam cannot be examined in isolation, and the ANA question papers should contain a sufficient amount of higher order questions so that students learn to apply knowledge and skills to new situations from the junior classes.
By paying attention to the above, we will be in tune with the progressive economies that drive education for higher-order thinking so that learners are able to meet the high-level challenges of the modern workplace.
CONCLUSION
In contrast, the findings in this study indicate a de-emphasis on higher-order thinking skills and an over-emphasis on lower-order thinking skills in the NSC science exams. An “A” grade on the NSC science exam does not guarantee that the student will be able to apply the knowledge and skills learned in new situations that require critical thinking, non-routine problem solving, decision making, inquiry, and other higher order cognitive matters. Cognitive question The mental question asked of an individual when answering an assessment item.
Grade Level of schooling, starting with grade R (year of entry), followed by grade 1 to grade 12 (last year of basic education) in the South African education system. Highest Grade (HG) The higher of the two levels at which a subject could be taken in the old Higher Certificate examination before 2008. Standard Grade The lower of the two levels at which a subject could be offered at the old Higher Certificate exam.
