Proceedings

discuss these problems with greater precision” (Bloom, 1956, p.1). This is referred to
as the original taxonomy. 45 years after, the taxonomy was revised. We developed our
research based on the original taxonomy.
The original taxonomy of educational objectives related to cognitive domain is
structured on two levels: Knowledge and Intellectual abilities and skills. The first
level, Knowledge, “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of
methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting” (Bloom, 1956,
p. 201).
The second level, Intellectual abilities and skills, refer to organized modes of operation
and generalized techniques for dealing with materials and problems (Bloom, 1956,
p. 201). Materials and problems can have different natures: some of them may require
special information and techniques but some may require general information, which
can be assumed to be part of the individual's general fund of knowledge. This level
refers to the mental process of organizing and working with the materials and
problems in order to achieve a purpose. In order to be able to work with information,
this level is based on 5 sub-levels:
• Comprehension of material and problem; comprehension represents the lowest
level of understanding. It is related with the ability of understanding what is
being communicated and conveying the idea further without necessarily
connecting it with other ideas or materials.
• Application; this refers to the ability and skills needed to apply general rules,
procedures, and methods called abstractions to a specific situation. To be
applied, abstractions need to be remembered first.
• Analysis, which implies to break the material and problem into parts and to
analyze them separately and then in correlation with other factors. The scope of
this phase is to understand how the initial material was build.
• Synthesis represents the process of combining the material’s parts using a new
structure, clearer than before.
• Evaluation represents the process of judging the materials for a given purpose.
Usually, this phase requires quantitative and qualitative judgments and very
often the given purpose is not indicated by the material ad has to be identified
by the evaluator.
Our study assesses accounting students’ academic performance by using an evaluation
grid that was structured based on the above presented taxonomy. The content of the
discipline was divided into four main parts: marginal analysis, cost-volume-profit
analysis, budgeting and activity based costing. We tested each part’s content based on
students’ knowledge and their ability to comprehend, apply, analyze and synthesize.
We used closed and open questions and also multiple choice questions therefore
applying various formats of examinations, as advised within literature (Guney, 2009).
Open questions approached theoretical aspects and problems whose calculation
needed to be detailed by students in order to be graded. The last level within Bloom’s
taxonomy was tested by using a case study where students had to reach a certain
conclusion, which also had to be presented in writing and argued. The maximum
grade that could be obtained (10 points) was structured by considering the taxonomy’s
five levels (comprehension – 2.25 points, application – 2.25 points, analysis –
2.25 points, synthesis – 2.25 points, and evaluation – 1 point).
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