Effects of Analysis and Evaluation Questions on Various Levels of Achievement

This study investigated whether a dominant use of analysis and evaluation questions in social studies text-type materials would improve various levels of sixth grader’s social studies achievement. Sixth grade pupils numbering 260 in eleven classes were randomly assigned by class to either experimental Condition A or B. During a 4-week experimental period, pupils in each condition used specially prepared materials. Condition A’s materials contained a dominant emphasis of analysis and evaluation questions (47. 53 percent), while Condition B’s materials utilized primarily knowledge questions (87. 38 percent). At the experiment’s termination, an achievement test was administered that provided six sub-scores, one for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. ANACOVA was the principal method of analysis . Students in Condition A achieved significantly better in the area of evaluation than did students in Condition B. Reading significantly affected all sub-scores with better readers performing at higher levels than poorer readers. The use of analysis and evaluation questions produced significantly greater scores in the area of evaluation than did the use of knowledge questions. Better readers in both conditions achieved significantly higher than did poorer readers in all six areas of the achievement test.