ASSESSING ACADEMIC CHALLENGES FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The continual improvement of higher education is a concern for anyone who believes that students should be completing their higher education experience with a well-developed ability to think critically at higher levels of cognition. While research has been conducted that assesses the role of teacher behaviors and characteristics and instructional methods in the development of students ’ cognitive ability, little has been done regarding the types and the cognitive design of the academic challenges, written work assigned as an extension of lecture, provided to students. The focus of this study was to use Bloom's Taxonomy to examine the academic challenges provided to students. Specifically the researchers sought to assess how students were being cognitively challenged and how students were being rewarded in the grading scheme for higher cognitive academic challenges. The results of the cognitive analyses varied by course and by type of academic challenge. The observed variation provides examples of the range of possibilities for using academic challenges. Because of differences in the content and structure of the courses, comparisons between the courses should not be made except to provide examples of the different ways to structure academic challenges and the different types of academic challenges that can be provided