Bloom's taxonomy in health professions education: Associations with exam scores, clinical reasoning, and instructional effectiveness

IF 1.3 Q3 EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES

Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning Pub Date : 2025-07-21 DOI:10.1016/j.cptl.2025.102444

Mary Elizabeth Ray , Michael J. Rudolph , Kimberly K. Daugherty

{"title":"Bloom's taxonomy in health professions education: Associations with exam scores, clinical reasoning, and instructional effectiveness","authors":"Mary Elizabeth Ray , Michael J. Rudolph , Kimberly K. Daugherty","doi":"10.1016/j.cptl.2025.102444","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>This scoping review examined how mapping examination questions to learning taxonomies (Bloom's taxonomy), is used in health professions education. The review examined relationships between taxonomy level and exam performance, clinical reasoning, and student engagement.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A literature search was conducted for studies published between 1980 and 2025. Articles were included if they reported student outcomes related to learning taxonomy mapping in undergraduate/graduate health professions education. At least two authors had to agree on the initial inclusion of each article. Final eligibility was confirmed through group review.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>A total of 832 records were initially identified. After removing duplicates and confirming eligibility, 24 articles were included. The studies were categorized into six themes: relationship between cognitive complexity of examination items (based on taxonomy level), item difficulty, and examination performance; use of taxonomy mapping to compare outcomes associated with different teaching styles; outcomes associated with assessment styles; differences in outcomes based on students' study approaches; correlations between examination question performance by taxonomy and performance during clinical or clinical reasoning assessments; and student engagement with/use of examination mapping. Studies showed decreased performance on higher-order questions. Some instructional strategies improved higher-order performance. Students reported that taxonomy mapping enhanced understanding and study strategies, though their interpretation of question complexity was inconsistent.</div></div><div><h3>Implications</h3><div>Despite widespread practice, mapping examination questions to a learning taxonomy remains a time-intensive practice with limited empirical support for improving educational outcomes. Additional research is needed to determine whether mapping supports critical thinking, clinical reasoning, or licensure performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47501,"journal":{"name":"Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning","volume":"17 11","pages":"Article 102444"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877129725001650","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

This scoping review examined how mapping examination questions to learning taxonomies (Bloom's taxonomy), is used in health professions education. The review examined relationships between taxonomy level and exam performance, clinical reasoning, and student engagement.

Methods

A literature search was conducted for studies published between 1980 and 2025. Articles were included if they reported student outcomes related to learning taxonomy mapping in undergraduate/graduate health professions education. At least two authors had to agree on the initial inclusion of each article. Final eligibility was confirmed through group review.

Results

A total of 832 records were initially identified. After removing duplicates and confirming eligibility, 24 articles were included. The studies were categorized into six themes: relationship between cognitive complexity of examination items (based on taxonomy level), item difficulty, and examination performance; use of taxonomy mapping to compare outcomes associated with different teaching styles; outcomes associated with assessment styles; differences in outcomes based on students' study approaches; correlations between examination question performance by taxonomy and performance during clinical or clinical reasoning assessments; and student engagement with/use of examination mapping. Studies showed decreased performance on higher-order questions. Some instructional strategies improved higher-order performance. Students reported that taxonomy mapping enhanced understanding and study strategies, though their interpretation of question complexity was inconsistent.

Implications

Despite widespread practice, mapping examination questions to a learning taxonomy remains a time-intensive practice with limited empirical support for improving educational outcomes. Additional research is needed to determine whether mapping supports critical thinking, clinical reasoning, or licensure performance.

查看原文本刊更多论文

布鲁姆在卫生专业教育中的分类：与考试成绩、临床推理和教学效果的关系

背景：这篇范围审查研究了如何将考试问题映射到学习分类法（布鲁姆分类法），在卫生专业教育中使用。该综述考察了分类法水平与考试成绩、临床推理和学生参与之间的关系。方法对1980 ~ 2025年间发表的研究进行文献检索。在本科/研究生卫生专业教育中，报告学生学习分类映射相关结果的文章被纳入。每篇文章的最初收录必须至少有两位作者达成一致。最终资格通过小组评审确定。结果初步筛选出832条记录。在删除重复并确认合格后，纳入了24篇文章。研究分为六个主题：考试项目认知复杂性（基于分类水平）、项目难度与考试成绩的关系；使用分类法映射来比较不同教学风格的结果；与评估方式相关的结果；基于学生学习方法的结果差异；分类学考题成绩与临床或临床推理评定成绩的相关性以及学生参与/使用考试地图。研究表明，在高阶问题上的表现会下降。一些教学策略提高了高阶表现。学生们报告说，分类映射增强了理解和学习策略，尽管他们对问题复杂性的解释不一致。尽管广泛的实践，映射考试问题的学习分类法仍然是一个时间密集的实践与有限的经验支持，以提高教育成果。需要进一步的研究来确定地图是否支持批判性思维、临床推理或执照表现。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES-

CiteScore

2.10

自引率

16.70%

发文量

192