Abstract:

Background: The use of Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive levels of educational objectives as a tool for classroom assessments is rapidly increasing therefore, Nurse Educators’ knowledge of the tool is vital.

Objective: The first prime objective of this study was to investigate nurse educators’ knowledge of Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive levels of educational objectives.

Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in nursing training schools of Lusaka and Eastern provinces of Zambia. The study sample comprised of 63 Nurse Educators who were selected using purposive sampling method. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to analyse data. The Chi Square test was used to compare the proportions. A result yielding a P value of less than 5 percent was considered to be statistically significant.

Results: The findings were that 64% of nurse educators had low knowledge, 22% had moderate knowledge while 14% had high knowledge on Bloom’s hierarchy of cognitive levels of educational objectives. Results from the study indicated that 90% of nurse educators affirmed that Continuing Professional Development meetings on assessment techniques were not conducted in the schools of nursing while 10% indicated that they had them.

Conclusion: Though the nurse educators undergo training on Bloom’s taxonomy, their knowledge on this topic is low and calls for Continuous Professional Development Meetings. This will improve quality and standards of examinations in nursing education which will in turn improve the performance of nurses in the clinical area.

Keywords: Knowledge, use, Bloom’s hierarchy, cognitive levels, educational objectives, setting examinations, Nurse Educators

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