Investigating the English Reading Tests of Indonesia‟s National Examination for Vocational School (SMK) Based on Bloom‟s Taxonomy

Abstract

This research article was aboutidentifying and analyzing the cognition levels of English reading tests in Indonesia‟s national examination which refer to Bloom‟s taxonomy (1956), such as: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This study was a qualitative research which was conducted by applying documentary analysis. The subjects of this research were the documents of national examination questions for Vocational School (SMK) from year 2005 to 2011. The object of this research was the level of difficulties of reading section questions. The researcher found out that there were only 3 levels that had been tested for reading section in the national examination: comprehension (55,8%), analysis (25%), and knowledge (19,2 %). Other levels such as: application, synthesis, and evaluation are null. This also means that comprehension is themost dominant level of cognition that has been examined in National Examination. This study concluded that reading tests of Indonesia‟s National Examination for English subject from year 2005-2011 were not in line with Bloom‟s perception.