Analysis of End-of-Chapter Questions in General Chemistry Textbooks Prepared Specifically for the Science Education Curriculum Using the EQ-P Framework: An Integrated Study with Bloom’s Taxonomy

This research has two primary objectives: 1) to examine the distribution and representation of chemical reasoning in end-of-chapter assessment questions in General Chemistry textbooks specifically designed for the Turkish Science Education curriculum using the Essential Questions-Perspectives (EQ-P) framework; 2) to analyze chemistry questions by combining the EQ-P framework and the Bloom taxonomy. The combined use of these two methods allowed for the simultaneous analysis of the essential disciplinary questions and perspectives of the EQ-P framework and the cognitive process and knowledge dimensions of the Bloom taxonomy. This combination also provided significant advantages and convenience in revealing the relationship between the elements of the EQ-P framework and the Bloom taxonomy. It was determined that, among end-of-chapter questions in General Chemistry textbooks, chemistry questions related to the essential question of explanation and prediction (E&P) ranked first, followed by chemistry questions related to the essential questions of description and identification (D&I) and transformation and synthesis (T&S), ranked second and third, respectively. This indicates that chemistry questions that assess students’ ability to establish cause–effect relationships, make predictions, and explain chemical phenomena are given more emphasis than other questions. Among the 12 perspectives, the most frequently encountered perspectives in chemistry questions were thermodynamics, interaction, and structure, respectively. Analysis using the EQ-P and Bloom taxonomy combined revealed that questions related to the D&I category largely focused on the cognitive process dimensions of the Bloom taxonomy: understanding and application.