“What do Ayurveda Postgraduate Entrance Examinations actually assess?” – Results of a five-year period question-paper analysis based on Bloom's taxonomy

摘要

Background The standards of Ayurveda education in India are being questioned in the recent years and many suggestions related to educational reforms are being put forth by educators and health policy experts. However, the Post Graduate Entrance Examinations (PGEEs) that are carried out to select the candidates to pursue postgraduate programs have received little attention in this context. Objectives The objective of this study was to classify the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) from Ayurveda {PGEEs} conducted in different universities of India during the five year period (ranging from 2010 to 2014) into six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy in cognitive domain. Methods This is a retrospective observational study. The sampling method followed was purposive sampling. Totally, 3299 {MCQs} obtained out of 25 question papers from seven universities spread across four zones of India (North, South, West and East) were included in the study and were classified based on the Bloom's taxonomy. Results About 93.3% of {MCQs} assessed only the ‘recall’ component whereas 6.2% of the {MCQs} assessed ‘comprehension’. Percentage of {MCQs} that assessed ‘application’ level was a mere 0.3% whereas the percentage of {MCQs} that assessed the ‘analysis’ component was found to be only 0.2%. There was not even a single question to assess the ‘synthesis’ and ‘evaluation’ components. Conclusions We conclude that an appropriate proportion of {MCQs} assessing ‘higher order thinking’ are required to be included in Ayurveda PGEEs. While it is possible to frame {MCQs} to assess all six levels of Bloom's taxonomy in cognitive domain, the teachers are required to be trained well in the skills of {MCQ} writing. We propose that our study may be taken as a lead to introduce the required reforms in PGEEs. Clinical Trial Registration No.: Not applicable.