A Comparative Analysis of Sindh Board vs Oxford Grade 2 Mathematics Textbooks Using Bloom’s Taxonomy

Abstract

This study explores a comparative qualitative content analysis of the Grade 2 Mathematics textbooks published by the Sindh Textbook Board and Oxford University Press employing the framework of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy. Adopting a directed qualitative content analysis design, all exercises and activities in both textbooks were analyzed and coded across six cognitive levels: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. The analysis consisted of 82 exercises from the STBB textbook and 127 from the OUP textbook. Findings highlighted that both textbooks predominantly emphasize lower-order thinking skills (LOTS), with STBB allocating 90.2% and OUP 74.0% of exercises to LOTS. Nevertheless, OUP demonstrated broader inclusion of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), allocating 26.0% of exercises across Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating, whereas STBB allocated only 9.8%, bounded to the Analyzing level. The findings suggest revising the STBB textbook to integrate more higher-order cognitive tasks.