Multiple-choice testing in education: Are the best practices for assessment also good for learning?

Butler, Andrew C.

doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2018.07.002

Cited by 94 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…These types of questions inadvertently enable test-takers to engage in strategic guessing leading to higher performance with lower reliability. 82,83 In addition, these items are not better at measuring higher-order thinking than simpler item types. 84 Overall, the costs associated with complex formats greatly outweigh the benefits.…”

Section: Tipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Testing as a Learning Tool

Yang

Razo

Persky

2019

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

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Objective. The purpose of this review is to discuss some principles from cognitive psychology regarding the benefits of testing and translate those findings into practical applications for instruction and studying. Findings. Testing or retrieval practice is superior to re-study for promoting long-term retention. The benefits of testing can be see with open-ended responses (eg, cued or free recall) and multiple choice questions. The use of multiple-choice questions during testing may have an additional benefit as it may stabilize information that is stored in memory but temporarily inaccessible due to disuse (eg, marginal knowledge). Summary. Testing can have multiple learning benefits. We emphasize that incorporating opportunities for retrieval after teaching is an essential component of lasting learning. In addition, retrieval practice can be incorporated in all aspects of instruction.

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Section: Tipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Testing as a Learning Tool

Yang

Razo

Persky

2019

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

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“…The evaluation of higher design education should not be confined to exams. Instead, evaluations should be diversified to avoid the deviations caused by the adoption of a singular assessment [71]. Students should be allowed to participate in as many hands-on activities as possible, such as practice, design making, oral presentations, and exhibitions.…”

Section: Instructional Evaluation Higher Design Education For Sustainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effective Teaching and Activities of Excellent Teachers for the Sustainable Development of Higher Design Education

Lai

Peng

2019

Sustainability

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Education for sustainable development (ESD) is regarded as a key element of high-quality education. Hence, the United Nations proposed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, in an attempt to achieve the harmony and shared prosperity between humans and the Earth, and advocate for fair and high-quality education. With the aim of exploring "high-quality sustainable teaching", this study intends to probe into the idea and meaning of the high-quality design education for sustainable development and elaborate on the teaching effectiveness and sustainable teaching activities by the teachers of higher design education. According to the research results, the effectiveness of high-quality teaching is introduced in seven categories, as follows: (1) Faith in sustainability in teaching, (2) the trend of talent demand, (3) the teaching value of sustainability, (4) curriculum mapping, (5) teaching approach, (6) teaching evaluation, (7) the sustainable management of teaching development. The factors of high-quality teaching include: The teacher has passion for teaching, the teacher pays attention to the student's independent learning ability, the teacher intrigues student's interest in learning, the teacher places emphasis on furnishing the student with professionalism and confidence, the teacher highlights learning through doing to increase the student's competitiveness in the job fair, the teacher reviews teaching effectiveness and makes progress in pursuing the value of high-quality ESD.Sustainability 2020, 12, 28 2 of 27 Sustainable Development. GAP is the most important pillar for UNESCO to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and has two goals: (1) To reset education and learning, in order that everyone will have access to knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes, and thus, make contributions to a sustainable future, (2) to improve education and learning in all agendas (i.e., other SDGs) and schemes to publicize sustainable development [4]. The UNDESD advocates incorporating Education for Sustainable Development into educational policies, and while it offers relevant suggestions and guidelines, it is not a mandatory rule for all. Hence, there are some difficulties and challenges in putting it into practice [5][6][7].In summary, this study aims to understand the importance of sustainable education. Education is not only to impart knowledge and guide the development of personal careers but also to guide the hope of our advancement. "Design" is representative of creativity and aesthetics. In the current environment, people realize that "design is a national strength" and "creativity is competitiveness" [8]. Due to industrial demands and the influence of government policies, the number of higher education schools equipped with design-related departments in Taiwan is increasing year by year. Therefore, design education has become a vigorous eye-catching research area [9]. Higher education institutions (HEIs) continuously strive to develop and deliver impactful educational programs, thus, they perform p...

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“…One of the most common response formats in language assessment, and in educational assessment more generally (Butler, 2018), is that of multiple-choice (MC) items. MC items usually consist of a question (or stem) and a number of response options, out of which test takers need to choose the correct answer.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of response order on candidate viewing behaviour and item difficulty in a multiple-choice listening test

Holzknecht

McCray

Eberharter³

et al. 2020

Language Testing

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Studies from various disciplines have reported that spatial location of options in relation to processing order impacts the ultimate choice of the option. A large number of studies have found a primacy effect, that is, the tendency to prefer the first option. In this paper we report on evidence that position of the key in four-option multiple-choice (MC) listening test items may affect item difficulty and thereby potentially introduce construct-irrelevant variance. Two sets of analyses were undertaken. With Study 1 we explored 30 test takers’ processing via eye-tracking on listening items from the Aptis Test. An unexpected finding concerned the amount of processing undertaken on different response options on the MC questions, given their order. Based on this, in Study 2 we looked at the direct effect of key position on item difficulty in a sample of 200 live Aptis items and around 6000 test takers per item. The results suggest that the spatial location of the key in MC listening tests affects the amount of processing it receives and the item’s difficulty. Given the widespread use of MC tasks in language assessments, these findings seem crucial, particularly for tests that randomize response order. Candidates who by chance have many keys in last position might be significantly disadvantaged.

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Multiple-choice testing in education: Are the best practices for assessment also good for learning?

Cited by 94 publications

References 67 publications

Using Testing as a Learning Tool

Using Testing as a Learning Tool

Effective Teaching and Activities of Excellent Teachers for the Sustainable Development of Higher Design Education

The effect of response order on candidate viewing behaviour and item difficulty in a multiple-choice listening test

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