writing multiple choice questions that demand critical thinking

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“Your best intentions notwithstanding, you don’t really know how well a question is going to perform until you have data to analyze after learners have taken the test.” We eLearning developers are used to the question, “Which is better, eLearning or classroom instruction?” The answer is, “It depends.” It’s the same answer if one asks, “Which are better, multiple-choice or essay questions?” Either question type is useful for assessing a variety of levels of thinking, depending on how well the designer crafts the questions. Designing multiple-choice questions is not as daunting a task as one might think. What is higher-level thinking? What do we mean by higher-level thinking? Benjamin Bloom described six levels of cognitive behavior, listed here from the most basic – Knowledge – at the bottom to the most complex – Evaluation – at the top: Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge Bloom’s taxonomy offers one way of looking at increasingly complex cognitive abilities. For example, Knowledge and Comprehension mean a person can recall facts or paraphrase a concept. Synthesis, on the other hand, means a person can create something new, such as an essay or a painting. (Please see the list of References at the end of this article for the sources of ideas presented here.) J. P. Guilford offered another way of looking at cognition with his description of convergent and divergent production. Convergent thinking means someone is working with knowledge, processes, concepts, etc, that exist; it has a certain correctness about it. When applied to test questions, convergent thinking means there is a preexisting correct answer. Verbs for convergent thinking include select, identify, calculate, label, and diagnose. Conversely, divergent thinking means there is not a preexisting correct answer. The person must take existing knowledge and create new knowledge. As.
Registration (Login Required) Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2016  Time: 3:30 to 4:45 p.m.  Location: ND Room, 202 LaFortune Student Center Presenter(s): Dan Hubert, Associate Program Director, Kaneb Center Visit the Workshop Series page to register or check availability.