True-False; Matching; Short- Answer Test Items EDUC 307

True- False Items declarative statements that are sometimes correct (true) and sometimes incorrect (false)

True- False Items A. Students need a certain amount of knowledge about the subject to ascertain if the statement is true or false

B. Guidelines for writing true-false items: Avoid specific determiners such as all, none or no. These words that indicate situations that are without exceptions. Avoid using terms that denote an indefinite degree or amount such as large, a long time ago, and often. This ambiguity of terms tends to lower the validity of the test. Avoid testing knowledge of trivial information- follow the instructional plan like other types of assessments to maintain content validity. Should be simply written, positively stated declarative sentences. Roughly half of the test items should be keyed true and half false.

Advantages of true-false tests 1. Many points of information can be assessed in a short time. Can be more valid and reliable because they allow more items for a given testing period. 2. Less demand on reading than in multiple choice. This means less score adulteration by a large verbal skill component needed to read the items. 3. Scoring is easy, fast, objective and typically quite reliable. 4. All levels of the taxonomy can be assessed with the true-false items.

Limitations of true-false tests 1. Scores are more susceptible to influence by guessing than other types of tests. On average, students have 50% chance of guessing right. 2. Wrong responses provide little diagnostic information to the teacher about why the students got the item wrong. 3. Tendency of test writers to stay with basic factual content in true- false items- keeps test at Foundational content level.

Matching column of terms (stimuli) on the left side of the work sheet with another column of terms (responses on the right. For each stimulus term, there is a response term that somehow relates to the stimulus.

Guidelines for writing matching exercises: 1. Each matching exercise should contain only homogeneous material. 2. Stimuli should be numbered and listed in a column on the left (more amount of reading for the stimulus; the responses should be lettered and laid out in a column on the right (a little amount of reading required for responses). 3. Stimuli should be listed in alphabetical order or other. logical order while the responses should be in random order. 4. There should be at least one more response than there are stimuli. 5. All items for matching should be on one page. 6. Number of stimuli should be limited to 6 to 10 in lower grades and 13 to 16 in the upper grades. 7. Each exercise should be introduced by instructions for taking the test.

Example Directions: Match each stage of water to the correct stage of matter. Write the printed, capital letter in the blank provided. (1 point each) ___ 1. IceA. liquid ___ 2. Steam B. solid ___ 3. Water C. gel D. gas

Example Directions: Match each definition to its correct word. ___ 1. What hens lay?A. sun ___ 2. Seen at nightB. lamb ___ 3. Baby sheep C. eggs ___ 4. Seen during the dayD. stars E. joey

Higher order applications for matching tests can be written at higher levels of cognitive demand Write principles, rules, or generalizations in the stimulus column and for responses list examples where stimulus applies

Advantages of matching exercises 1. Offer a concise procedure for assessing learning a set of related ideas, facts, or applications 2. Calls for a minimum of reading 3. Relatively easy to construct 4. Scoring is easy and reliable.

Limitations of matching exercises 1. Depend on having a number of related stimuli for an exercise 2. Primarily suited to the Foundational Content level; items for objectives above this level are more difficult to construct. 3. Not suited to a wide sampling of a unit's content

Short-Answer Items

Varieties of Short Answer Formats Completion Question form Association Form

Completion Tests require only a single word or phrase

Types of completion test items: 1. Fill-in-the-blank - a single word, possibly two will complete a statement 2. Short answer - answered with a short response (could be a phrase, a simple sentence or 2 to 3 statements.)

Guidelines for writing completion items: 1. Completion (fill-in-the-blank) items should be answerable with a single word 2. Avoid lifting statements directly from the textbook 3. Make the intent of the statement clear so that one and only one answer will be correct 4. The blanks in completion items should be placed near the middle or at the end of the statement. Blanks NEVER appear at the beginning of the statement. 5. Do not give clues by making some blanks longer or shorter than others.

Completion Presents a student with an incomplete sentence and requires the student to add one or more words to complete it. Examples: 1.The capital city of Pennsylvania is __________ (6 X 2) = __________

Advantages of completion/short answer tests 1. Easy to write 2. Guessing is less likely than in other types of tests 3. Adaptable too many types of subject matter 4. Quite reliable

Limitations of completion/short answer tests 1. Difficult to apply completion items to assessing Higher Order Processes 2. Scoring is slow, tedious and adulterated by spelling errors and alternate wording. 3. Those topics that require longer responses than one word or a phrase are left out of the test. 4. Students are not able to elaborate on their answers.

Scoring aids 1. Number blanks in narrative part of test and then along right hand side construct a column of like numbered blanks for student responses 2. Score every item an equal weight.

Question Form Asks a direct question and the students give short answers. Examples: 1. What is the capital of Pennsylvania? ________ 2. How many microns make up 1 millimeter? ________

Association Form Consists of a list of terms or a picture for which students have to recall numbers, labels, symbols, or other terms. Example: Directions: On the blank next to the name of the chemical element, write the symbol used for it. ElementSymbol 1. Barium______ 2. Calcium______ 3. Chlorine______ 4. Potassium______

Essay Essay formats are classified into two groups. Restricted-Response items Extended-Response items

Restricted-Response Restrict or limit both the content of the students’ answers and the form of their written responses. Require students to apply their skills to solve new problems or analyze novel situations. Narrows the focus of your assessment to specific and well-defined performance.

Extended-Response Require students to write essays in which they are free to express and organize their own ideas and the interrelationships between their ideas. There are multiple ways to write a good answer. The student is free to choose a way to respond.

Extended-Response Used to assess: 1.General writing ability 2.Subject matter knowledge

SOAP Guidelines Build your writing prompts for your essay questions using clues that elicit the kind of writing that you have in mind. Include the following elements: 1.Subject- inform the students whom or what the piece is supposed to be about. 2.Occasion- inform the students about the occasion or situation that requires the piece to be written. 3.Audience- inform the students whom the intended audience is. 4.Purpose- inform the students what the writing purpose is supposed to be (to inform, to persuade, to narrate, to be imaginative).

Short Answer Errors 1. __________ is the name of the capital city of Illinois. 2. __________ and _____ are two methods of purifying __________. 3. A specialist in urban planning is called an __________.

True-False Errors ____1. George Washington had wooden teeth. ____2. The Monongahela River does not flow northward. ____3. In the ground war, the army with more sophisticated weaponry always defeats its opponents.

Multiple Choice Errors 1.Sometimes a teacher finds it necessary to use a mild form of punishment. When this occurs, which of the following should not happen? A. Children should not believe all of their behavior is bad. B. Children should understand the reasons why they are punished. C. Children should understand that the teacher, not them, controls when the punishment will end.

Multiple Choice Errors 1. What is the official state bird? A. mountain laurel B. Philadelphia C. ruffed grouse D. Susquehanna River 2. Which of the following is the best definition of seismograph? A. an apparatus for measuring sound waves B. an apparatus for measuring heat waves C. an apparatus for measuring earthquake waves

Matching Errors ___1. Most normally green plants A. through their stomata. lose their color when B. contracts into a rounded ___2. The common characteristic of mass. a flowering plant is C. grown in the dark. ___3. Almost all plants that form coal D. the formation of a ___4. When an expanded amoebae is reproductive body. strongly stimulated it

Test Construction Guidelines 5 T/F items 5 Matching items 5 Multiple Choice items 8 Short Answers 3 Completions 3 Question form 2 Association form 1 Essay with rubric or checklist attached for grading

Critique of Constructed Test Clarity Items are written clearly. Directions are written clearly. Content Content is correct. Correct heading Items reach different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy Homogeneous items in matching Distractors/alternatives are plausible in multiple choice Avoid trivial information

Critique of Constructed Test Format Point value added for each section Point values included Blanks are the same length in completions No blanks at the beginning of completion test items No more than two blanks in completion test items. Avoided use of a or an as clues in completion test items Rubric included for grading of essay question Blanks are the same length in completions Items in multiple choice and matching are placed according to guidelines Blanks follow T/F Avoid incomplete sentences in Matching Avoid negative statements in T/F and “all, none, often” Avoid “none of the above”, “all of the above” in multiple choice