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Ch 9 Fill-in-the-Blank and True-False Items - Coggle Diagram
Ch 9 Fill-in-the-Blank and True-False Items
THREE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES FOR CRAFTING ASSESSMENTS
three fundamental principles for crafting assessments:
Focus each assessment task entirely on important learning objectives (content and performance).
Assessing whether students have learned trivial performances or minor points of content is a waste of time.
Craft each assessment task to elicit from students only the knowledge and performance that are relevant to the learning objectives you are assessing.
If a student has achieved the desired degree of learning, the student should complete the relevant assessment task correctly.
The deficiency should also be apparent in the assessment results.
poor assessment tasks elicit unwanted behaviors from students, such as bluffing, fear, wild guessing, craftiness, or testwise skills.
Testwiseness
is the ability to use assessment-taking strategies, clues from poorly written items, and experience in taking assessments to improve one's score beyond what one would otherwise attain from mastery of the subject matter itself
Ensure that each assessment task does not inhibit a student's ability to demonstrate attainment of the learning objectives you are assessing by drawing on other, nonessential knowledge or skills.
imprecise wording in a question, for example, may make an item so ambiguous that a student who has the knowledge may answer it wrong.
simple matters such as inappropriate vocabulary, poorly worded directions, or poorly drawn diagrams may lead an otherwise knowledgeable student to respond incorrectly. Even the format or arrangement of an item on the page can inhibit some students from responding correctly.
FILL-IN-THE-BLANK ITEMS
Varieties of Fill-in-the-Blank Formats
Fill-in-the-blank items
require a word, short phrase, number, or symbol response. Acceptable responses are limited to one correct answer or, perhaps, slightly misspelled versions of the one correct answer.
Three types of fill-in-the blank
association
"used to assess recognition and recall of related information."
https://aide.ccdmd.qc.ca/tpls/gestion/en/book/export/html/233
often pared with a set of elements in a second column that will match with the choices on the first column or a word bank
e.g., On the blank next to the name of each chemical element, write the symbol used for it.
completion
presents a student with an incomplete sentence and requires the student to complete it.
e.g., 1. The capital city of Pennsylvania is (Harrisburg)
Question
e.g., 1. 2. How many microns make up one millimeter? (1,000)
Usefulness of Fill-in-the-Blank Items
Abilities Assessed
Fill-in-the-blank items can assess students' performance of lower-order thinking skills such as recall and comprehension of information.
assess higher-level abilities
Ability to make simple interpretations of data and applications of rules (e.g., counting the number of syllables in a word, demonstrating knowledge of place value in a number system, identifying the parts of an organism or apparatus in a picture, applying the definition of an isosceles triangle).
Ability to solve numerical problems in science and mathematics.
Ability to manipulate mathematical symbols and balance mathematical and chemical equations.
Strengths and Shortcomings
Strengths
easy to construct
scored objectively
lowers the probability of getting the answer correct by random guessing.
Shortcomings
often have to make subjective judgments as to the correctness of what the students wrote.
lower the reliability of the obtained scores.
the online learning environment software will ask you to specify what you will accept as correct answers
Creating Fill-in-the-Blank Items
A Checklist for Evaluating the Quality of Fill-in-the-Blank Items
Ask these questions of every item you write. If you answer no to one or more questions, revise the item accordingly.
Does the item assess an important aspect of the unit's instructional targets?
1-2. the importance of what is assessed and how the item matches the test blueprint.
Does the item match your assessment plan in terms of performance, emphasis, and number of points?
If possible, is the item written in question format?
The question format is the preferred format for a fill-in-the-blank item
Is the item worded clearly so that the correct answer is a brief phrase, single word, or single number?
Word the items specifically and clearly.
If you want a specific answer, you must phrase the question in a focused and structured way.
Is the blank or answer space toward the end of the sentence?
Put the blank toward the end of the sentence
If blanks are placed at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence, the student has to mentally rearrange the item as a question before responding to it.
Is the item paraphrased rather than a sentence copied from learning materials?
Do not copy statements verbatim.
think first of the answer and then make up a question to which that answer is the only correct response.
When you copy material, you encourage students' rote memorization rather than real comprehension and understanding.
If the item is in the completion format, is the omitted word an important word rather than a trivial word?
A completion item should omit important words and not trivial words.
Are there only one or two blanks?
Limit blanks to one or two.
item usually becomes unintelligible or ambiguous so that several unintended answers could be considered correct.
Is the blank or answer space in this item?
(b) arranged in an appropriate column?
(a) the same length as the blank in other items or
Keep all blanks the same length.
If appropriate, does the item (or the directions) tell the students the appropriate degree of detail, specificity, precision, or units you want the answer to have?
Specify the precision you expect in the answer.
be sure to specify the numerical units you expect the students to use, or how precise or accurate you want the answers to be. This clarifies the task.
Does the item avoid grammatical (and other irrelevant) clues to the correct answer?]
Avoid irrelevant clues.
A test item is designed to assess a specific learning objective, but sometimes the wording provides an irrelevant clue.
When this happens, a student may answer correctly without having achieved the objective.
TRUE-FALSE ITEMS
Varieties of True-False Items
Advantages and Criticisms of True-False Items
Assess More Than Simple Recall
Validity of the True-False Item Format
Guessing on True-False Items
Suggestions for Getting Started
Suggestions for Improving True-False Items
Creating Multiple True-False Items