Dear Colleagues,

 

I was going over the most-missed questions on my last freshman exam and a few thoughts struck me.  I am sharing because I think that many of you have run into similar outcomes. 

 

I have noticed that a question asking students in one fashion or another for the wrong/incorrect answer is more likely to be missed by a majority of the students (e.g.: which would you fail to find?, which statement is incorrect?, which is not _____?, etc.).  I feel that this is due to a combination of (1) failure to study well, (2) studying in a fashion which does not help them think these through, and (3) loosing track of the fact the question asked for the incorrect answer when they are so used to looking for the correct one. 

 

The other kind of question they have great difficulty with are the ones that ask them to reason through information I have provided in the question, couple it to facts they were to have learned for the exam, and by forward thinking as well as elimination of incorrect answers get to the correct answer.  In this case reasons 1 and 2 from above are coupled with reason (4) getting tied up in thoughts of “did we have this in our notes?”, “was this something I should have studied?”, etc.

 

However, I am also starting to wonder if brain development is also a factor.  I am sure many of us have heard that upper-level reasoning and thought is not fully developed in brains until people are ~20 (say junior year).  So are these types of questions really above the ability of most of my freshmen students?

 

What are your thoughts?

Perhaps the Ed, Psych, and EdPsych faculty have some insights that would be useful?

 

Appreciating your insights,

 

Jennifer Withington

Assoc. Professor of Biology

SUNY Oneonta

116 Science I

Oneonta, NY  13820

607-436-3421