HI, Jennifer You’ve asked for our thoughts to your very interesting question, and I’m glad to be part of this conversation. I think your students have asked pertinent questions. They said, ““did we have this in our notes?”, “was this something I should have studied?” I find that when I practice looking at both sides of a question during class discussion, students do very well with these skills on quizzes. One of the best ways to do this in my Legal Issues class is to ask a question about whether copying music without permission in certain circumstances is a “Fair Use” of the protected composition. If the copying is a Fair Use, permission is not needed to copy. Students must argue the question of Fair Use from BOTH SIDES of the question. This also helps students learn the most common Fair Use defenses used in actual case law, and they seem to like that. SO - - to summarize, if I want students to be able to use a certain type of thought or respond in a certain manner on a quiz, I practice those skills in class. I know our time in class is limited, but this method seems to work and students are proud of their abilities. We read actual case law and we see the judge’s explanation for his decision. It works. I don’t know how that might relate to your discipline. Thanks for raising this question. Janet Dr. J. Nepkie SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Music and Music Industry Fine Arts 145 State University College Oneonta, NY 13820 tele: (607) 436 3425 fax: 607 436 2718 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> From: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of "McKay, Zanna" <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 6:15 PM To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Multiple Choice Questions- query Yes, and sometimes professors really seem to try to trick students. Which is not effective for students whose brains are not as functional at the critical level. If brain research is indicating this kind of tricky questioning is not supporting learning continuing to teach students to do it seems a waste of time considering they'll be able to do it eventually as they develop. Sent from my iPhone On Mar 7, 2017, at 1:04 PM, Curran, Joanne <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: Jennifer: I'm not current on the research on this but I do know that students need to learn how to take a test. If they have opportunities to use the same thinking skills in class and/or on other assignments then they can apply them on the exams. I found that students expect that simple memorization will prepare them, and good tests like you describe can make them feel that they were tricked. joanne Sent from my iPhone On Mar 7, 2017, at 11:31 AM, Withington, Jennifer <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: 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