Research reports: Essay versus multiple choice tests

Warren, Gordon

doi:10.1002/tea.3660160610

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A study by Warren (1979) indicates that it may actually be easier for students to get high marks with multiple-choice than with essay tests (also see Hogan [1981]). This rule-of-thumb, however, is not true for all students.…”

Section: Objective Tests-imperfect But Unavoidablementioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative Assessment in Large Classes

Buchanan

Rogers

1990

College Teaching

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Objective Tests-imperfect But Unavoidablementioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative Assessment in Large Classes

Buchanan

Rogers

1990

College Teaching

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…It is therefore possible that self-control becomes more important in the long-term pursuit of goals and that the belief in free will affects the pursuit of more distant goals by means of interaction with self-control rather than a direct effect. Another possibility is that the multiple-choice question exams involve lower cognitive skills (Martinez, 1999;Warren, 1979), are less influenced by personal characteristics that may inhibit performance (e.g., anxiety, see Crocker & Schmidt, 1987), require less rigorous preparation, and leave instructors with less room for subjective interpretation of the answer, hence allowing for less influence of self-control. The final exam with the open-ended questions required a longer and more rigorous study and concentration, which both require more willpower and also involve more subjective scoring by the instructor that may consider the depth and overall writing skills reflected in the answer, going beyond the mere correct answer.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition and consequences of the belief in free will

Feldman¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Six experiments showed that people associate higher freedom of will with negative valence as compared to positive valence. Recalling actual events, people attributed more free will to negative actions than positive ones (Experiment 1). In hypothetical decision making tasks, negatives outcomes (Experiment 2) and negative framing (Experiment 3) were attributed higher free will than positive ones. Using a game theory paradigm, defection against another player was perceived as involving higher free will than cooperation (Experiment 4). Findings were consistent for both actions taken by self and actions taken by others and using different measures. We did not find support for reverse causality (Experiment 6) and ruled out possible alternative accounts for the effect (Experiment 5). These findings support free will as underlying laypersons' sense-making and search for accountability for negative actions and outcomes.

show abstract

The effect of method and format on the responses of subjects to a Piagetian reasoning problem

Staver¹,

Pascarella²

1984

J Res Sci Teach

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Researchers interested in studying the effects of subjects' reasoning levels, as defined by Piaget (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958), on science achievement or other dependent variables face two measurement problems. First, the traditional clinical method is time‐consuming and impractical for large numbers of subjects. Second, alternative methods of assessment, although reliable and valid, may over‐ or underestimate subjects' reasoning levels. The objective of this investigation was to determine the effects of various methods and formats of administering a Piagetian task on subjects' performance. The task chosen for this investigation was the Mr. Short‐Mr. Tall problem (Karplus & Lavatelli, 1969; Karplus et al., 1977). The task was presented using four methods: (1) individual clinical interview, (2) group presentation of task followed by paper‐and‐pencil problem with illustration, (3) group administration of paper‐and‐pencil instrument with illustration, and (4) group administration of paper‐and‐pencil instrument without illustration. Each method included four formats: (1) completion answer with essay justification, (2) completion answer with multiple‐choice justification, (3) multiple‐choice answer with essay justification, and (4) multiple‐choice answer with multiple‐choice justification. Three hundred seventy‐six students who were enrolled in a freshman level biological science class participated in the study. The research design was a 4 × 4 factorial design with method and format of assessment as the main effects. The participants were in 16 distinct laboratory or discussion sections, and each section was randomly assigned to a cell in the research design. Regression analysis with the individual as the unit of analysis showed that neither method nor format of assessment accounted for a significant amount of variance in student performance. The overall interaction remained nonsignificant. Regression analysis with sections as the unit of analysis revealed similar findings. The inter‐rater agreement in the scoring of the reasoning task was 98.4%. The principal conclusion is that neither method nor format of task administration influenced the performance of subjects, and this lack of influence is similar for various combinations of method and format. Discussion focused on the importance of this nonsignificant finding for using alternative methods of Piagetian assessment. Implications for teachers are also discussed.

show abstract

Research reports: Essay versus multiple choice tests

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Innovative Assessment in Large Classes

Innovative Assessment in Large Classes

Cognition and consequences of the belief in free will

The effect of method and format on the responses of subjects to a Piagetian reasoning problem

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About