Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the validity of using multiple-choice (MC) items as a complement to constructed-response (CR) items when making decisions about student performance on reasoning tasks. CR items from a national test in physics have been re-formulated into MC items and students’ reasoning skills have been analysed in two sub-studies. In the first study, 12 students answered the MC items and were asked to explain their answers orally. In the second study, 102 students from five randomly chosen schools answered the same items. Their answers were scored and the frequency of correct answers was calculated for each of the items. The scores were then compared to a sample of student performance on the original CR items from the national test. Findings suggest that results from MC items might be misleading when making decisions about student performance on reasoning tasks, since students use other skills when answering the items than is intended. Results from MC items may also contribute to an overestimation of students’ knowledge in science.
Highlights
This study investigates the validity of using multiple-choice (MC) items for making decisions about student performance on complex tasks
This study aims to further investigate the relationship between MC and CR items, since current research indicates that: (1) students may not necessarily use the complex skills intended when answering MC items, which means that student performance on MC items might be misleading; (2) studies in this area are few and generally have very limited sample sizes; and (3) when investigating the relationship between MC and CR items addressing the same construct, numerous researchers have reformulated MC items into CR items, and not vice versa
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MC and CR items
Summary
This study investigates the validity of using multiple-choice (MC) items for making decisions about student performance on complex tasks. By the end of year 6, physics students are expected to be able to discuss questions concerning energy, technology, the environment, and society by posing questions and responding to views “in a way which takes the dialogue and discussions forward.”. They are expected to search for information on the natural sciences, use different sources, and reason about the usefulness of the information and sources The main purpose of the national tests is to support teachers’ decisions when grading individual students according to these standards, assuming that such support improves the fairness and equality of grading
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