Effective Use of Multiple-Choice Items in the Mathematics Classroom

Abstract

Well designed multiple-choice items can provide more than a summative check of knowledge and skills.Mr. Lopez: Why does Principal Smith want us to start every math lesson with five multiple-choice items?Mrs. Boyd: I suppose it helps students get ready for the state test.Mr. Lopez: Yeah, I guess you're right, but I don't like to use multiple-choice items all of the time. I like to check for more than whether or not my students can just execute a procedure.Mrs. Boyd: I know. Me too. I wish there was some way that multiple-choice questions could be used for more than just checking skills.Do you identify with these teachers' situation? Although they recognize the value of having students practice with multiple-choice items, they do not want their assessments to be limited to checking for procedural skills (i.e., the ability to execute algorithms and computational procedures). This common view of multiple-choice items, however, is very limited in scope. The purpose of this article is to offer an expanded view of the use of multiple-choice items in the middle level mathematics classroom. Three uses of multiple-choice items that move beyond a summative check of skill attainment and fit within national standards will be described.Assessment and instructionThis We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2010) affirms the need to use a variety of assessments to meet the needs of middle grades students. Similarly, the Assessment Principle in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards suggests the positive impact on learning that results from the use of varied assessments. In the text accompanying the Assessment Principle, the assessments specified include open-ended questions, constructed-response tasks, selected-response items, performance tasks, observations, conversations, journals, and portfolios (NCTM, 2000, p. 23). In this description, however, the view of selected-response, or multiple-choice, items was limited to a check for whether or not students can perform a skill, most likely at the end of an instructional unit (e.g., summative assessment). Similarly, others have indicated that multiple-choice items are appropriate for assessing students' recall of factual information (Marzano, 2000).Since the release of the Assessment Principle, two occurrences have caused us to rethink this narrow view of multiple-choice items. First, with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, increased attention has been given to the role end-of-the-year tests play in daily school interactions. Teachers naturally want their students to be successful on these standardized tests, which typically consist of multiple-choice items (Burrill, 2005; Marzano, 2000). It only makes sense to practice with these types of items in class (Burrill).Because of the level of accountability that has been attached to test scores, however, our conversations with middle grades teachers such as Mr. Lopez and Mrs. Boyd have revealed that teachers are practicing with multiple-choice items throughout their instruction, not just at the end of a lesson or unit. At the same time, teachers are expected to help their students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics. This, in turn, requires teachers to assess student understanding throughout their instruction to make the best instructional decisions (NCTM, 2000; NMSA, 2010; Tomlinson, 2001; Van de Walle, Karp, & Bay-Williams, 2009). It is the emphasis on throughout their instruction for both the use of multiplechoice items and assessing student understanding that prompts us to rethink the role of multiple-choice items in the mathematics classroom.The second occurrence since the release of the Assessment Principle is the introduction of personal responses systems (commonly referred to as clickers). These devices make it possible for a teacher to pose a multiple-choice question to the whole class and have students respond individually by choosing a response on the handheld clicker. …