Multiple-choice Exam Research Articles

Using Item Set Exams to Assess Higher Order Learning in a Corporate Finance Course

Although the item set exam format is used extensively in professional certification exams, it has not been widely adopted in academia. The item set exam can be viewed as an alternative to multiple choice exams or essay exams, sharing some of the strengths and weaknesses of both formats. An item set essentially is a minicase, a short written case followed by several multiple choice questions (items) based on the case. This paper describes some of the practical issues a professor will confront in developing and using effective item sets. To be concrete, we provide several examples of item sets that might be suitable to use in an undergraduate or beginning MBA corporate finance course.

Crime in the Classroom Part IV: Conclusions

In 1990, the McGill University Senate established regulations governing how multiple-choice exams are to be conducted. The primary rules require multiple-version exams (scrambled question and if possible, scrambled answer positions) as well as assigned seating or seating with alternating rows of students from different courses. In recent years, we have monitored the occurrence of exam-copying with a statistics-based detection program. At present, detectible copying with clear seating correlation is less than 0.1% compared with ca. 5% without any exam controls.

Two Modes of Thought: The Narrative/Paradigmatic Disconnect in the Bailey Book Controversy

Alice Dreger’s compelling history of the controversy surrounding J. Michael Bailey’s book, The Man Who Would Be Queen, presents two opposing camps, each entrenched in a seemingly intractable and incompatible position. On one side are proponents of Blanchard’s theory and the scientific research supporting it that served as the basis for Bailey’s book. The theory suggests that a certain segment of natal men who undergo sex reassignment surgery to become women do so out of an autogynephilic sexual orientation—an erotic attraction to the idea of themselves as women. On the other side are the transwomen who strongly object to the theory, dispute the scientific basis for it, and maintain that their desire to change genders was not motivated by erotic desires, but instead was founded in an identity-based position that their bodies do not match their true selves, what Dreger termed the ‘‘feminine essence narrative.’’ In this commentary, I hope to offer one interpretation that attempts to get at the core of this conflict. In doing so, I do not intend to take either position in the controversy or to suggest that one side’s argument rests on firmer ground. I have chosen to write this commentary because I believe that the controversy provides an elegant example for illustrating the nature of how we come to understand our lives. Before I begin, let me take a cue from Dreger and briefly explain my background. I am currently an advanced graduate student in the psychology department at Northwestern University, the same department as Bailey. I have taken two courses taught by Bailey that are required components of my academic program (one about statistics and the other about psychopathology, both in 2003). I also served as a teaching assistant for Bailey’s course on human sexuality in 2003, a position I was randomly assigned to, wherein I served in an entirely administrative role, photocopying and scoring the multiple-choice exams (other TA’s handled content-related issues). While I have had contact with Bailey in programwide meetings and on two administrative committees, at no point in my graduate career has Bailey directly supervised any of my research or clinical work, nor has he served on any of my research committees. I observed the controversy surrounding his book from the sidelines as it unfolded, but have never talked with Bailey about his experiences. As a courtesy, I asked Bailey if he would mind my writing this commentary, which he was supportive of, but we did not discuss the content of the commentary, nor did he see a pre-publication version of it. In sum, while I observed the controversy from within Bailey’s department, I have never been involved in the events in any way, and I would prefer to keep it that way. As I said, I chose to write a commentary not because I wish to weigh in on the merits of either side’s position, which I do not, but because I believe the controversy raised an important question that I felt I could illuminate. As I alluded to earlier, that important question is about the nature of how we understand our lives. I believe the core of the controversy surrounding Bailey’s book is that the opposing sides were operating from fundamentally different epistemological positions. Bruner (1986) wrote about two modes of thought humans use in interpreting and understanding the world and their experiences. He wrote:

Does the Answer Order Matter on Multiple-Choice Exams?

Surprising version-dependent differences are noted in student performance on certain questions in a standardized general chemistry exam. The exam in question has two versions, on which both questions and answers are ordered differently. For the questions suspected of answer-order bias, the performance is better in ten of twelve cases when students see the correct answer earlier in the list of four choices. Expansion of the study to more abundant data for the same exam from the ACS DivCHED Examinations Institute supports the interpretation of these observations as a primacy effect, characteristic of guessing, but with an aversion for the first choice. However, the single problem that shows the greatest disparity between versions in both data sets is one most chemists would view as so simple as to make guessing unnecessary, hence unlikely as an explanation.

Admitting Health Care Professionals Other Than Registered Nurses into a Physician Assistant Program: A Comparison Based on a Pathophysiology Course

In 2006, University of North Dakota Physician Assistant (PA) Program initiated a pilot project of enrolling, in addition to Registered Nurses (RN), other health care professionals (HCP). The purpose of this study is to begin assessing what effect this program change will have upon the PA pathophysiology course.Demographic data were obtained from those enrolled in the first class. Demographic and performance variables were analyzed using analysis of variance.Thirty‐one students (17 RN and 14 HCP) were admitted. Mean age upon matriculation was: RN ‐ 39.1 years; HCP ‐ 34.1 years. Mean years of clinical experience was 12.7 and 7.9 years respectively. Mean objective multiple‐choice exam scores were 77.7% (RN) and 81.6 % (HCP). Based upon exam scores only, 65% of RN and 43% HCP students would have performed below a grade of 79%.Sample data showed RNs have more years of clinical experience, are older, and have lower objective exam performance than HCP. Results from the analyses found moderate effect sizes, but due to the small group sizes power was low; therefore, results were not significant.The information obtained has stimulated an in‐depth discussion of course content, format and modes of delivery.

Effects of writing-related contingencies on both quality of writing and multiple-choice exam performance in large college courses.

Most undergraduates likely take some courses that use multiple-choice exams as a major source of course credit. Instructors may be especially inclined to use multiple-choice exams in large courses because of ease and efficiency of grading (Hautau et al., 2006b). Nonetheless, many students report difficulty in taking multiple-choice exams, claiming that they could do better on essay exams. Consequently, discovering how to heighten student performance on multiple-choice exams is an important issue at the college level (Wallace & Williams, 2003). One possibility for improving multiple-choice exam scores may be the use of daily writing activities related to concepts included on the multiple-choice exams. Past research demonstrates that brief essay quizzes may improve performance on a variety of exam formats (e.g., short answer, essay, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice). Padilla-Walker (2006) found that brief, extra-credit daily quizzes on assigned reading material predicted performance on major exams (short-answer and essay) better than did gender, self-reported college GPA, and self-reported ACT scores. Daniel and Broida (2004) also reported that completing in-class quizzes over course concepts boosted performance on course exams (multiple-choice and short answer). Narloch, Garbin, and Turnage (2006) showed that prelecture quizzes, compared to no quizzes, produced better performance on both multiple-choice and essay exam items. Additionally, Leeming (2002) found that participating in daily 1015 min writing activities on course concepts significantly improved performance on a comprehensive final exam that included short essay, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple-choice questions. Similarly, Turner et al. (2006) demonstrated that students required to complete a daily in-class writing activity performed better on the course's multiple-choice exams than students without daily writing. Although some research supports using daily essay quizzes to boost major exam performance, maximizing the impact of these quizzes is not without logistical challenges. For example, grading the quizzes could be labor intensive for the instructor. The writing activities may only consume a small percentage of class time, but the time required to grade and record the scores may detract from instructor time needed to organize and prepare for class. Leeming's (2002) daily quizzes required about 10 to 20% of class time and an hour of instructor grading time each day. Hautau et al. (2006a) and Turner et al. (2006) reduced instructor time for grading quizzes by grading quizzes only on randomly selected days rather than on all days. The quizzes took 6 to 7% of total class time and required about 1 min per student for instructor grading. Given that students in these studies did not know what day's quizzes would be randomly selected for grading, the researchers expected the quizzes to have much the same impact on student performance as would daily grading and crediting of quizzes. However, the results proved mixed regarding this expectation, creating additional questions as to how best to maximize student performance on writing quizzes and multiple-choice exams without requiring an inordinate amount of instructor time. Recent attempts to clarify the conditions under which daily writing could efficiently promote writing and exam scores have been reported by Hautau et al. (2006a; 2006b). Hautau et al. (2006a) required students to analyze in writing pairs of concepts that could be found within instructor notes available to students. The class website identified two to five pairs of concepts each day that students could be asked to address on the next quiz. At the following class period, the instructor randomly selected one of those pairs and instructed students to identify the concepts' commonalities, differences, and the effect of one on the other. When the final writing activity had been completed for each unit, a student randomly chose one day's writing activities to count for course credit. …

Student Outcomes in a Pathophysiology Course Based on Mode of Delivery: Distance Versus Traditional Classroom Learning

Background and Purpose. Distance learning is a growing trend in physical therapy education; little is known about its impact on learning outcomes. The purposes of this study were to: 1) compare student performance based on mode of delivery (distance education versus traditional classroom presentation); 2) investigate the relationship between students' previous academic performance and difference in performance based on mode of delivery; and 3) explore students' perceptions of, and preferences for, distance education and traditional classroom instruction. Subjects. Ninety-six physical therapist students, enrolled in 2 successive pathophysiology courses, were included in this study. Methods. Each student received half of the course instruction in a traditional classroom mode and half in a distance mode. Student learning was measured by multiple-choice exams. The percent correct was calculated for questions relating to the content presented in classroom versus distance modes of instruction. Matched pair t-tests were used to compare the means. Pearson product moment correlations were used to examine the strength of the association between student cumulative GPA (grade point average) and differences in scores based on mode of presentation. A survey was conducted to obtain the students' perceptions of the learning experience based on format of delivery. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze the survey responses. Results. Students performed significantly better on questions based on material presented in the distance format (t = 5.16, P Discussion and Conclusion. Although students preferred traditional classroom instruction, they performed significantly better on questions related to material that was presented in a distance format. Students with less academic ability may benefit from the self-paced learning and internet resources to master coursework requiring factual recall of information. Key Words: Distance education. Traditional classroom, Student performance, WebCT. INTRODUCTION Technological advances and computer access have led to an increase in the use of distance learning in postsecondary education.1,2 Internet-based course management software systems such as WebCT* and Blackboard[dagger] have become commonplace in the classroom.3,4 The popularity of distance learning both nationally and abroad has flourished for financial and geographic reasons, and as a matter of lifestyle choice.5-7 Distance education is defined by the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a formal educational process in which the majority of the instruction occurs when student and instructor are not in the same place.8(p1) Instructional methods may be synchronous or asynchronous and may use a variety of designs such as correspondence study and audio, video, or computer technology. The Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that the number of distance education programs offered in postsecondary institutions nearly doubled in the 4-year period leading up to 1998.9 Additionally, in a 2000 to 2001 follow-up survey, it was reported that 55% of institutions with graduate/professional programs offered distance education courses.2 In health-related fields, distance education has been used to provide professional training,10-12 continuing education,13 as well as programs that award advanced certificates or degrees.8,14-16 With pressures on academic institutions to reach a broader student audience,17 coupled with the expanding opportunities in the health-related professions,18 one would expect the growth of distance learning in the health professions to continue. …

Neuroanatomy: a single institution study of knowledge loss

Background: Most of the literature on neuroanatomy education has focused on its instructional method. Little is known about the retention of acquired knowledge in the basic neurosciences upon graduation from medical school.Methods: Twenty-four graduating medical students at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada answered 20 multiple-choice questions from the original first year neuroanatomy midterm examination, 33 months after the original exam date. The course involved 58 instructional hours in the dissecting lab and classroom during the first year of medical school.Results: Relative knowledge loss in this cohort was 60%, and the mean multiple-choice exam score dropped from 82% to 33%. Two students received passing grades on the retest (50% and 55%) and the rest failed.Conclusions: Most graduating medical students were unable to pass a first year exam in the basic neurosciences. Lack of knowledge reinforcement and poor applicability to the clinical setting may be to blame, and suggests that teaching foundational concepts, useful for general practice, are more worthwhile.

The Quantitative Effect of Students Using Podcasts in a First Year Undergraduate Exercise Physiology Module

This study reports the quantitative effect of students using podcasts in a 1st year undergraduate exercise physiology module. From a cohort of 70 students, 50 volunteered and completed the study. Using a pre-post random allocation research design, students were allocated to either a podcast group (PG) or control group (CG) based on a 32-question multiple-choice exam. The PG then listened to six podcasts over six weeks, while the CG were provided with an exact transcript of the podcasts in printed form to ensure that both groups were provided with the same content. After six weeks, both groups were re-examined using the same test. Data were analysed using the effect size statistic and 90% confidence intervals. The CG improved their exam performance by 43%, whereas the PG improved by 46%. The difference between the groups on the post-test was a mean effect size of 0.19 (90%CI: -0.16 to 0.53 [trivial to positively small]). There is almost no chance that the true effect in the population is harmful. The results of this study suggest that using podcasts provides little quantitative benefit for students over and above written text when learning exercise physiology.

Keeping it Short and Sweet: Brief, Ungraded Writing Assignments Facilitate Learning

Can short, ungraded, free-writing assignments promote learning of course material? We randomly assigned introductory psychology recitation sections (N = 978 students) to writing or thinking conditions. For all sections, teaching assistants presented students with a discussion topic based in current coursework. Students either wrote or thought about the topic for 5 min. All sections then discussed the topic for approximately 10 min. Exams included questions related to the discussion topics. Students in the writing condition attended class more often and performed better on factual and conceptual multiple-choice exam questions than students in the thinking condition, even after controlling for measures of student quality. The results suggested that brief free writing improved factual and conceptual learning.

Vocabulary Development and Performance on Multiple-Choice Exams in Large Entry-Level Courses

Scores on a vocabulary test given at the beginning of two semesters in a large entry-level course predicted performance on multiple-choice exams more strongly than pre-course knowledge and critical thinking. Words on the vocabulary instrument were derived from multiple-choice exam items in the course. Although commonly used in the course, these words were not specific to the technical content of the course. Students took the vocabulary instrument at the beginning and end of the semester, with students in both semesters making significant gains on academic vocabulary. Students in the bottom quartile on pre-course vocabulary who made substantial gains in vocabulary development during the semester scored higher on course exams than similar students who made minimal gains in vocabulary development.

Pre-Hospital Paediatric Life Support (PHPLS)

TOP TIPS Make sure you read the manual in advance. There were questions in the multiple choice exam from the manual that were not in the lectures. It also helps to read the current paediatric resuscitation guidelines before the course. FURTHER INFORMATION The course is run by the British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS, www.basics.org.uk) and organised through the Advanced Life Support Group (www.alsg.org). Healthcare professionals working in the field of prehospital care. Attendees range from paramedics and nurses to hospital trainees and …

Extending research on the validity of brief reading comprehension rate and level measures to college course success.

Students in an undergraduate human development course (N = 215) participated in a brief assessment of their reading (comprehension level, reading speed, comprehension rate) and multiple-choice test-taking skills on the second day of class. Students first read a one-page, 400-word passage unrelated to the course and then answered 10 multiple-choice questions over the passage without referring back to the passage. To control for test-taking skills, students also answered 10 multiple-choice questions from an equivalent passage they did not read. Videotapes of student participation permitted individual assessment of time required to complete each phase. Subsequently, during the semester students took five 50-item multiple-choice exams over the major units in the course. Results showed that the brief reading comprehension measures predicted multiple-choice exam performance and that comprehension level accounted for most of the variance in exam performance. Discussion focuses on enhancing brief reading assessment procedures by including direct measures of comprehension. Keywords: Reading Comprehension, Reading Comprehension Rate, Test-taking, College Grades ********** Several measures predict success in college courses, including measures of critical thinking, generic vocabulary, background knowledge, and reading comprehension (Behrman & Street, 2005; Jackson, 2005; Williams & Eggert, 2002; Williams, Oliver, Allin, Winn, & Booher, 2003a; Williams, Oliver, Allin, Winn, & Booher, 2003b; Williams, Oliver, & Stockdale, 2004; Williams & Worth, 2002). Not all course activities require high-level critical thinking, an advanced vocabulary, or background knowledge, but virtually all course activities require student reading of course material (Behrman & Street, 2005). Thus, the current study focused on reading comprehension measures as predictors of success in a large undergraduate course. Although reading comprehension is predictive of student success (Jackson, 2005), reading speed or fluency may also be related to comprehension levels, effort required to read, and reinforcement for reading (Skinner, Pappas, & Davis, 2005). Researchers have measured reading fluency by timing students' oral reading and scoring word accuracy. These data are then used to calculate words correct per minute (WCM), which has been shown to correlate with reading comprehension and other reading skills as measured via standardized, norm-referenced tests with strong psychometric properties (Deno & Merkin, 1977; Deno, Merkin, & Chiang, 1982; Fuchs, & Fuchs, 1992; Fuchs, Fuchs, Hosp, & Jenkins, 2001; Fuchs, Fuchs, & Maxwell, 1988; Hintze & Shapiro, 1997; Jenkins & Jewell, 1993). These studies provide support for several theories that suggest causal mechanisms for explaining the relationship between reading speed and comprehension. Students who read rapidly and are not required to apply their attention or other cognitive resources (e.g., working memory) towards decoding words have more cognitive resources available to apply towards comprehension. Additionally, as time passes information may become inaccessible (e.g., fading from working memory). Thus, as they read, rapid readers may have access to more information from material read earlier than slow readers, which may enhance their ability to synthesize information as they progress through passages (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974; Perfetti, 1992; Rasinski, 2004; Stanovich, 1986). Reading, like many other skills, improves as people choose to spend more time engaged in the activity (Daly, Chafouleas, & Skinner, 2005; Stanovich, 1986). Even when slower readers are able to comprehend the material at the same level as rapid readers, rapid readers are more likely to choose to read the assigned work because it requires less time and effort and results in a higher rate of reinforcement (Billington, Skinner, Hutchins, & Malone, 2004; Skinner, 1998; Skinner, 2002; Skinner, Neddenriep, Bradley-Klug, & Ziemann, 2002; Skinner, Wallace, & Neddenriep, 2002). …

Development of a Validated Multiple Choice Exam*.

BACKGROUND: This report describes the development and validation of a multiple choice examination on difficult airway management. It will be used as a formative assessment tool to monitor resident learning, detect deficits and provide feedback to residents about their educational progress. METHOD: We used an 8-step system to create the difficult airway exam. The steps are: (1) Identify target audience: clinical based anesthesia residents from 1st, 2nd and 3rd year (CA-1, CA-2, CA-3); (2) Develop specification table to identify topics in difficult airway management: knowledge of procedural skills, comprehension and application of airway techniques, American Society of Anesthesiologists’ difficult airway algorithm, medications for airway anesthesia, airway blocks, monitoring of airway management, oxygen delivery devices1,2; (3) Identify question writers; (4) Create a “how-to manual” on writing type A exam questions (selection of one best answer out of four); (5) Develop and use a checklist to ensure the exam follows the rules in the guidebook; (6) Identify external review board specialized in airway management to edit exam content; (7) Pilot the exam at four external sites–strict guidelines were followed when residents taking the exam (similar conditions to written boards);(8) Statistical analysis to validate test and assess discrimination between the groups. Three clinical anesthesiologists with international recognition in airway management took the exam and then checked their answers against the answer key and provided comments to improve the exam. RESULTS: The 112 question exam was piloted in March 2006 by 94 residents (n = 34 CA-1, 27 CA-2 and 33 CA-3) from University of Chicago, Children’s Hospital in South Carolina, University of Texas Medical School, and New York Mount Sinai Medical Center. The mean raw score at the four sites combined was 65 ± 10 for the group and 61± 6.6 for CA-1, 66 ± 7.5 for C2 and 68 ± 12.8 for CA-3 residents, p = .012 in analysis of variance. Multiple regression analysis controlling for residents’ age, sex and academic center indicated that CA-2 residents had a 6 point higher (p=.02) and CA 3 residents a 6.5 point higher score (p=.008) than CA-1 residents. The Kuder-Richardson reliability coefficient was 0.8.1 CONCLUSIONS: On the difficult airway exam, residents’ knowledge was demonstrated at 50% at four anesthesia departments (i.e. 65/112). The exam results indicate that the knowledge required in difficult airway management has yet to be achieved in our current method of clinical base teaching. Development of a validated test was achieved with good item performance following rigorous adherence to the 8 steps.

How the Courts Influence Teaching and Student Discipline: Lessons Learned From Case Law

INTRODUCTION Most students enrolled in a professional medical program are well over the age of majority and better acquainted with their rights and the legal system than “traditional” students. Students who act professionally and perform well academically are easy for professional schools to manage. Much more difficult to manage are those who perform poorly academically or professionally. Of these, poor academic performance is far easier to demonstrate, and the consequences are often cut and dried: fail two courses and you are subject to dismissal (all set out in the student handbook). Criteria such as multiple choice exam scores are considered objective, and even subjective assessments by professors are accorded deference by the courts. More challenging are penalties for students accused of unprofessional or unethical behavior or those who perform poorly in clinical settings. This case law review will discuss the fact patterns of some representative cases and attempt to glean some lessons from each situation. Emerson v North Idaho College In the case of Emerson v N. Idaho College, a nursing student at the college’s nursing program was dismissed in 2003 for unsatisfactory attendance, incomplete assignments, and overall poor performance.1 The student filed a complaint in state court claiming defamation, emotional distress, age and national origin discrimination, disability (hearing impairment), and failure of due process. The student alleged that statements were made that demonstrated bias against those of Hispanic origin, and that the program failed to accommodate her hearing disability. Because the college was a state institution and thus a governmental entity to which certain constitutional guarantees of substantive due process and equal protection under the law applied, federal court jurisdiction existed and the case moved to federal court. The age discrimination claim was dismissed because the nursing program could document that older students had successfully completed the program. The disability discrimination claim was dismissed for many reasons. First, the The Academic Law feature focuses on legal issues that affect those working in academic environments. Articles are typically written by the feature editor. Suggestions for topics to be covered are welcome. The feature editor can be reached at:

Effects of problem order on accuracy, preference, and choice of multiplication assignments.

College students (N = 151) completed three in-class mathematics assignments that varied with respect to the order of short, medium, and long multiplication problems, including a short-to-long order, a long-to-short order, and a random order. Problem order within assignments did not significantly affect work accuracy, completion time, or assignment preference. However, participants rated (1) the assignment with random order as less difficult than the other two assignments and (2) the assignment with long-to-short order as requiring less time than the other two assignments. Participants were likely to choose a related homework assignment viewed as less effortful, less difficult, or less time consuming. Several concepts (e.g., matching law, behavioral momentum, and Premack reinforcement principle) were used in interpreting the results. Keywords: problem order, mathematics, homework, matching law, behavioral momentum, Premack reinforcement principle. ********** Academic assignments and tests often involve a series of tasks or problems that can be ordered in a variety of ways. A typical pattern is to begin the assignment with the less demanding tasks (briefer, easier) and proceed to the more demanding. A less common order is to begin with the more demanding tasks and proceed to the less demanding. A third order is to randomize task order with respect to difficulty. Because order of tasks within an assignment could affect performance on the assignment, time to complete the assignment, and favorability rating of the assignment, one would expect a plethora of research dealing with the effect of task order on student performance and preference of task order. However, an examination of research on assignment performance and assignment preference reveals few studies that deal specifically with the effects of task order within assignments. Research in this area has focused mainly on exams rather than assignments. Studies of multiple-choice exams have demonstrated mixed effects of item order on performance accuracy. Balch (1989) found that sequential exams (in which the test material was presented in the same order that material was presented in texts or lectures) produced higher scores than randomized or chapter-sequenced exams. In contrast, Neely, Springston, and McCann (1994) reported no differences in accuracy between sequential and randomized questions on undergraduate psychology exams. Similarly, Perlini, Lind, and Zumbo (1998) found no influence of easy-to-hard, hard-to-easy, or random item order on psychology exam performance. Studies of difficulty ratings of exams with different task orders have also produced mixed results. Laffitte (1984) found no differences in perceived difficulty of exams organized as easy-to-hard by chapter, easy-to-hard across chapters, randomly within chapters, and randomly across chapters. In contrast, Olson and Barickowski (1976) reported that hard-to-easy tests were viewed as easier than easy-to-hard, with no differences in accuracy of answers. Whether these research findings on item order with psychology exams can be generalized to assignments that involve skill building in a variety of academic domains remains an issue for further investigation. Research regarding the effects of choosing assignment sequence has been done mainly with children and adults with special needs (e.g., autism, mental retardation) and has typically dealt with the scheduling of assignments rather that the order of tasks within assignments. For example, Kern, Mantegna, Vorndran, Bailin, and Hilt (2001) found that students having intellectual and behavioral problems improved both in task engagement and appropriate conduct when allowed to schedule the sequence of required tasks. Similarly, Seybert, Dunlap, and Ferro (1996) reported that giving high school students with severe mental retardation the opportunity to schedule their tasks increased task engagement and task productivity. …

Deconstructing Teacher Certification

TWENTY years ago, few states had alternative programs for certifying teachers, and those that did dusted them off only in case of emergency. Today, two kinds of alternative certification programs are proliferating: those delivered agencies not affiliated with an institution of higher education (sometimes called NUCPs for Non-University Certification Programs) and pared-down degrees delivered over the Internet universities and corporations specializing in for-profit educational endeavors. In California, approximately one in five new teachers enters the profession through NUCPs; in Texas and New Jersey, one in four new teachers comes from NUCPs. NUCPs usually receive their charge from legislation, such as California's S.B. 57, which gives school districts and other agencies the right to certify teachers. S.B. 57 states that people may become teachers by successfully completing tests and classroom observations in lieu of traditional teacher preparation coursework and student In lieu of coursework or student teaching, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) requires next to nothing. That is, prospective teachers in the Los Angeles program can move from applicant status to full-time, salaried teacher without bothering to gain experience in an actual classroom, and the only courses required the LAUSD are delivered in-house in brief seminars or online during the first year of teaching. Many states are in the process of following California's lead dramatically loosening requirements for teacher certification. Recently, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed into law a mandate that every school district be given the authority to certify teachers. The paradox is that, while universities in Florida face increasingly difficult accountability standards from NCATE (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education), from professional organizations (such as the National Council of Teachers of English and the National Science Teachers Association), and from regional and state accrediting agencies (such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Florida Department of Education), no such accountability is required of Florida's NUCPs. As with the ranking system of public schools, the sole indicator of quality for teacher certification programs has become the percentage of teacher candidates able to pass multiple-choice exams. In a politically savvy move, the NUCPs have started using teacher exit tests, such as the Florida Teacher Certification Exam (similar to Praxis II in many states), as prerequisites for entry into their programs, thereby securing a perpetual passing rate of 100%. In the span of a few years, teacher certification has been transformed the surge in alternative certification and the proliferation of distance-education degree programs. To take the pulse of teacher certification, for the past year I gathered data on the more than 1,000 institutions and agencies that certify teachers in the U.S. Because the gritty details of certification--across the broad spectrum of grade levels and subject areas and across states and institutions--made analysis too unwieldy, I decided to focus on certification in secondary English (usually grades 7-12). Unlike mathematics, science, bilingual education, and special education, English is not a high-need certification area. Thus there is little reason to push for alternative certification in English. Using this logic, I surmised that trends in secondary English might be comparable to developments in social studies but would probably understate the prevalence of alternative programs and distance-education programs in science, mathematics, bilingual education, and special education. THE GROWTH OF ALTERNATIVE CERTIFICATION My study confirmed an incredible variability across institutions and NUCPs. Some programs have rigorous requirements governing admission, internship, and graduation; others require little more than a heartbeat and a check that clears the bank. …

Differential Daily Writing Contingencies and Performance on Major Multiple-Choice Exams

On 4 of 7 days in each unit of an undergraduate human development course, students responded in writing to specific questions related to instructor notes previously made available to them. The study compared the effects of three writing contingencies on the quality of student writing and performance on major multiple-choice exams in the course. The three contingencies were (1) receiving credit for all writing products each unit, (2) receiving credit for one randomly selected writing product each unit, and (3) receiving no credit for any writing product each unit. On all dimensions of exam performance, writing for daily credit produced higher scores than did writing for random credit and writing for no credit. The daily-writing contingency also produced the highest writing ratings across all units; the writing for random credit produced the next highest writing scores; and the writing for no credit yielded the lowest writing scores. Across all three contingencies, writing scores were highly correlated with performance on multiple-choice exams.

Credentialing Imaging Informatics Professionals: Creation of Items for the CIIP Examination

Credentialing Imaging Informatics Professionals: Creation of Items for the CIIP Examination

Rubrics: Tools for Making Learning Goals and Evaluation Criteria Explicit for Both Teachers and Learners

Introduction of new teaching strategies often expands the expectations for student learning, creating a parallel need to redefine how we collect the evidence that assures both us and our students that these expectations are in fact being met. The default assessment strategy of the typical large, introductory, college-level science course, the multiple- choice (fixed response) exam, when used to best advantage can provide feedback about what students know and recall about key concepts. Leaving aside the difficulty inherent in designing a multiple-choice exam that captures deeper understandings of course material, its limitations become particularly notable when learning objectives include what students are able to do as well as know as the result of time spent in a course. If we want students to build their skill at conducting guided laboratory investigations, developing reasoned arguments, or communicating their ideas, other means of assessment such as papers, demonstrations (the “practical exam”), other demonstrations of problem solving, model building, debates, or oral presentations, to name a few, must be enlisted to serve as benchmarks of progress and/or in the assignment of grades. What happens, however, when students are novices at responding to these performance prompts when they are used in the context of science learning, and faculty are novices at communicating to students what their expectations for a high-level performance are? The more familiar terrain of the multiple-choice exam can lull both students and instructors into a false sense of security about the clarity and objectivity of the evaluation criteria (Wiggins, 1989 ) and make these other types of assessment strategies seem subjective and unreliable (and sometimes downright unfair) by comparison. In a worst-case scenario, the use of alternatives to the conventional exam to assess student learning can lead students to feel that there is an implicit or hidden curriculum—the private curriculum that seems to exist only in the mind's eye of a course instructor. Use of rubrics provides one way to address these issues. Rubrics not only can be designed to formulate standards for levels of accomplishment and used to guide and improve performance but also they can be used to make these standards clear and explicit to students. Although the use of rubrics has become common practice in the K–12 setting (Luft, 1999 ), the good news for those instructors who find the idea attractive is that more and more examples of the use of rubrics are being noted at the college and university level, with a variety of applications (Ebert-May, undated; Ebert-May et al., 1997 ; Wright and Boggs, 2002 ; Moni et al., 2005 ; Porter, 2005 ; Lynd-Balta, 2006 ).