Checklist for Alternatives

  1. The alternatives are all appropriate to the question asked or implied by the stem.

    2. -sometimes have trouble thinking of a fourth alternative, toss in something essentially irrelevant as a red herring

      -- confuses kids, since they suddenly wonder what that has to do with anything, they waste time checking to see if they have misinterpreted the question.

  3. Alternatives must be grammatically consistent with the stem, and parallel in form
  4. Example
  5. Avoid overlapping distracters
    example
  6. Alternatives are stated as briefly and simply as possible
      -keep reading load down

      -problem with provincial tests and committees -- constantly adding more qualifiers so will be completely unarguably correct -- good instinct but hard to read

      -in classroom context you have a little more leeway to cut

  7. Words common to all the alternatives should be placed in the stem
    Example
  8. All distracters should be plausible
      -common misconceptions

    or

      -errors in calculation

      choosing errors and common misconceptions helps you to identify which error this student is making, and therefore how to help them

        --which you find out by making it a short answer question the year before and see what the students give you as wrong answers

      -throwing in some impressive sounding jargon like "important"

      -all alternatives should have same complexity and length as correct answer
  9. The use of trickery has been avoided.
      there is no point in finding out if you can trick them-- you can

  10. DO NOT use "all of the above"
      (a) -all of the above automatically produces over lapping alternatives

        -as we saw in examplefrom #3: overlapping distractors

      (b) -if chose (a), skips ahead without reading rest of alternatives, can think he'got the right answer (and he has) but gets it wrong

      • all of the above is unfair, because it means answer (A) is correct, so student anticipates (a), looks down, sees (a), chooses it, then moves on. Gets it wrong, even though KNEW (A) was the correct answer -- gets answer right but question wrong -- is that FAIR????

      (c) -"of the Above"also messes up your statistics

      -if can eliminate one alternative, automatically kicks out "all of the above" as an alternative

    -Even worse is "both a and b" --> becomes exercise in logic

      Example

  11. DO NOT use "none of the above"


      12. Never-ever in best answer questions because who is to say how close is close enough?

    Example

    • "None of the above" can always be defended as best alternative...
    • don't use even for correct answer questions because
        -wasted alternative

        --> other wrong answers tell you which mistake student is making, "None of the above" doesn't WHY they think none of these apply

        -maybe if you go to five alternatives...but what's the point?

    Exception is in math Example

  12. Key words from the stem are not repeated in the alternatives
    Example
  13. Avoid stating the correct answer in greater length
    Example
  14. Avoid absolute terms like "always" "never"
  15. Avoid stating the correct answer in textbook language or stereotyped phraseology
      -tempted to take correct answer from curriculum guide or text, but have to make up incorrect answers yourself, kids see difference in style

  16. All distracters must remain consistent regardless of higher levels of learning

    17. -->it is considered BAD form for an answer to be correct for a Grade 10 that would be considered wrong for a third year university; or vice versa

      -->can't say, "oh well, close enough for grade 6"

      --> E.g.. water freezes at 0&#176C, except some kids will know that is at sea level

      maybe that's all you expect from a grade 4, but you don't want to teach grade 4's something a grade 8 teacher is going to have to unteach
  18. Do not present false information in alternatives
    Example
  19. The branch has the policy of not saying WRONG things in alternatives, but that's kind of a high standard to reach for
    • idea is that students will read wrong information, and even if they realize that it is not the answer in this question, may think it is true
    • often remember "that somewhere once"and if it happened to be a false alternative on a test, could be very counter productive
    • not as damaging as true false because more distracters to remind that its only one possibility, false statements balanced by reading correct ones at same time in same context

  20. Always use the same number of alternatives
      -confuses students

      -sometimes kids can get clues by number of alternatives

    -statistical analysis is problematic if they vary from 3 to 6

      -but not really that crucial

      -I sometimes have varying number if using some common items with other teachers



    USED TO SAY:

    - the number of alternatives to use is 4

      -3 is generally too few --> 33% by guessing

      -studies have shown that 5 are usually too many to think of --> four is tough enough

      -no hard and fast rule, but take my word for it, four makes best sense




    NOW SAY:

    Last 18 months a lot of new research is coming out that says, really, 3 is best. Math is way over my head but seems to be...

    argue 4th alternative is too hard, most teachers write rubbish....


  21. If you're ever doing science or math, must have correct number of significant digits (unless that's the concept you're testing of course)