Table of Contents

AY 375 - Fall 2013: Sixth Day Lesson Plan

Preface

Today we'll be discussing how to write good multiple choice and free response questions. We'll also discuss ways of improving group dynamics in section.

General Takeaways

  1. Deeper conceptual knowledge CAN be probed with multiple choice questions, but writing effective questions takes time and practice.
  2. Especially when writing free response questions, it can be useful to develop a grading rubric for each question as a way of ensuring that your questions are specific, clear, and not testing the same concept over and over again.
  3. Group dynamics are not an easy thing to change. Be willing to try different tactics to get students to collaborate with each other.
  4. If you use worksheets, think about how they might impact group dynamics.

Section Recap (20 minutes)

First have students discuss in pairs how section went (5 min).

Open the floor up for general questions and sharing about how sections are going. Some questions include:

Multiple Choice and Free Response Questions (40 min)

The students should have prepared one multiple choice question and one free response question as last week's homework.

  1. (10 min) Share your questions with a partner. Have them attempt to answer the questions or at least determine what concepts were being probed and what would have constituted as an “acceptable answer.” Once you have gone over all the questions, discuss in your small groups the goods and suggested improvements for the questions. Some questions to consider (perhaps project on the board):
    1. For both:
      • Is the wording clear?
      • What concepts are being tested?
    2. For the multiple choice:
      • Is there clearly only one correct answer?
      • Are there any obvious throw-away answers?
      • Are you able to rule out any response because of the wording alone (i.e., are there hints in the structure)?
    3. For the free response:
      • Does part B test the small conceptual/procedural knowledge as part A?
      • What if students cannot solve part A? What does that imply for part B?
      • What sort of responses might students give under the pressures of an exam setting?
  2. (5-10 min) Come back as a class and discuss.
    • Did you learn anything surprising?
    • Is this easy? (Unfortunately, NO!)
    • What part of question writing did you find the most difficult?
  3. (20-25 min) Go through question example slides as a class exercise.

Some notes on multiple choice questions:

Despite their outward appearance, these questions are actually inherently nonobjective. Grading an essay exam is subjective to the personal feelings of the grader, compared to running a Scantron through a machine. Grading written problems falls somewhere between the two. This is only partially correct, “grading” a Scantron is completely objective, but the subjective aspect of multiple choice questions comes in the creation of the item (the question), the response (the correct answer), and the distractors (the incorrect choices). If everyone in the class was to write a question about the Doppler Effect, we would see a range of different questions and a range of ideas probed. That is subjective.

The ultimate goal of testing is to measure what the students actually understand, and the process of interpreting the meaning of a student's response to a MC test is a subjective one. There are three major issues behind writing these sort of questions:

  1. the physical format and layout of the question
  2. the conceptual hierarchy of the questions
  3. the statistical item analysis

Below are some guidelines for each of these items.

Layout

You are testing the students' understanding, not their reading ability. Long passages of text cause slow readers to skim and often miss details. Questions should not include strings of prepositions, parenthetical statements, or extended clarifications. Misinterpretation is impossible to completely predict, but concise, clear questions can do a lot to minimize the chance of students misreading the question or the response. For example,

You forget that the star Betelgeuse is a red giant and apply the method of magnitudes to determine its distance. The true distance to Betelgeuse is actually… (a) shorter than you calculated, (b) the same distance that you previously calculated, © farther than you calculated.

Is short, to the point, and clear. You might be tempted to elaborate on small points that are not the main conceptual item that is being tested, but care must be taken. For example,

You forget that the star Betelgeuse is a red giant (a very luminous star in the top right of the HR diagram with relatively low surface temperature) and apply the method of spectroscopic parallax—a comparison of the star's apparent magnitude, estimated from the HR diagram, and its absolute magnitude—to determine its distance from Earth, which can be considered the sam as its distance to the Sun because the Earth-Sun distance is negligible given the scales involved. The true distance from Earth to Betelgeuse is actually…

In an attempt to be completely clear, the stem has become more difficult for most students to understand!

Over the years, students have learned that when novice faculty includes choices such as “all of the above”, these are frequently the correct answer. It's easier as a test writer to write correct statements than to come up with plausible sounding incorrect statements. Also, students have also learned that the longer answers are usually the correct answers. You can avoid these situations by making sure your choices are all of similar length, contain a similar amount of scientific vocabulary, and ensure that an equal number of choices (A), (B), etc. are correct on the overall test.

Concepts

Consider

The thermo nuclear reactions in a stellar core are the result of (A) fission, (B) fusion.

This tests what? Unfortunately, it tests word association. A student can get by without knowing what fusion means. Students learn to adopt a strategy of memorizing definitions and words, rather than understanding concepts. As another example,

The Monotillation of Traxoline (attributed to Judy Lanier) It is very important that you learn about traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter. It is monotilled in Ceristanna. The Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of fevon and then bracter it to quasel traxoline. Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized snezlaus in the future because of our zionter lescelidge.
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. Be sure to use your best handwriting. (1.) What is traxoline? (2.) Where is traxoline monotilled? (3.) How is traxoline quaselled? ( 4.) Why is it important to know about traxoline?

Notice how easy it is to get 100% without understanding a single thing about the passage! Pay attention to wording.

Analysis

Less applicable for GSIs, but if particular questions are frequently missed, it is necessary to probe whether they are missed because of a lack of clarity, or because the question is testing difficult concepts. If the former, revise!

See below for some general bullet points on what to look out for.

Some notes on free response questions:

These notes are written with “Astro C10 quizzes” in mind, but the ideas are generally applicable.

General notes from previous years in convenient bullet-point form:

Break (few min)

Group Dynamics (50 min)

In previous classes, we talked about the benefits of group work and different ways of organizing group work. Today we want to talk about how to improve group dynamics, both in small groups and class discussion.

Scenarios (25 min)

In small groups (3-4 people), you'll be given a scenario to think about. What could you do to improve the group dynamics in your scenario? Brainstorm some possibilities in your groups for 10 min and then we'll share with the class as a whole.

Scenarios:

During class discussion, as groups are sharing, ask if other groups have additional strategies to contribute.

General Discussion (10 min)

What other group dynamics have you encountered in section? Did you try to “fix” them? If so, how and did it work? If not, how could this type of situation be dealt with?

Relationship between dynamics and worksheets (10-15 min)

Sometimes you probably use worksheets as part of group work. How can worksheets help or hinder group work? Consider both the content of the worksheet (e.g. the types of questions) and how you use it (e.g. do you hand one out per group or per person)?

Some takeaways:

Statements of Teaching Philosophy

Useful for academic faculty jobs, even at research institutions! We will come back to these in more details at the end of the semester, but we'll give you the material below if you are curious.

You might try this to get you started: In at least one paragraph, but not more than one page, answer the following questions:

  1. I bring to teaching a belief that …..
  2. In the classroom I see myself as …..
  3. I believe students are …..
  4. I seek to foster in students …..
  5. I think the role of discussion section is …..

Or

Or you might use some prompts given from the GSI Teaching and Resource Center:

  1. What motivates me to learn about astronomy?
  2. What are the opportunities and constraints under which I learn and others learn?
  3. What do I expect to be the outcomes of my teaching?
  4. What is the student-teacher relationship I strive to achieve?
  5. How do I know when I have taught successfully?
  6. What habits, attitudes, or methods mark my most successful teaching achievements?
  7. What values do I impart to my students?
  8. What code of ethics guides me?
  9. What theme(s) pervade(s) my teaching?
  10. Can I give a quick 15-minute window into my section/classroom?

Homework For Next Time