Date: Wed, 16 Nov 94 19:12:29 CST
From: "Stephanie Cole" <scole@dante.nmsu.edu>
On the test questions in advance thread: I have decided that I get better answers and more productive thinking if I not only give the questions out in advance, but also frame a particular kind of question. I design 3 or 4 multiple choice questions in which more than one of the options is "correct," depending upon how you weigh the evidence. I give these questions a week or so in advance to my students and tell them I will ask one of these questions on the day of the test plus 5 ID's (the ID's chosen in part from the essay questions I didn't chose for the test, to reward those who prepared them all rather than gambling on which one I will chose--which is a problem with the advance question method).
In their essays (and hopefully in their study groups) they are supposed to discuss all of the multiple choice options, marshaling their notes, text examples, documents, etc. to explain why they think one (or more) of the options is "correct" and the others are "incorrect." I permit them to change my wording of the answer to make it more "correct" if the evidence they read leads them to do so --which leaves some space for the more creative or applied students.
What I'm doing in essence is outlining an essay for them. Instead of asking them to evaluate causes of the American Revolution, and leaving them to decide what should be included in such an answer, I force them through my options to consider Samuel Adams' correspondence groups; the rhetoric of Great Awakening preachers; social and economic development of Concord, etc. So I get fewer "thin" answers. Also, I guess it's something about their orientation toward multiple choice tests, but they're willing to argue for "their" choice with a bit more animation than I've seen previously (well, at least a few more are.) I have _even_ (be still my history teacher's heart) had students in my office before the test asking me to arbitrate their study group's discussion about the most important difference between northern and southern society! (What's even more interesting is that one of this group related--with some chagrin--that he'd realized in the midst of their argument the night before that I had "won" and they were really debating an historical issue. [re his chagrin: Is college education really such a battle of us trying to get them to learn and them trying to figure out a way out of learning?]) Anyway, even in this isolated instance they still wanted me to tell them who was "right." But I have found that students gain more comfort with the concept that there can be more than one right answer, they just have to support their answer adequately with course materials. These questions take longer to write than normal essay questions but I think it's worth it.
BTW, I also use these multiple choice questions to structure small
group discussions about readings. I write a question with the options
being the many answers an author has given to an historical question (i.e.
According to Nash, reasons for the decline of the African-American
community in Phil. were a) connected to the Revolution in Santo Domingo;
b) economic developments, c) etc...). I then ask each group to defend one
of the options, either of their chosing, or I assign each group the
responsiblity of marshaling the evidence from the book to defend a
particular option. After working together and convincing each other of the
rightness of their choice, the return-to-the-class-as-a-whole discussion
can be pretty animated.
Sorry to take up so much space. You can tell I have a stack of those
captivating blue books sitting on my desk, spurring on my procrastination.
Stephanie Cole
New Mexico State University
scole@dante.nmsu.edu
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 21:25:40 -0400 (EDT) From: HIRSHFIE@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu
I am also happy to hear that others are using my approach to exams. I found it impossible to find a reasonable range of identifications that were not already part of the 'test banks' at sororities and frats. I changed over to an all essay exam with study guides handed out a week in advance. I then also tend to feel less guilty about low grades, when it is obvious that the students have not opened a book.
In my upper division courses I have students provide their own questions in advance - either in a group or individually - I then organize them into coherent questions that are not too broad or too narrow. These, I should add, are for take home exams. I find that the students often come up with approaches that I might not have thought about. I think it also gives them a little more input into their education. (I practice a somewhat limited form of participatory democracy - I know have all the power in the classroom, but try to underplay it when possible.)
Aside on "The Stare" - while I suspect that a border collie might be an excellent coach - I suggest looking at them with an 'icy glare' that would freeze water. I remember how astonished I was when I discovered that it worked. I'm also from the New York City area - and tend to be a bit on the sarcastic side, so I worry less about authority in the classroom. I must admit that substituting in a bad district helped me develop a teaching philosophy of "take no prisoners!"
Deborah Hirshfield Hirshfie@udavxb.oca.udayton.edu
Department of History or Hirshfie@chekov.hm.udayton.edu
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH 45469-1540 "Get your facts first, then you
(513) 229-3047 can distort them as you please."
Mark Twain
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 02:51:34 -0600 (CST) From: Richard Jensen, H-Net Executive Director <CAMPBELLD@LYNX.APSU.EDU>
from Richard Jensen, U of Illinois-Chicago Richard.Jensen@uic.edu
For nearly 30 years now, I have taught the US survey every year, and usually every semester. I always use essay exams. I give out the midterm and final exam questions a week ahead. (Attendance is always good that day.) That is, I give out a list of 12-15 essay questions. The actual exam will include three of them (and students choose two out of three.)
In my opinion, the main pedagogical results for midterm and final exams come from studying for them, more than taking them. The textbooks, readings and lectures are chock full of material. Left to figure out how to prepare, some students will try to emulate high school courses and try to memorize "important" points. (I suppose that's useful for multiple choice exams.) They don't know how long they should study, or how. UIC is a commuter school, and few students have formed study groups.
What I hope my students do is prepare essay answers for the specific questions given. This focuses their study time, giving them a task they can accomplish in a week. By ticking off each topic, they know how long it will take them to study for my exams. By working through the topics, I hope they get a broad interpretive overview of the material. I think they spend more time studying, and learn more this way. The exams themselves are much better thought out, and most students seem to like the system.
All this churning about over essay exams presupposes that essay exams are
a useful way to measure something significant about student learning.
What?
I am interested in the rationale for essay exams because I am hard pressed
to see what skills they test for that have any real world application.
I write and have been writing for many years. I never write (nor could I write ) under the conditions facing a student writing an exam essay. When a student writes an answer to an essay question, s/he completes the first draft under severely noncondusive conditions, then immediately turns it over to an EXPERT for final evaluation! Is this fair? Nobody, I mean NOBODY sees my first draft and especially not the high mucky-muck publishers and copy editors in New York.
If I want to test for lower-order skills, the multiple-choice format works quite well. I expose my students to survey information and let them massage it a bit, then I simply write a damn fine bunch of m-c questions and find out who knows what. No essay questions needed here.
If I want to test for higher-order skills (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation), I define and model those skills, have my students practice and hone them in class, and help them get started by walking them through some in-class pre-writing exercises. Then I make it an *out-of-class* writing assignment so students have access to all the writer s tools that I insist be at my disposal when I write--dictionary, handbook, sources, time, big desk, the opportunity to change my mind about how I will write what I want to say, and a chance to get some feedback from my peers before I turn it all over to the expert to evaluate.
New York copy editors do not grade my writing. They make suggestions that might improve it and send it back too me. I make whatever revisions I am comfortable with and send it back. They send me money. I deal with my students essays in the same way. If the paper they hand in does not meet the criteria, I give it back ungraded but with suggestions about revisions. They make whatever revisions they are comfortable with and hand it in again. I give them a grade.
I'm curious. I suppose that those on this thread are teaching subject matter, but they don t seem to be using essay exams to test for content knowledge, else why allow students to use *notes* during the essay exam? The essay exam must be testing for essay writing skills. So why aren't we teaching essay writing skills.?
Regards, Ken Weatherbie Del Mar College
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