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Crafting Effective Geoscience Multiple-Choice Items

Learn the key factors to consider when developing well-constructed multiple-choice items for geoscience assessments, including alignment, clarity, and item construction. Understand the importance of clear outcomes and goals to ensure validity of assessments.

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Crafting Effective Geoscience Multiple-Choice Items

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  1. The Effective Use of Well-Constructed Multiple-Choice Items in Geoscience Assessments Part 2: Developing well-constructed items Mimi Fuhrman, American Institutes for Research

  2. What makes a “Good” Multiple-choice item? • Alignment: to content, learning outcomes/goals, cognitive demand, difficulty • Importance: testing trivia is a waste of resources; concentrate on fundamental concepts • Clarity: the intent of the task and the meaning of the options must speak for themselves and be interpreted in the same way by all examinees • Item construction: well-constructed items can be answered successfully by examinees who have the knowledge or skill you are testing, and NOT by examinees who are lacking the skill or knowledge

  3. Outcomes/goals • Clear outcomes/goals must be stated before items can be developed • An item or assessment is of little use if it is not “valid”; if it doesn’t measure what you want it to

  4. The proper order of the divisions of the geologic time scale from largest to smallest is: A) eon,epoch,period,era B) eon,era,period,epoch C) era,eon,epoch,period D) epoch,period,eon,era Key = b The divisions of the geologic time scale were based primarily on: A) differences in the types of rocks B) differences in sedimentary rock structures C) differences in minerals D) differences in fossils Key = d Two Items: Same “Topic”

  5. This one’s easy! Your choice in options will often determine the difficulty of the item- the finer the distinction between options, the higher the difficulty.

  6. A) sandstone B) granite C) marble D) coal A) syenite B) diorite C) monzonite D) rhyolite In order to determine the age of formation, potassium-argon dating is most appropriate for which of the following rock types?

  7. Anatomy of a multiple-choice question Which of the following cations is most abundant in ocean water?Stem O P (A) Na+ KeyT (B) Mg2+I (C) Si4+DistractorsO (D) K+N S

  8. Common Item Faults • Confusing to the examinee • Ambiguity • Unclear directions • Complicated visual stimuli or syntax • Difficult vocabulary • Nondirected or nonspecific stem • Too much reading • Apples and Oranges • Illogical sequence of options

  9. Common Item Faults • Giveaways to testwise examinees • Break in the grammatical structure • Use of specific determiners • Presence of key words in stem • Conspicuous key • Pairs of options • Blatantly false options • Subsuming options

  10. Presence of key words in stem Large-scale, low-angle overthrusts pose a problem for which of the following reasons? (A) Such structures are confined to the margins of eugeosynclinal belts. (B) No comparable structures are recognized in shield areas. (C) The heat created by friction exceeds the stability field of carbonates found in thrust sheets. (D) As shown by the Coulomb friction model, internal friction is a variable dependent on rock parameters. (E) The apparent stress differential in overthrust sheets exceeds the compressive strength in the rocks.

  11. Conspicuous key Translation gliding in minerals during deformation most likely occurs by (A) simultaneous slip along grain boundaries (B) consecutive movement of dislocations along the translation plane (C) propagation of Griffith cracks (D) twinning (E) microfracturing

  12. Pairs of options A typical vertical sequence of sediment through a point bar would show (A) interstratified sand and shale (B) thick homogeneous sand (C) an upward gradation from sand to shale (D) an upward gradation from shale to sand (E) thick laminated shale

  13. Subsuming options In order to be useful as a groundwater reservoir, a rock must be (A) Relatively porous (B) Relatively permeable (C) Both porous and permeable (D) Unsaturated (E) Impermeable

  14. Suggestions for Writing Good Items • The stem poses one problem, clearly and concisely • Only one correct or best answer • Each option fits with the stem and presents a plausible possibility • Test knowledge of important facts and ideas • Be as brief as possible • Each option is independent of the other options

  15. Guidelines for Options • Plausible to the uninformed • A common misconception • A critical misunderstanding • No specific determiners: e.g., always, all, never,must • All about same length • No clues in stem

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