The first thing about Kwan’s (2010) article that really grabbed me was in the background section. The article talked about writing across the curriculum and how every teacher needs to be a teacher of writing. This concept is very familiar to me as we have discussed it often in our education classes however, seeing it on paper made we want to read further into the article to see what the author’s opinion was.
This article also interested me because I was surprised to learn in class how ineffective true/false questions can be and was curious to learn more about how to improve the use of this type of questioning. I wanted to further read about true/false questions because they were a type of question often used throughout my education and which I liked because they were most often easy to answer or to guess. The reading we did in class and the reading of this article have allowed me to view evaluation from a teacher’s perspective however, and I really appreciate the enlightenment. My entire perspective of evaluation has shifted since becoming a part of the Education Faculty and through reading articles such as Kwan’s (2010), I am starting to develop my own perspective on accurate and effective evaluation.
Kwan’s (2010) article suggests adding a written component to multiple choice in order to assess for higher order thinking. I like the idea of being able to “track students’ thought processes, and identify where things are going wrong” (p. 1). Having students explain their answer in writing and/or explain how they got to each specific answer, gives teachers a chance to see how much the student really knows rather than how well they can guess. Adding a writing component to true/false questions also allows the teacher to see where most students are having trouble and to become conscious of what concepts or information they may need to re-teach. I believe that it is so important to make sure teachers are aware of where their students are struggling and where they are doing well. In my own classroom I would consider using true/false questions with a written component as a pre-test or mid-unit test to see where my students are at, where they are excelling and where they are struggling. Doing so would help me gauge what my focus would need to be for the remainder of the lessons and the unit.
In addition to being able to note troublesome concepts, adding the writing component to true/false questions also allows the teacher insight into his/her students’ thought processes. Having insight into their students’ thought process allows teachers to mold and change the way they teach to meet the needs of each particular group of students. It is clear that not all students learn the same way and that each group of students is different so it becomes necessary for teachers to understand the best way to teach to suit the needs of their students. In the article, Kwan (2010) states the importance of going over troublesome questions on the test whether that be with individual students or with the whole group. Lastly, adding a written component to true/false questions allows the teacher to become aware of any question that may be poorly written. All of these are important points to consider but the one that stands out most to me is that the insight provided by the written component gives teachers insight into the best way to teach their class. This is a great way to help ensure that teachers are teaching in such a ways as to help ensure the success of their students.
In the article, Kwan (2010) gives a number of examples of true/false questions with a written component at work. It was very helpful to see concrete examples of how easy it is for a student to guess the right answer without actually knowing the concept behind it. While the example questions were focused on students with an economic background it was still helpful to see the thought process of the student as well as the assessor and the knowledge I gained from this article is easily transferable to other subject areas.
One concern of adding a written component to true/false questions is that the tests become more time-consuming for teachers to mark and more time consuming for students to write. In my opinion however, the time is worth the positive results and benefits both for the students and the teacher. In the article a survey was conducted with students asking them to evaluate different teaching tools including true/false questions with a written component. The majority of students saw the value of adding the written component and the benefits that are associated with that modification. Students commented that adding the written component to the true/false question ensured that they had to know their material. Another comment was that students liked the modification because it allowed the teacher to see who really knew the information well.
A great point made in the article was that adding a written component to other types of test questions-such as multiple choice-could also enhance learning and teaching. Adding a written component to true/false questions could be done in any subject area even in an area like math where it is often hard to incorporate writing in the curriculum. In any event, it is hard to go wrong by adding a written component to test questions. The work load may increase but the benefits are of great value. Not only are teachers able to see the thought processes of their students, but what a great way to incorporate writing across the curriculum!
References
Kwan, F. B. (2010). True/false test: Enhancing its power through writing. Journal of
Instructional Pedagogies, 4, 1-10.
