“Principles for Tapping Higher Cognitive Levels of Learning through Constructed- Response Items”10/2/2016 I think we can all look back at our past education whether elementary, high school or even at the Undergraduate level and realise that many of our examination (i.e. multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and essays) were inherently bias. It can be also argued that they perhaps did not follow the basic guidelines for developing constructed-response items, as discussed by Gareis and Grant in chapter 5 titled, “How do I Create a Good Constructed-Response Item?” In this chapter, the authors present the principles guidelines of a well-constructed response item.
The three guidelines are as follows:
While most of these guidelines appear to be clear, and straightforward, you would be surprised to learn that many teacher and professors do not follow these three simple steps. For example, something as simple as “avoid option within the problem” is easily neglected in most University Level examinations. To further expan on this idea, I am going to draw from my own personal experiences as a student. During my Undergraduate Degree, for every English essay I have ever wrote, the professor would always provide at least ten ideas as essay topics. Now, don’t get me wrong, I always enjoyed looking through the plethora of ideas until I found the one that sparked my curiosity. Or let’s be honest, the topic I knew I could write a killer essay about. I believe that this was the thought process that motivated many students to choose a certain topic. But, herein lies the problem. The professor failed to see if each of his or her students fully grasped the intended learning outcomes. To be brief, simply because I was able to write an Expose of Margaret Atwood’s The Journals of Susanna Moodie, did not necessarily mean that understood how to compare Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of Little Towns to Sinclair Ross’s As for me and my House. So, how can I integrate my knowledge of these principles into future summative assessments? As a summative assessment for my unit plan, I am having students develop a Career Plan Portfolio. The career plan will include items such as a cover letter, resume, goals, and the requirements to achieve these goals etc. For each aspect of the portfolio, students will be given a template, success criteria, and the desired outcome will be clear to students. To ensure clarity, I will model the desired outcome for each component of the portfolio. I think the main problem I risk encountering is that the assignment is to open, and this can be ambiguous for some students. To solve this problem, I think I can provide students with clear framing questions and prompts, as indicated in the chapter. I will also ensure that the scoring criteria is clear by providing students with a checklist. Gareis, C. R., & Grant, L. W. (2015). Teacher-made assessments: How to connect curriculum, instruction, and student learning. NY: Routledge.
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