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Multiple ChoiceIf you insist on using multiple-choice exams, as one of your multiple measures for student assessment, Jose Antonio Bowen (in Teaching Naked, 2012), recommends the following types of questions, to provide practice for critical thinking: 

  1. Questions with no single answer, so that students become aware that the content is complex 
  2. Questions that direct students to select from a series of true statements – choosing more than one answer requires closer reading and more analysis, while rehearsing the true content.  
  3. Questions that instruct students to choose more than one answer, and preface the multiple choice answers with this phrase.
    The following are all true statements.

    • 1. Check all that apply.
    • 2. Which are best reasons for… (instructor specifies).” 
  4. Questions that are ambiguous: Guiding the students to analyze the content deeper. 
  5. Questions that have a debatable answer. “It depends on…”- answers to choose from guide students in comparing and contrasting. 

 

Reference: 

Bowen, Jose Antonio. (2012). Teaching naked; How moving technology out of your classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 

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