If 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:
- Questions with no single answer, so that students become aware that the content is complex
- 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.
- 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).”
- Questions that are ambiguous: Guiding the students to analyze the content deeper.
- 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.