It might be argued that quantitative and qualitative analyses are merely two alternative reflections of an overarching critical thinking. For instance, just as instructors of numeracy warn their charges to consider the construction of variables, teachers of qualitative approaches caution students to define terms. Similarly, an advocate of…

Team-based learning (TBL) is a pedagogical strategy that uses groups of students working together in teams to learn course material. The main learning objective in TBL is to provide students the opportunity to "practice" course concepts during class-time. A key feature is multiple-choice quizzes that students take individually and then re-take as…

Teachers need tools and assessments that will prepare students to meet the ambitious goals laid out by the Common Core State Standards. The multiple-choice tests that dominate in history will not prepare students to analyze primary and secondary sources, cite textual evidence to support arguments, consider the influence of an author's perspective,…

Students with learning or learning-related disabilities frequently struggle with multiple choice assessments due to difficulty discriminating between items, filtering out distracters, and framing a mental best answer. This Practice Brief suggests accommodations and strategies that disability service providers can utilize in conjunction with…

It has been known for some time that item response theory (IRT) models may exhibit a likelihood function of a respondent's ability which may have multiple modes, flat modes, or both. These conditions, often associated with guessing of multiple-choice (MC) questions, can introduce uncertainty and bias to ability estimation by maximum likelihood…

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recently launched a comprehensive electronic professional development (e-PD) online portal, the NSTA Learning Center. This support site for educators currently includes over 6,000 e-PD resources and opportunities available on-demand, as well as various tools designed to help educators maximize the…

Multiple-choice items are commonly viewed as a summative check for skill attainment, but they can be used to assess other dimensions of student learning. The purpose of this article is to offer an expanded view of the use of multiple-choice items in the middle level mathematics classroom. It presents three alternative uses of multiple-choice items…

Interactive teaching with larger groups of students can be a challenge, but the use of mobile electronic devices by students (smartphones, tablets, laptops) can be used to improve classroom interaction. We have examined several types of tasks that can be electronically enacted in classes and practical courses using these devices: multiple choice…

As the tenth anniversary of NCLB has come and gone, both new and experienced educators continue to wrestle yearly with the standardized testing culture that has pervaded the educational experience of nearly every American child and teacher. Despite the requests for waivers to exempt certain states from NCLB, the majority of students and their…

This work starts with a brief overview of education in developing countries, to contextualise the use of the guidelines. Although this document is intended to be a practical tool, it is necessary to include some theoretical analysis of the concept of online assessment. This is given in Sections 3 and 4, together with the identification and…

This paper describes use of an online Student Response System (SRS) in a pre-qualification course for engineering studies in Norway. The SRS in use, where students answer quizzes using handheld mobile devices like Smartphones, PADs, iPods etc., has been developed at Sor-Trondelag University College. The development of the SRS was co-funded by the …

The concept of "turnaround schools" implies that decision makers can distinguish between schools that need to be turned around and those that do not need to be. Decision makers assume that schools in which students score at levels deemed proficient on multiple choice standardized tests are successful and that schools with students who do…

This paper presents a problem-solving test that deals with the regulation of the "trp" operon of "Escherichia coli." Two mutants of this operon are described: in mutant A, the operator region of the operon carries a point mutation so that it is unable to carry out its function; mutant B expresses a "trp" repressor protein unable to bind…

Present large-scale assessments require the use of item formats, such as multiple choice, that can be administered and scored efficiently. This limits competencies that can be measured by these assessments. An alternative approach to large-scale assessments is being investigated that would include the use of complex performance assessments. As…

Multiple-choice testing is an educational reality. Rather than complain about the negative impact these tests may have on teaching and learning, why not use them to better understand your students' true mathematical knowledge and comprehension? Maryann Wickett and Eunice Hendrix-Martin show teachers how to move beyond the student's answer--right…