Within the next two decades, calculators will be standard tools in mathematics classrooms. They should be used regularly but carefully in classroom instruction and testing to allow use of realistic data and exploration of mathematical concepts, but not to allow finding the answer without understanding the question. (MSE)

A federal appeals court ruled that judges may not dismiss handicapped-discrimination lawsuits against universities solely on the basis of official university statements that allegedly discriminatory practices are appropriate for the academic programs involved. The decision keeps alive a case in which a dyslexic student could not take a…

Described is an approach that substantially reduces the annotated shortcomings of standard multiple-choice tests presented to lower-division college mathematics and statistics classes. Examples are included from each discipline. (JJK)

The effect of test expectancy on preferred strategy use and test performance on factual and higher-level questions in learning from expository text was studied, using 42 undergraduates who reported their study strategies and completed a multiple-choice test. Test expectancy affected neither preferred strategy use nor test performance. (SLD)

Adolescent students with voice disorders need information concerning the physiological, environmental, and psychosocial aspects of voice production. This paper describes a multiple-choice quiz format that has been used effectively as part of the awareness phase of vocal reeducation. (Author)

Discusses the causes and potential solutions to the problem of the ubiquity of testing that affects the learning environment, the curriculum, and the nature of the teacher-student relationship. Proposes utilizing multiple-choice tests with partial credit. (MDH)

Results of a study involving approximately 220 student nurses indicate that the use of negation (e.g., not, except) should be avoided in stems of multiple-choice test items and that the single-response negatively worded item should often be converted to a multiple-response, positively worded item. (SLD)

Describes two studies that evaluated the effectiveness of a World Wide Web-based formative assessment package used in undergraduate psychology courses. Students taking online multiple-choice tests received instant feedback, and results showed that students who used the package performed better than those who did not. (Author/LRW)

Undergraduate students participated in an experiment designed to evaluate different types of elaborations on definitions of 16 psychology terms. First, participants received booklets presenting the definition of each term, followed by 1 of several elaborations: an example, a mnemonic, a paraphrase, or a repeated definition (the nonelaborating…

Examiners seeking guidance on multiple-choice and true/false tests are likely to encounter various faulty or questionable ideas. Twelve of these are discussed in detail, having to do mainly with the effects on test reliability of test length, guessing and scoring method (i.e. number-right scoring or negative marking). Some misunderstandings could…

The potential value of a multiple-choice question-construction instructional strategy for the support of students' learning of physics experiments was examined in the study. Forty-two university freshmen participated in the study for a whole semester. A constant comparison method adopted to categorize students' qualitative data indicated that the…

For many years, educators have been discussing benefits of educational practices such as the use of real-world examples, visualisation, interactivity, constructivism, self-paced learning and self-paced testing. Macromedia Flash MX has been used to develop online modules for the course Differential Equations offered at the University of South…

The study investigated achievement status as a factor determining the use of language-based activities for learning science. A total of 154 eighth-grade students were randomly assigned to four groups, all stratified for gender and achievement level. The treatments involved various combinations of talk and writing, and descriptive and explanatory…

In this article, we describe and evaluate a Web-based interactive tutorial used to present hypothesis testing concepts. The tutorial includes multiple-choice questions with feedback, an interactive applet that allows students to draw samples and evaluate null hypotheses, and follow-up questions suitable for grading. Students either used the…

Weighting responses to Constructed-Response (CR) items has been proposed as a way to increase the contribution these items make to the test score when there is insufficient testing time to administer additional CR items. The effect of various types of weighting items of an IRT-based mixed-format writing examination was investigated.…