How to use multiple choice questions for formative assessment

As one of the tools for summative assessment, multiple choice questions (MCQs) offer many advantages. They can be marked reliably and quickly, making them cost and time efficient for large groups, and they can be used to cover a broad range of content within a short test.

However, using MCQs requires careful preparation. For example, it is not easy to write good questions with appropriate distractors (wrong answers) that do not mislead students. Additionally, without careful design, students can gain marks by guessing rather than knowing and understanding the correct answer. For these reasons, MCQs for high stakes testing should be pretested.

MCQs for formative assessment

MCQs can be effectively used in the classroom for formative assessment where some of the constraints of high-stakes testing do not apply. But questions and answers still need to be well designed.

Tailoring answer options can provide useful diagnostic information. This allows teachers to adapt lessons to the needs of their class.

Ordered MCQs can generate feedback about students’ level of understanding. Similarly, answers organised into a ‘confidence grid’ reveal uncertainty, alternative conceptions, and other problems.

Ordered MCQs

In ordered MCQs, the answer options aren’t simply right or wrong, but represent different levels of understanding of an idea. The responses to these questions show the depth of understanding students have developed.

Ordered MCQs are formative in two senses. They not only inform the teaching of the current students, but also lead to further development of the original learning progression.

In one study, a group of researchers developed ordered MCQs about the nature of matter. They found these questions provided information about students’ understanding as effectively as open response questions on the same topic.

Confidence grids

Answers presented in a ‘confidence grid’ help shed light on how confident students are in their answers. Students can show their uncertainties, and their need to guess answers is reduced. Teachers can better understand where problems lie, and can appreciate alternative conceptions their students hold if the distractors are incorrect ideas commonly held by students. Research about students’ ideas about chemistry provides plenty of inspiration for writing questions with confidence grids.

A helping hand

Combining good MCQs with mini whiteboards, Plickers, Socrative, or other ways of collecting responses makes it quick for teachers to collect information about students’ understanding. These tools further help with adapting teaching to meet the needs of the students.

The quality of the answer options is key to effectively supporting learning

Other developments in multiple choice questions have been made possible by the increased use of on-screen assessment, including two-tier questions and adaptive questioning where the route taken through the questions is determined by students’ responses.

Whatever the means of collecting the responses and whatever the question format, the quality of the answer options is key to effectively supporting learning.

Mary Whitehouse is an honorary fellow in the University of York Science Education Group, UK. Judith Bennett is the Salters’ professor of science education at the University of York, UK. Lynda Dunlop and Kerry J Knox are lecturers in science education at the University of York, UK