In this week’s episode Greg and Patrick explore the surprisingly tricky topic of multiple choice items: how to write them, how not to write them, and giving a well written test the respect it deserves. Along the way the also discuss recognizing emotions, laying down 50 feet of rubber, glass animals, rewriting your kid’s test, self-righteousness, Dora the Explorer, the Magna Carta, accidentally becoming a better teacher, dumpster diving, a special place in hell, Trivial Pursuit as blood sport, world geography, being a horrible student, and the terror of having Greg as a dental assistant.
Related Episodes
- S5E15: Classical Test Theory (in bed)
- S1E13: How Do I Get Scale Scores? Weight, Weight… Don’t Tell Me!
- S1E09: Grumpy Old Man & Village Idiot Argue About Reliability
Recommended Readings
Bandalos, D. L. (2018). Measurement theory and applications for the social sciences. Guilford Publications.
DeVellis, R.F. (2017). Scale Development: Theory and Applications (4th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Haladyna, T. M., Downing, S. M., & Rodriguez, M. C. (2002). A review of multiple-choice item-writing guidelines for classroom assessment. Applied Measurement in Education, 15, 309-333.
Lord, F. M. (1977). Optimal number of choices per item—A comparison of four approaches. Journal of Educational Measurement, 14, 33–38.
Moreno, R., Martínez, R. J., & Muñiz, J. (2006). New guidelines for developing multiple-choice items. Methodology, 2, 65-72.