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Credit should be given to: Stephanie Chasteen and the Science
Education Initiative at the University of Colorado, http://colorado.edu/sei
Introduce yourself to your
neighbor
• Discussion point: What are some features of
effective multiple-choice questions?
Part 3. Writing Great Clicker
Questions
Dr. Stefanie Mollborn
Sociology and Institute of Behavioral Science
University of Colorado Boulder
mollborn@colorado.edu
Adapted from slides by:
Dr. Stephanie V. Chasteen
Physics Department & Science Ed. Initiative
University of Colorado – Boulder
Creative Commons – Attribution. Please attribute Stephanie Chasteen / Scince Education Initiative/ CU-Boulder
Challenges: Questions
Best practices
•Ask several times during lecture
•Ask challenging, meaningful questions
•What does this mean for non-STEM fields?
4
4
Various question types
1.
Conceptual “one right answer” questions
2.
Discussion “no one right answer” questions
3.
Predict an outcome (e.g., of an experiment)
4.
Survey questions / personal opinion / past experiences
5.
Embed reasoning in answers (“Slower, because gravity
is acting against it.” “Slower, because it loses energy to
friction.”)
6.
Use images as part of question or as answer choices
See TEFA handout
Activity 2: Gallery Walk
Visit as many questions as you can. For each question:
• Try to think beyond the question content.
• What are some useful features of this question?
• What does and doesn’t work well about this question?
15 minutes
Aihofanz2010 on Wikimedia
Question-writing tips
• Don’t just use simple quiz questions; use questions at
a variety of difficulty levels
• Use challenging questions that prompt discussion and
emphasize reasoning
• Use tempting distracters (for ‘right answer’ questions)
• Think outside the box! Use a variety of question
strategies and use questions at a variety of points in
lecture.
See handout
Tips for ‘no right answer’ questions
• Mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories!
• Consider a wide variety of possible answers
• Catch-all “other” category for many question types
• Avoiding unclear or double-barreled questions
• Read question and answers out loud to yourself
Question Cycle: Before,
During, and After Lecture
9
BEFORE
Setting up instruction
Motivate
Discover
Predict outcome
Provoke thinking
Assess prior knowledge
AFTER
Assessing learning
Relate to big picture
Demonstrate success
Review or recap
Exit poll
DURING
Developing knowledge
Check knowledge
Application
Analysis
Evaluation
Synthesis
Exercise skill
Elicit misconception
Credit: Rosie Piller and Ian Beatty.
Look at handout
What makes a good clicker
question?
clarity
context
connection to
learning goals
distractors
difficulty
stimulates
thoughtful
discussion
Students should waste no effort trying to figure
out what’s being asked.
Is this topic currently being covered
in class?
Does the question make students do the right
thing to demonstrate they grasp the concept.
What do the “wrong” answers tell you about
students’ thinking?
Is the question too trivial? too hard?
Will the question engage the students and
spark thoughtful discussions?
Is there potential for you to be “agile”?
10
Use questions at a variety of
cognitive depths
Do the questions you use
intellectually challenge your
students or simply assess
their factual knowledge?
A tool to investigate this:
Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain
handout
11
Bloom’s Taxonomy
See handout with verbs
Activity 3: Write a Question
BEFORE
Setting up instruction
Write a draft
Motivate
question that
Discover
accomplishes
Predict outcome
one of these
Provoke thinking
goals
Assess prior knowledge
AFTER
Assessing learning
Relate to big picture
Demonstrate success
Review or recap
Exit poll
DURING
Developing knowledge
Check knowledge
Application
Analysis
Evaluation
Synthesis
Exercise skill
Elicit misconception
13
Credit: Rosie Piller
and Ian Beatty.
10 minutes
Handout
But…
The perfect question doesn’t solve all problems!
Action Plan
• Take a few minutes to write down your action plan
to implement ideas you heard about in this part of
the workshop.
• Email it to yourself!
15
Thank you!
If you are staying for the Advanced Workshop, stay
here.
Feel free to contact us with any questions!
If there is an evaluation, we
should mention it here.