Helping Students Think Through The Best AnswerBy: Michelle Rogers-Johnson, Ph.D. Educational Specialist “I have a list of options, most of which seem correct. How do I select the best answer?” This is one of students’ most frequently asked questions. During my interview for this position, a faculty member asked me a similar question, “How do you support students who struggle with choosing the best answer?“ on a multiple choice exam. I remember struggling to formulate a response for that interview question. At the time, I stated, “choosing the best answer is a skill that depends on your ability to reason in the discipline and analyze a situation. The best answer depends on the situational context.” While I gave a response, it was not satisfactory as it did not really provide any enlightening strategies for enhancing students’ ability to answer these types of questions. Instructors can help students prepare for such exams by teaching with, and having students compare and contrast, a variety of examples ranging in difficulty (easy to difficult) that the student can expect to encounter in the real world. (Yelon, 1996). This is especially important for novices, who will struggle to recognize and distinguish between different conditions that present similarly. The more clear examples they see, the more likely they are to obtain a better sense of how the content can be applied to different situations. Beyond teaching, students will need deliberate practice working through different types of examples. In the case of the scenario presented above one might support students in doing the following**:
**Special thanks to my colleague, Brian Pinney for helping me with this strategy.
Reference Yelon, S.L. (1996). Powerful principles of instruction. White Plains, NY: Longman.
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May 2017
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