Sugerencias al hacer preguntas de ensayo (de respuesta abierta)

Suggestions for Writing Essay Test Items, from Is This a Trick Question? A Short Guide to Writing Effective Test Qestions, by Ben Clay, Kansas Curriculum Center (2001)

1. Formulate the question so that the task is clearly defined for the student. Use words that aim the student to the approach you want them to take. Words like discuss and explain can be ambiguous. If you use discuss, then give specific instructions as to what points should be discussed.

Undesirable: Discuss Karl Marx’s philosophy.

Desirable: Compare Marx and Nietzsche in their analysis of the underlying problems of their day in 19th century European society.

2. Pay attention to the number of items. In order to obtain a broader sampling of course content, use a relatively large number of questions requiring shorter answers (one-half page) rather than just a few questions involving long answers (2-3 pages).

3. Avoid the use of optional questions on an essay test. When students answer different questions, they are actually taking different tests. If there are five essay questions and students are told to answer any three of them, then there are ten different tests possible. It makes it difficult to discriminate between the student who could respond correctly to all five, and the student who could answer only three.

Use of optional questions also affects the reliability of the scoring. If we are going to compare students for scoring purposes, then all students should perform the same tasks. Another problem is that students may not study all the course material if they know they will have a choice among the questions.

5. Write essay items at different levels of learning. The goal is to write essay items that measure higher cognitive processes. The item should represent a situation that tests the student’s ability to use knowledge in order to analyze, justify, explain, contrast, evaluate, and so on. Try to use verbs that elicit the kind of thinking you want the students to demonstrate. Instructors often have to use their best judgment about what cognitive skill each question is measuring. Ask a colleague to read the questions and classify them according to Bloom’s taxonomy.

6. Choose a scoring model. The major task in scoring essay tests is to maintain consistency, to make sure that answers of equal quality are given the same number of points. There are two approaches to scoring essay items: (1) analytic or point method and (2) holistic or rating method.

• Analytic: Before scoring, prepare an ideal answer in which the major components are defined and assigned point values. Read and compare the student’s answer with the model answer. If all the necessary elements are present, the student receives the maximum number of points. Partial credit is given based on the elements included in the answer. In order to arrive at the overall exam score, the instructor adds the points earned on the separate questions.

• Holistic: This method involves considering the student’s answer as a whole and judging the total quality of the answer relative to other student responses or the total quality of the answer based on certain criteria that you develop.

7. Prepare students to take essay exams.

Essay tests are valid measures of student achievement only if students know how to take them. Many college freshmen do not know how to take an essay exam, because they have not been required to learn this skill in high school. Take some class time to tell students how to prepare for and how to take an essay exam. Use old exam questions and let students see what an "A" answer looks like and how it differs from a "C" answer.

Remember

• Make essay questions comprehensive rather than focused on small units of content.
• Provide clear directions as to the expectations.
• Allow students an appropriate amount of time. (It is helpful to give students some guidelines on how much time to use on each question, as well as the desired length and format of the response, such as full sentences, phrases only, outline, etc.)
• Inform students, in advance of answering the questions, of the proportional value of each item in comparison to the total grade.
• Require students to demonstrate command of background information by asking them to provide supporting evidence for claims and assertions.
• Students should be informed about how you treat such things as misspelled words, neatness, handwriting, grammar, etc
• Decide how to treat irrelevant or inaccurate information contained in students’ answers.
• Write comments on the students’ answers. Teacher comments make essay tests a good learning experience for students. Comments serve to refresh your memory should the student question the grade.
• Different scores may be assigned by different readers or by the same reader at different times.
• A context effect may operate; an essay preceded by a top quality essay receives lower marks than when preceded by a poor quality essay.
• The higher the essay is in the stack of papers, the higher the score assigned.
• Papers with strong answers to items appearing early in the test and weaker answers later will fare better than papers with the weaker answers appearing first.
• Scores are influenced by the expectations that the reader has for the students performance. If the reader has high expectations, a higher score is assigned than if the reader has low expectations.
• If we have a good impression of the student, we tend to give him/her the benefit of the doubt.
• Scores are influenced by quality of handwriting, neatness, spelling, grammar, etc.