Not All Changes Are Created Equal: Reasons, Contexts, and Outcomes of Answer Change

• In Event: Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Cognition and Assessment Roundtable

Abstract

When students change their answer, are they more likely to benefit or suffer from the change? The current study explored how the contexts of and the reasoning behind the changes influence the outcome of changes. Thirty 4th to 7th graders participated in a semi-structured interview where they interact with a tablet-based rational number task. Students were interviewed on their problem solving strategies as well as the rationale of answer changes. Results showed that students’ answer change can result from rethinking of the solutions or from simply guessing. Students benefit from changes when they have good reason to do so but not when they are guessing. Explanation prompts encourage deeper processing of the item thus decrease the possibility of guessing-related changes.

Authors

• Xingyu Pan, University of Michigan

• Gabrielle Alexis Cayton-Hodges, Educational Testing Service

• Gary Feng, Educational Testing Service