Understanding When and Why Elementary Students Change Their Answers to Multiple-Choice Items

• In Event: 72.066 - Poster Session 16
  In Poster Session: 72.066-2 - Poster Session: Practical Issues in Measurement

Abstract

This study investigates when and why elementary students change their answers to multiple-choice items. Twenty-eight fifth-grade students individually viewed a short educational video, then answered computer-administered multiple-choice items. A think-after protocol, in which students explained their thinking while viewing a computer screen recording of their responses, supported detailed analysis of the students’ answer changing. Answer changing was not related to items’ difficulty or to students’ overall performance. Reasons for changing answers included not reading all the response options before answering, incompatibility with other items, continuing to reason from available knowledge, discomfort with a previous guess, and remembering additional information from the video. Students varied in their tendency to change answers. Implications for interpreting test results are discussed.

Authors

• Ruth A. Childs, University of Toronto - OISE

• Susan Elgie, Government of Ontario

• Tian Tang, University of Toronto - OISE

• Amanda K. Ferguson, University of Toronto - OISE