New Perspectives in Science Education

The positives and negatives of the use of multiple-choice (MC) tests for evaluation of the students’ performance have been extensively studied. Much research has been done to detect the differences between various types of MC tests. However, only minority of work has been focused on the comparison of MC tests with one correct answer and MC test with more possible correct answers. The aim of our pilot study was therefore to compare, which of these two types of tests better predict the high school students’ quality, with regard to biology knowledge, attitudes and general study achievements. We collected data on basic characteristics and attitudes toward the biology subject from Czech high school students (N=117) using a questionnaire. The students in randomized order completed both types of test (the gap between both tests administration was 1-2 weeks). The analysis showed that students with better attitudes toward biology achieve higher scores in MC test with more correct answers than in MC test with one correct answer. Specifically, the correlation seems to be stronger for students who devote more free time to biology related activities, are more enthusiastic toward biology subject, attend biology related competitions and are more interested in science in general. Our results suggest an interesting effect of science-related individual characteristics of students on achievements in various types of MC test. We further plan to extend of our research and to focus on the possible reasons and students’ personal characteristics more deeply.

This work has been supported by Charles University Research Centre program No. UNCE/HUM/024.

Keywords: multiple-choice test, biology, science;