Ministry of higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan kokand state pedagogical institute named after mukimi faculty of foreign languages department of the english language and literature course paper the theme: Types of

Cons of multiple-choice questions:

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  If MCQs are not designed well they won’t require effortful or meaningful retrieval but instead it is more likely to involve low level recognition or power of elimination. Distractors must be plausible and this can be a challenge for teachers to think of plausible distractors. Two plausible distractors and the correct option is sufficient. Writing carefully designed questions and plausible options can also be time consuming. A good way to address this is to view other teachers’ quizzes and use or adapt questions or alternatively, a great idea is to work together within a department or phase to design MCQ quizzes.
  
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  MCQs can be used for both summative and formative assessments but if MCQs are used for end of unit tests or any form of high stakes assessment it can be difficult for them to be viewed as a low stakes retrieval task by learners. Some students will make the distinction but it is important that the teacher communicates with their class the purpose of the MCQ quiz.
  
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  A reason some educators are opposed to or reluctant to use MCQs can be due to the fact that there is potential for guess work. It can be difficult for teachers to know if students selected or recalled correct information or simply guessed (although they are likely to be more reliable than simple true/false) and there are ways to tackle this through elaboration and further questioning.
  
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  There are some online quizzing tools that use timers and award points to students depending on the speed of their answers. This encourages students to rush, not read questions carefully and make errors. Students with learning difficulties or English as an additional language, may need longer to read and process the question and for selecting or recalling the information, but a timer can cause pressure and/or panic.
  
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  Students don’t always check their answers and reflect on their progress, preferring to view scores rather than identify and address the gaps in their knowledge but this is a vital element of the learning process to continue to move learners forward. If a student has scored 15/20 on a MCQ quiz they should be encouraged to check and be aware of which answers were correct and incorrect so they can learn from their mistakes and avoid repeating those mistakes.
  
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  There is no flexibility in terms of credit with MCQs – either incorrect or correct, even if the students have some knowledge linked to the question that will not be awarded or recognised. This can be frustrating for the student.
  
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  MCQs as a strategy to promote retrieval practice has limitations. There must be opportunities provided for students for free recall and elaboration. Teachers should not rely solely on MCQs for retrieval practice. Other strategies can and should be used in addition to MCQs.[12]
  

There are both pros and cons but it is clear there is a place for multiple-choice questions in the classroom.
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[12]. Suskie, L. (2009). Assessing Student Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Three Options Are Optimal for Multiple-Choice Items: A Meta-Analysis of 80 Years of Research, Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Volume 24, Number 2, June 2005, pp. 3-13. Retrieved from: https://www.ernweb.com/educational-research-articles/the-optimal-numberof-choices-in-a-multiple-choice-test/ (Sept 2019}