Do students believe that multiple choice and cued recall practice questions have different utility?
摘要
Both multiple-choice (MC) and cued-recall (CR) practice questions are beneficial for learning, but how do students choose to use each format of practice question? Will students’ learning choices indicate they believe each format has non-redundant utility? Across two experiments, I proposed and evaluated hypotheses regarding how students might regulate their use of MC and CR practice questions when they have access to both formats for the same material. Briefly, students might think the two formats are redundant, think the two formats are non-redundant in that both are uniquely beneficial, or think the two formats are non-redundant but that one is better than the other. To assess these hypotheses, some student participants had access to both MC and CR optional practice questions and could complete either or both formats as many times as they wanted. I found support for the non-redundant utility hypothesis. Specifically, most participants preferred completing MC questions and used only this format until they got each question correct about one time. However, about one-third of participants used both MC and CR questions for most material, and continued practice until they got each question correct more than one time with each format. Thus, participants’ learning choices indicated that they believe multiple-choice and cued-recall practice questions have unique utility and provided support for the non-redundant utility hypothesis.