Educational Terminology and Definitions
Planning Strategies
1. Pacing refers to the size of the intellectual step (or challenge) assigned to students, where that size is steadily and systematically increased.
(Source, “Education for the Wired Society,” unpublished manuscript, University of Windsor, 1986).
2. Fading means systematic transfer of responsibility for generating and auditing the learning experience from the teacher to the learner.
(Source, “Education for the Wired Society,” unpublished manuscript, University of Windsor, 1986).
3. Program Parallelism signifies the learning transfer from one skill set to another. In using VLabNet in teaching networking.
(Source, “Education for the Wired Society,” unpublished manuscript, University of Windsor, 1986).
Thinking Strategies used to Answer Multiple Choice Questions1
The reading comprehension test used in these studies was developed by Donald Gorham.2 We selected this test for our research purposes because it contained a concrete right answer sub-test that seemed to make it possible to follow the progress of children from concrete to abstract thinking, using the selection of and changes among wrong answers to explore the developmental pathway suggested initially by Jean Piaget.3
This developmental sequence was found among these data and reported in the document already referenced (footnote 1) and was cross-validated and replicated in a repeated-measures study,4 from which the data used for the student change examples was derived.
The following sequences of the development of thinking processes were found:
1. Closure Sequence: Concrete Right Answers, Personalized Responses, Literal Responses, Abstract Right Answers.
2. Reduction Sequence: Partial Translations, Literal Reductions, Over Simplifications, Simplifications.
3. Extension Sequence: Isolated Responses, Irrelevancies, Over Generalizations.
4. Substitution Sequence: Redefined terms, Word Associations, Transpositions.
The rule used to establish a sub-test was that at least four members must be present to qualify. The category of wrong answers “Did Not Classify” are alternatives that failed to meet this criterion. The selection evidence suggests that this group seems to contain divergent responses among the more mature students. More research is needed to clarify this matter.
In the closure sequence the students seem to have, in one way or another, reached the end of a Piaget Stage. Both concrete answers and personalized responses were most common at the age of 8 years, so they were mutually exclusive. In either case, the children’s reasoning seemed to reflect the culmination of the Piaget’s egocentric stage. Some of the concrete answers may also have reflected the beginning of concrete operations. Literal responses were clearly the end of the concrete operations stage and the abstract (right) answers may be the achievement of formal operations. Our research shows a few students moving beyond formal operations into orders of logic of higher than two values.
In the reduction sequence the children omitted some component of the issue being presented. The omission becomes more subtle as maturity progresses. Ignoring superfluous data is a legitimate thinking strategy; when misapplied, however, it can lead to errors.
With the extension sequence we observed children adding information to come to the solution. When this information fits the situation, it is an appropriate strategy for moving toward the “big picture.” When the additional information does not fit the situation, it leads to error.
For the substitution sequence the children replaced a word or phrase with a near cognate, or rearranged the conceptual order to make the options more meaningful to them. Accurate replacement with exact equivalents is a valid thinking strategy. Errors can arise when gross or subtle changes of meaning occur by using this approach.
Our research also shows that the strategy selected tends to predetermine the options chosen.5 It is also possible that strategy selected may be a matter of personal style6 because those students who use extension strategies tend not to use reduction strategies, and vice versa.
Our conclusion is that, because the reasoning behind answer selection appears to predetermine the answer presented, how children are thinking is more functionally important for teaching than is the production of an “expected” answer. Does this mean that scoring tests right/wrong is psychologically inappropriate for effective education?
1 Powell, J. C. (1977) The developmental sequence of cognition as revealed by wrong answers. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 23, 43 - 51. Detailed definitions with examples are give in this paper.
2 Gorham, D (1957) The Proverbs Test (Psychological Test Specialists, Missoula , MT)
3 Flavell, J. H. (1963). The Developmental Psychology of Jean Piaget. Van Nostrand, New York, NY.
4 Powell, J. C. and Shklov, N. (1992). Obtaining information about learners’ thinking strategies from wrong answers on multiple-choice tests. The Journal of Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52, 847-865.
5 Powell, J. C. (1968) The interpretation of wrong answers from a multiple-choice test Educational and Psychological Measurement 28 403 - 412
6 Powell, J. C. (1980) Patterns of change in answer selection Paper presented to the American Educational Research Association, Boston, MA