JDE
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

J Dent Educ. 72(10): 1149-1159 2008
© 2008 American Dental Education Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Prihoda, T. J.
Right arrow Articles by Jones, A. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Prihoda, T. J.
Right arrow Articles by Jones, A. C.

Educational Methodologies

Prospective Implementation of Correction for Guessing in Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology Multiple-Choice Examinations: Did Student Performance Improve?

Thomas J. Prihoda, Ph.D.; R. Neal Pinckard, Ph.D.; C. Alex McMahan, Ph.D.; John H. Littlefield, Ph.D.; Anne Cale Jones, D.D.S.

Key words: aptitude-treatment interaction, validity, formula scoring, correction for guessing, educational methodology, educational measurement, student performance, evaluation, multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, dental education

Submitted for publication 03/24/08; accepted 07/22/08

A standard correction for random guessing on multiple-choice examinations was implemented prospectively in an Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology course for second-year dental students. The correction was a weighted scoring formula for points awarded for correct answers, incorrect answers, and unanswered questions such that the expected gain in the multiple-choice examination score due to random guessing was zero. An equally weighted combination of four examinations using equal numbers of short-answer questions and multiple-choice questions was used for student evaluation. Scores on both types of examinations, after implementation of the correction for guessing on the multiple-choice component (academic year 2005–06), were compared with the previous year (academic year 2004–05) when correction for guessing was not used for student evaluation but was investigated retrospectively. Academically, the two classes were comparable as indicated by the grade distributions in a General Pathology course taken immediately prior to the Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology course. Agreement between scores on short-answer examinations and multiple-choice examinations was improved in the 2005–06 class compared with the 2004–05 class. Importantly, the test score means were higher on both the short-answer and multiple-choice examinations in the Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology course, and the standard deviations were significantly smaller in 2005–06 compared to 2004–05; these differences reflected an upward shift in the lower part of the grade distributions to higher grades in 2005–06. Furthermore, when students were classified by their grade in the General Pathology course, students receiving a C (numerical grade of 70–79 percent) in General Pathology had significantly improved performance in the Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology course in 2005–06, relative to 2004–05, on both short-answer and multiple-choice examinations representing an aptitude-treatment interaction. We interpret this improved performance as a response to a higher expectation imposed on the 2005–06 students by the prospective implementation of correction for guessing.




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J Dent EducHome page
R. N. Pinckard, C. A. McMahan, T. J. Prihoda, J. H. Littlefield, and A. C. Jones
Short-Answer Examinations Improve Student Performance in an Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology Course
J Dent Educ., August 1, 2009; 73(8): 950 - 961.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2008 by the American Dental Education Association.