(2) Use senses in teaching. It is the instructor's responsibility to provide
learning situations that make maximum use of the senses and produce the desired
responses. Lessons should appeal to a variety of senses. This is one reason why
practical exercises, training aids, and demonstrations are valuable.
c. Kinds of Learning. The accepted categories of learning are: skills,
knowledges, and attitudes. Knowledges can be called awareness of facts, principles,
meanings, concepts, and relationships. Skills refer to physical and mental abilities.
Mental skills or abilities include problem solving, critical thinking, analysis, synthesis,
and judgment. Attitudes include appreciations, ideals, preferences, and values.
d. Tests of Learning. When the degree of learning from presented instruction
is tested, this is usually done by using one or more of these three methods-recall,
recognition, or relearn. If pencil and paper tests are needed, recall or recognition types
are used. If practical tests are used, these are recall. The examination at the end of
this subcourse is a recognition type. Generally, relearn is used when the instruction far
precedes the test or a high degree of mastery is required.
(1) Recall. Recall requires that a skill or knowledge be brought to mind
without the benefit of cues or hints. The score achieved on a test of recall is based on a
level of performance or the level of mastery reached during practice. The degree of
mastery must have reached a very high level in order to be well reproduced on a
practical test. Studies have found that what is available to be reproduced on a written
recall test will vary from moment to moment. Written recall questions are generally of
the essay or short answer type.
(2)
Recognition.
(a) Test item level of difficulty. Recognition-type questions are
generally easier than recall type because a skill or knowledge must be recognized with
cues or hints rather than recalled from the mind without cues. The ability to recognize
previously learned material can be adversely affected by the skill of the test writer in
constructing examination items. The greater the similarity of the distractors (incorrect
responses) to the learned material, the more difficult the test item.
(b) Recognition test items. Multiple choice and true-false questions are
recognition test items. Use of these types increases the likelihood that the correct
response will be selected. This is true for two reasons. The first reason is that
instruction not completely mastered can often be used to select a correct response from
incorrect alternatives. The other reason is less beneficial. If a student has not
mastered the material, he can frequently still pass an examination. On true-false items,
there is a fifty percent chance of guessing correctly. On multiple-choice items, there is a
twenty-five percent chance of guessing correctly with four possible answers (or greater,
if fewer than four responses are listed).
MD0560
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