Potential Values of Incorporating a Multiple‐Choice Question Construction in Physics Experimentation Instruction

Abstract

The potential value of a multiple‐choice question‐construction instructional strategy for the support of students’ learning of physics experiments was examined in the study. Forty‐two university freshmen participated in the study for a whole semester. A constant comparison method adopted to categorize students’ qualitative data indicated that the influences of multiple‐choice question construction were evident in several significant ways (promoting constructive and productive studying habits; reflecting and previewing course‐related materials; increasing in‐group communication and interaction; breaking passive learning style and habits, etc.), which, worked together, not only enhanced students’ comprehension and retention of the obtained knowledge, but also helped distil a sense of empowerment and learning community within the participants. Analysis with one‐group t‐tests, using 3 as the expected mean, on quantitative data further found that students’ satisfaction toward past learning experience, and perceptions toward this strategy’s potentials for promoting learning were statistically significant at the 0.0005 level, while learning anxiety was not statistically significant. Suggestions for incorporating question‐generation activities within classroom and topics for future studies were rendered.