|
Knowledge has several dimensions Effects of being misinformed Index of retention Other benefits of SACAT Journal/news articles Main Pages Home Benefits of SACAT Scoring services About HPE Contact us |
| OTHER BENEFITS OF SACAT |
Motivational effects
On post-test questionnaires about 40% of the students indicate that they study more to prepare for a SACAT ("to be able to mark that I am sure of my answer") than they do for the common multiple choice test. The possibility that an instructor can increase the time spent by learners in studying the material, simply by employing SACAT, is attractive.
Reduction of gender bias
Critics argue that traditional multiple choice tests are biased against various groups of people, such as females. To be gender biased means, here, that if a male and female know the same amount about the topics of the test, then one of them will obtain a lower (or higher) score on the test than the other due to a gender characteristic which is not relevant to knowledge.
Our own research findings show (see table) that
(a) female students score lower than male students when the common multiple choice test is employed and (b) the difference in the percentage correct answers between male and female university students is reduced when SACAT is used compared to the common multiple choice test.
| The mean number of correct answers on math and verbal tests using the common multiple choice test and using SACAT | ||
| Kind | Gender | No. Correct |
| Multiple-Choice Test | Female | 23.9 |
| Male | 29.2 | |
| SACAT | Female | 27.8 |
| Male | 29.7 | |
Some additional benefits of SACAT are:
- Encourage studying and enhance learning
- Reduced gender bias in testing of knowledge
- Identify and help train individuals who over- and under-estimate their own knowledge
- Makes test taking less anxious for some
- Helps identify test items which may be misleadingly constructed