Some PRS Question types:
- Opinion/Survey
- Before a new topic - to motivate or survey prior knowledge
- After a new topic - testing the aquisition of new knowledge
- Thought-provoking, argument-generating questions
- Problem solving
Often these question types will overlap. The Template for Question Design (below) lays out some considerations instructors might want to think about as they design questions.
For suggestions on how to award points for these kinds of questions, see some sample grading policies. For example questions and question outcomes, download the PRS Handbook(.pdf) and turn to page eighteen.
Template for Question Design
- Learning Objectives:
When students address the question and engage in related discussion, what should they learn?
- Assessment Objectives:
What are you hoping to measure about student attitudes, pre-conceptions, skills, abilities knowledge that:
- will help the student understand how well they understand the material
- will help you understand how you should adjust your teaching
- Format:
PRS questions can take many forms:
- survey
- calculation
- problem solving
- recall
- reasoning
- model choosing
- model using
Several different kinds of questions and their applications are discussed below.
- Context: What happened in the course that leads up to this question, and where will it go?
- Anticipated Response: Which answers will the students choose most frequently? Why? What discussion will develop? Which discussion points are most relevant to the learning and assessment objectives? How will you guide discussion?
- Reconnect to Learning Objectives: How does the question tie in what the students need to learn?
- What comes next? Where will the class time go next? What follows the question?
- Record of the Events: What is the PRS input data? What is the record of class questions and discussion?
- Corresponding Exam Questions How will the PRS question relate to exam questions? How will students use the PRS event as a guide for preparing for the exam?
