A preventive intervention in the Language Testing and Assessment course: building pre-service teachers’ multiple-choice item writing skills
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2663-0303.2026.1.04Keywords:
preventive intervention, language assessment literacy, pre-service teachers, multiple choice questions task designAbstract
The article addresses the development of pre-service teachers' language assessment literacy within the course "Testing and assessment of Learning Outcomes", which is offered at the bachelor's level in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Constructing test tasks for classroom-based assessment poses certain challenges to students, especially with respect to the format "Multiple Choice Questions" (MCQs) for the assessment of careful reading skills. This format is by far the most well known in language education, however, writing quality MCQs is time and effort consuming, and administration of low-quality teacher-constructed MCQs may yield unreliable results of learning the language. To mitigate conceptual, linguistic and technical difficulties, which have been observed during the years of teaching the course, a preventive intervention was collaboratively designed by the course instructor (the mentor) and a research-minded master's level student (mentee), who further conducted the intervention in the classroom. The intervention included preparatory activities, tasks conducted in the classroom, home assignment and a performance test. The results of the performance test were complemented by the data obtained via a feedback questionnaire, which elicited students' perceptions of the intervention and its impact on their learning. The collation and interpretation of both sets of data demonstrated overall effectiveness of the intervention and its positive evaluation by students.
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