HOW TO CONSTRUCT?

As with multiple-choice items, there has only been a small amount of empirical research on the characteristics of matching items and how they affect validity or reliability. In addition to research findings, critical guidelines from both these types of data (Frey, Petersen, Edwards, Pedrotti, & Peyton, 2003; Haladyna & Downing, 1989a, 1989b; Haladyna, Downing and Rodriguez, 2002) are presented below:

GUIDELINE 1:

There should be more answer options than stems.

As with many item-writing rules, the idea is to generate as many plausible answer options as possible, so students must have the knowledge to get the question correct.

GUIDELINE 2:

Answer options should be available more than once.

As with Guideline 1, this increases the number of functional distractors and increases the validity of the items. With this guideline, it is important than the instructions for the matching section indicate that answer options may be used more than once or not at all, so all students are aware of the rule.

GUIDELINE 3:

Directions should include basis for match.

A brief introduction identifying the category of stems and answer options (e.g. leaders and nations, species and phylum) helps students to focus on what constitutes a match, so they can concentrate on choosing the correct answer.

GUIDELINE 4:

Number for options should be less than 7 for elementary age.

It is believed that younger students have a difficult time sorting through more than just a few answer options. While some students may be able to handle many answer options, other students will have less of that characteristic. The ability to process and evaluate many possibilities is likely not the measurement objective of the assessment.

GUIDELINE 5:

Number of answer options should be more than 17 for secondary age.

It is believed that older students can handle longer matching sections with many answer options, but too many options can slow down the quickest of test takers (especially when Guidelines 1 and 2 are followed). A well-made classroom assessment should not be exhausting for students.

GUIDELINE 6:

Matching stems should be on the left and the answer options on the right.

Students are used to reading from left to right, and the process of matching two concepts together is similar to the construction and comprehension processes which occur when reading sentences.