Impact of question structure on student's performance.

[ZapperZ]

This EJP paper is open access, so you should be able to read it.

The conclusion isn't unexpected, because having a "scaffolding" to guide a student through a problem is almost like hand-holding without an instructor being there. I've used this type of questions during quizzes and maybe even midterm. But for the finals, where the students must demonstrate a command of the material to get good scores or grades, I drop the scaffolding.

Zz.

 

[mfb]

It is an interesting study, but I agree that the result is not surprising. The intermediate steps are often similar to the homework help here, and as we can see this helps a lot.

 

[ZapperZ]

Thanks for removing Greg's auto-bump. :)

Zz.