Writing cognitive educational objectives and multiple-choice test questions.

Abstract

Guidelines for writing cognitive objectives and multiple-choice test questions for pharmacy educational programs are suggested. Cognitive educational objectives relate to intellectual skills and can usually be tested with multiple-choice questions. Pharmacy educators writing cognitive objectives should focus on the major, not minor, knowledge or skills that participants in an educational program are expected to acquire; ensure that the objectives are supported by instruction; define the desired performance of the learners; ensure that the objectives are observable and measurable; and define the learning level for each objective (i.e., knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, or evaluation). Each multiple-choice test question should be written with a view to assessing the learner's achievement of one of the stated objectives. Educators should write test questions that are clear and concise, are in the form of complete sentences, include one clearly correct or best response, are phrased positively rather than negatively, and give no clues as to the correct answer. The learning level of each question should match that of the objective the question is designed to test. Educators should weight tests fairly by including the same number of questions for each objective. It may be necessary to include some higher-level questions to ensure assessment of the competence level at which the program is aimed. Cognitive educational objectives should be observable and measurable; multiple-choice test questions should correspond to specific objectives and be based on the appropriate learning level.