Classifying Fill-in-the-Blank Questions: Constructed Response or Objective Type?

Fill-in-the-blank questions, frequently referred to as completion questions or cloze questions, are primarily classified as objective type questions in the field of educational assessment and test design. These question formats require students to supply a missing word, phrase, or number to complete a statement, and their classification as objective stems from the nature of the expected answer and the straightforward scoring process. When evaluating student knowledge and understanding with fill-in-the-blank items, there is typically a single, very specific correct answer or a limited set of unequivocally correct responses, making the scoring highly consistent and free from subjective interpretation.

The objective nature of fill-in-the-blank questions means that the correctness of a student’s response can be determined without the need for scorer judgment, much like multiple choice questions, true false questions, or matching questions. Students are not asked to formulate an extensive original answer or synthesize complex ideas into unique prose. Instead, they are expected to recall a precise piece of information to complete the statement accurately. This characteristic simplifies the evaluation process, making these questions efficient for large-scale standardized testing and for assessing specific recall of facts, definitions, or procedural steps. They effectively measure a student’s ability to retrieve explicit details.

In contrast, constructed response questions, such as short answer questions, essay questions, or performance tasks, require students to generate their own answers, often demonstrating deeper understanding, critical thinking, analysis, synthesis of information, or problem-solving skills. These types of questions typically allow for a range of acceptable answers and require more subjective judgment during scoring, as evaluators must assess the quality, coherence, and accuracy of the student’s unique response. While a fill-in-the-blank item asks a student to supply an answer, the constrained and specific nature of that answer firmly places most completion questions within the objective type category for educational evaluation.