Ask why the wrong answer is tempting

Show a plausible wrong answer, from a past class, a textbook distractor, or an AI, and ask: "Why might a sensible person put this?" Students who can name the trap have understood the concept more deeply than students who merely avoided it. The research backs this up: studying incorrect worked examples, and explaining why the error is wrong, measurably improves conceptual understanding compared with practising correct examples alone (Booth, Lange, Koedinger & Newton, 2013).

In practice

• Use real, common errors. The best distractors are the ones half your class would have made anyway.
• Ask for the appeal first ("what makes this tempting?"), then the flaw. Jumping straight to "why is it wrong" skips the diagnostic value.
• Multiple-choice questions become discussion engines this way: one good distractor plus "defend or demolish" beats five bland options.