Download The Testing Effect

The Testing Effect
ASSESSMENT TO PRODUCE LEARNING
Overview: Learning Process
Disruption
Goal-Setting
Making Connections
Rehearsing
Feedback (and Revision)
Frequent Assessment
 “The Critical Importance of Retrieval for
Learning”
Test and Study
Test but NO Study
80%
80%
NO Test OR Study
Study but NO Test
33%
35%
Karpicke and Roediger
Science
Transience
 “When information has not been used for longer and
longer periods of time, it becomes less and less likely
that it will be needed in the future . . . our memory
systems have picked up on this . . . and in essence
made a bet that when we haven't used information
recently, we probably won't need it in the future.”
Daniel Schacter
The Seven Sins of Memory
Limits of Memory
 “In long-term-memory the limiting factor is not
storage capacity, but rather the ability to find what you
need when you need it. Long-term memory is rather
like having a vast amount of closet space—it is easy to
store many items, but it is difficult to retrieve the
needed item in a timely fashion.”
Michelle Miller
College Teaching
Transience Redux
 “Memories . . . are encoded by modifications in the
strengths of connections among neurons. When we
experience an event or acquire a new fact, complex
chemical changes occur at the junctions—synapses—
that connect neurons with one another. Experiments
indicate that with the passage of time, these
modifications can dissipate . . . Unless
strengthened by subsequent retrieval and
recounting, the connections become so weak that
recall is eventually precluded.
Daniel Schacter
The Seven Sins of Memory
The Testing Effect
 Frequent, Low-Stakes Assessments
 Short-answer
quizzes
 Clicker questions
 Writing exercises
 Group application tasks
 Integrative activities
“Testing” on the Edges
 Oral Questions




What did we cover in Wednesday’s class? How
about Monday’s class?
What was the most important concept from last
night’s reading?
How does this idea connect to the material we
covered last week?
What key concept from today should you
remember for the final exam?
The Minute Paper: Learning
 Class concluded with “brief questions about the material
that had just been discussed in class.”
Course Condition
Control sections
Minute paper sections
Failure/Dropout %
34.5
16.7
Brian J. Rogerson
Journal of Chemical Education 80.2
The Minute Paper: Evaluations
In addition to learning, course evaluations improved:
Course Condition
Highest Course Rating %
Control Sections
“Minute Paper” sections
50
68.1
Rogerson
The Pre-Testing Effect
 “In a series of experiments, [Kornell, Hays, and
Bjork] showed that if students make an unsuccessful
attempt to retrieve information before receiving
an answer, they remember the information better
than in a control condition in which they simply
study the information. Trying and failing to
retrieve the answer is actually helpful to
learning.”
Roediger and Finn
Scientific American