Mastering the Material

Also via Boing Boing,

A new study suggests that repeated test-taking may help students understand and retain information better than studying the material over and over.

From the press release about the study:

"Our study indicates that testing can be used as a powerful means for improving learning, not just assessing it," says Henry L. "Roddy" Roediger III, Ph.D., an internationally recognized scholar of human memory function and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Washington University.

"Students who self-test frequently while studying on their own may be able to learn more, in much less time, than they might by simply studying the material over and over again," he adds. "Incorporating more frequent classroom testing into a course may improve students' learning and promote retention of material long after a course has ended."

This is really interesting, especially having to do with mastery.  I wonder if more and more on-line testing instruments would do the job?  I wonder if massive repeated quizzes were "no-stakes testing" -- a student had the opportunity to self-quiz over and over again to 100% accuracy....

Really interesting.  The citation is

Roediger, Henry L. & Karpicke, Jeffrey D.                 (2006)
Test-Enhanced Learning.
Psychological Science 17 (3), 249-255.
doi: 10.1111/
j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x

Comments

[Bronwyn G]

Self-testing is a good idea.