I’m on a quest for ways to get students using those study
strategies that make them better learners. When the strategy goes by the label “test-enhanced
learning” it isn’t an easy sell, and it’s even harder when students find out
that means asking and answering potential test questions when they study. They’d
much rather “look over” their notes, “look up” test question answers, and “look
at” what they’ve highlighted in the reading. Asking and answering test
questions means they have to “look into” the content, which is precisely why
this strategy improves test scores.
That was recently verified in a study that involved first-year
medical students enrolled in a biochemistry course. After a module of
instruction, students took a multiple-choice pretest. Then they were given an
hour to study the module material, either with self-directed study or by
completing an open-book short-answer test. After the study session, students
took another multiple-choice test on the content. The students who studied with
the open-book test, scored higher on their final multiple-choice test. It’s a
robust, but rather complicated study design with lots more details than there’s
room for here.
What intrigued me about the study was that students were
using their textbooks and notes to answer the short-answer questions. I wonder
if some form of this activity might be used in an in-class or online review
session or maybe even outside of class. Students could use their notes and the
book to answer a set of questions, individually or with others, and making a
good faith effort to do so gets them a few bonus points. This approach won’t be
an option for most faculty if it means having to grade a second set of exams so
it must be managed as a formative activity with no or very minimal feedback. I
know, it does sound a lot like those study guide questions teachers provide and
students don’t do. The key may be describing it as an exam and formatting that
makes it look like a test.
I learned of another good option in a very short piece (Locklin, 2019) which describes a quiz strategy that also leans in the direction of test-enhanced learning. Students have eight minutes at the beginning of a period to do a quiz with three true/false, three multiple-choice, and four short-answer questions. They’re allowed to consult their books and notes during the final three minutes of the quiz time. The quizzes are “graded” immediately with the teacher providing the correct answers for about half the questions. The other half, always including the short-answer questions, are discussed, with evidence for various answer gathered and considered. The quizzing strategy is used in a religion course so there may be some questions with more than one single right answer.
The quiz is printed front and back of a single sheet of
paper. Quiz questions are on one side of each page with ample space across from
each question for students to take notes during the discussion of answers. After
discussion the quizzes are collected and marked for participation with most of
the credit going for the quality of the notes and not the correctness of the
answers. It’s an interesting use of quizzes that also gets students answering
questions in a more substantive way.
If you opt to use either of these approaches, you can’t promise
students higher exam scores. But there’s a reasonably good chance that their
scores will improve. The evidence that supports the test-enhanced learning
strategy is extensive. More significantly, options like those described here
demonstrate the value of studying with test questions. But don’t expect
students to see that value and hurry home to study using them. To students, it
looks like more work and it is. But if they want to learn the material in ways
that will improve their exam scores, test-enhanced learning works a lot better
than passively reviewing (“going over”) the content. Just be sure you point
that out, maybe more than once.
References: Bobby, Z. and Meiyappan, K. (2018). “Test-Enhanced”
focused self-directed learning after the teaching modules in biochemistry. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Education, 46 (5), 472-477.
Locklin, R. (2019). The (mostly) unmarked quiz. Teaching Theology and Religion, 22 (1),
55.
