By Brad Choyt for the Valley News Tuesday, September 22, 2015
(Published in print: Tuesday, September 22, 2015)
Imagine this scenario: You are an eighth-grade student who has struggled in the past with math. Soon after Labor Day, you walk into your first algebra class, a course you anticipate will be the most difficult of the year, and sit in the back row.
But before you learn one equation or study a new theorem, the teacher gently places the final exam on your desk. There are no answer keys, no notes or guidelines — only the range of problems you are expected to practice, learn and solve during the next nine months of the course. The teacher then tells you that you have 60 minutes to complete the exam, then instructs you to try your best.
After the initial shock and justified feelings of trepidation, you work your way through the problems. Many of the answers you leave blank, but after reading through the range of questions, you guess at a few problems and attempt to solve several others.
After the hour goes by and your heart rate returns to normal, you may be no closer to understanding the concepts behind algebra. But you will have a better sense of the course’s content and the material you’ll be responsible for learning over the school year.
Would this experience help you stay more focused during the course? Would it help you study more effectively? Would it provide a road map for more successful mastery of material that may not come naturally?
Recent research says that it would. When you encountered questions on worksheets similar to what had been on the exam, you would likely practice them more carefully. You would have a better sense of what to focus on in your notes and pay particular attention when your teacher mentioned something that had appeared on the exam. You would be more likely to highlight the most relevant sections of your textbook. And the day of the real final exam in June, you would have a better chance to master the new material and earn a higher grade in the course.
Simply put, there is virtue in pre-testing if done in age-appropriate ways that do not increase anxiety for students in particular subjects or about testing in general. In a variety of studies, researchers have learned that faulty attempts on a pre-test aren’t merely useless guesses. Rather, reviewing questions and attempting to solve problems outside of our knowledge affects how we prepare to learn, as well as the information we choose to master. And on multiple-choice tests, research shows that students actually benefit from answering incorrectly before the material is covered, thus priming their brains for material that is covered later.
A recent study carried out by psychologist Elizabeth Ligon Bjork of the University of California, Los Angeles, found that pre-testing improved performance on final exam questions by an average of 10 percent, compared with a control group. We all know that studying effectively leads to better test results, but Bjork’s research suggests that pre-testing may also lead to better study habits and mastery of the material. In other words, tests are not only a way to evaluate learning, they can also serve as a pedagogical tool to enhance retention and enrich learning.
To consider this further, try to recall a time when you sat for a final exam at the end of a course and looked through the list of questions. If you were well prepared, you saw familiar material and problems you studied. But there still may be instances when you couldn’t recall the material that you were able to recite from your notes the day before. This is because it is easy to overestimate the depth of what we know. Once we solve one practice problem, we assume that all others will come easily. We don’t bother to review concepts to cement learning. We forget that we forget.
One way to have a more accurate sense of what we know and what we don’t is by providing students with an overview of the course’s content early in the school year, as Bjork’s research suggests. Teachers may need to consider exams in a different light — transforming them from a final judgment of what was learned to a thoughtful introduction of what students should learn, as well as a useful map for how to get there. In this way, the final exam in not a finish line, but a starting point, one that encourages students to continue to learn long after the real final exam is finished.
Are pre-tests the only way to do this? Certainly not. Great teachers use all kinds of tools to reach and connect with students. But testing, when used appropriately, can also be a critically important asset for teachers to motivate and enhance student learning.
Brad Choyt is head of school at Crossroads Academy in Lyme.
