PEDAGOGY StAtement 1:
Explicitly define the knowledge - Teacher knowledge is at the heart of test enhanced learning.
StAtement 2: Design a testing routine. Teacher expertise is at the heart of retrieval.
StAtement 3: Lead the approach. And when I say lead, also teach the pupils why testing is such a powerful approach to learning. StAtement 4:
Design for low failure rates. Learning is emotional and emotions influence adolescents’ achievement, over and above the effects of general cognitive ability and prior accomplishments. The optimal error rate ‘could’ be as low as 15% (Wilson et al, 2019) or even lower (Eglington et al, 2020). Plan for 85% success - especially during encoding.
Regrettably, the term “retrieval” is misleading. It implies a terminal strategy. A test at the end. A test, post learning.
And we have not yet mentioned the benefits of pre-testing or potentiated learning, testing during learning.
Testing is, and informs, learning. It is more than retrieval.
Further Reading:
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a million times more: the first time students retrieve shouldn’t be on a … final exam.” Renowned Cognitive Psychologist, Pooja Agarwal.
https://teacherhead. com/2022/06/18/whendaily-quiz-regimes-becomelethal-mutations-of-retrievalpractice/
“some forgetting, or spacing, is actually helpful to learning”
StAtement 5: Testing and self-assessment develops metacognitive monitoring and enhances metacognition accuracy, (Rivers, 2020), directing more informed study decisions.
StAtement 6: Testing as homework, or self-directed testing, can be very effective. StAtement 7: The
most efficient retrieval schedule is a personalised one, accounting for the learner’s rates of forgetting and prior knowledge, (Latimer et al, 2021). There are tools that support personalised spaced retrieval practice.
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