the psychology of learning and motivation - Percepts and Concepts ...

2 Henry L. Roediger et al.delayed tests. Besides these direct effects of testing, there are also indirecteffects that are quite positive. If students are quizzed frequently, they tendto study more and with more regularity. Quizzes also permit students todiscover gaps in their knowledge and focus study efforts on difficult material;furthermore, when students study after taking a test, they learn morefrom the study episode than if they had not taken the test. Quizzing alsoenables better metacognitive monitoring for both students and teachersbecause it provides feedback as to how well learning is progressing. Greaterlearning would occur in educational settings if students used self-testing asa study strategy and were quizzed more frequently in class.1. INTRODUCTIONBenefits of testing? Surely, to most educators, this statement representsan oxymoron. Testing in schools is usually thought to serve only thepurpose of evaluating students and assigning them grades. Those areimportant reasons for tests, but not what we have in mind. Most teachersview tests (and other forms of assessment, such as homework, essays, andpapers) as necessary evils. Yes, students study and learn more when givenassignments and tests, but they are an ordeal for both the student (whomust complete them) and the teacher (who must construct and gradethem). Quizzes and tests are given frequently in elementary schools,often at the rate of several or more a week, but testing decreases infrequency the higher a student rises in the educational system. By thetime students are in college, they may be given only a midterm exam anda final exam in many introductory level courses. Of course, standardizedtests are also given to students to assess their relative performance comparedto other students in their country and assign them a percentileranking. However, for purposes of this chapter, we focus on the testingthat occurs in the classroom as part of the course or self-testing thatstudents may use themselves as a study strategy (although surveys showthat this practice is not widespread).Why might testing improve performance? One key benefit is theactive retrieval that occurs during tests. William James (1890, p. 646)wrote:A curious peculiarity of our memory is that things are impressed better byactive than by passive repetition. I mean that in learning (by heart, forexample), when we almost know the piece, it pays better to wait andrecollect by an effort from within, than to look at the book again. If werecover the words in the former way, we shall probably know them the nexttime; if in the latter way, we shall very likely need the book once more.