Testing, in the form of low stakes assessment, is a widely utilized activity in most classrooms across the world. On the surface, there are somewhat direct benefits of formative assessment for the student. The ability to successfully retrieve information from memory overtly informs the student of what they know. And that is great information for both student and teacher to know. Obviously, knowing what you know is a pertinent part of the learning process.
But, there are also more covert benefits of testing. Below are five indirect benefits of testing and assessment that are important to consider and understand. By no means is this an exhaustive list of benefits. There are others. I chose to incorporate those which, I believe, are the ‘lowest hanging fruit’. By that, I mean, they are the most advantageous for students and teachers to understand when designing instruction and considering study opportunities.*
- Testing identifies gaps in knowledge.
“Taking a test permits students to assess what they know and what they do not know, so that they can concentrate study efforts on areas in which their knowledge is deficient.”
As stated above, knowing what you know from an assessment is really crucial information. But, perhaps more important for future review and study is knowing what you don’t know (I’ve written more on this topic here). And, while this may seem obvious to our most diligent students…it certainly isn’t realized and utilized by many. Discussing this with my class has spurred many fruitful discussions about how to properly study, and knowing what you don’t know through assessment, is certainly an important part of that effort to ‘grow’ more self-reliant learners.
- Testing causes students to learn more from the next study episode.
“…when students take a test and then restudy material, they learn more from the presentation than they would if they restudied without taking a test.”
So, not only does an assessment tell learners and teacher what a student knows/doesn’t know, but it readies the learner to remember more from future studies and class meetings. In my classroom, I mostly take advantage of this by utilizing pretests frequently. These pretests usually ask students to consider topics we are going to cover in class that day. This information may be completely foreign to the students, so they may just take a (somewhat) educated guess during the pretest…and that’s okay. Just showing students the information to be covered may prime the learner for conscious focus to the lesson. It also provides the opportunity for wonderful conversations about the topics. If learners already have some knowledge of the content, they may be willing to share their experiences. Many studies have shown the positive effects of pretesting on learning. Here’s a link to a review of one study.
- Testing produces better organization of knowledge.
“Another indirect benefit of retrieval practice is that it can improve the conceptual organization of practiced materials…”
As students learn, they develop schemas (categories) for concepts. The more students can organize and comprehend information into certain schemas, the more readily they can add to that information with similar or more complex material. Basically, the more knowledge we have about a concept, the more we can add information to that topic. I describe developing these schemas like a spider spinning its web here. And, there are several studies with evidence to suggest that retrieval of information versus simple restudy produces more advantageous opportunities for this organization and ‘growing’ of knowledge.
- Testing prevents interference from prior material when learning new material.
“Another indirect benefit of testing is that tests create a release from proactive interference. Proactive interference occurs when sets of materials are learned in succession; the previous material learned influences the retention of new materials in a negative manner. Thus, proactive interference refers to the poorer retention of material learned later, caused by prior learning.”
I think this one is self-explanatory. Learning new material after testing of old information creates a scenario for more robust remembering while also making the new material less susceptible to being misremembered by the previous content. So, not only does pretesting (point 3) more positively impact the learning process, but posttesting also indirectly creates a scenario for better remembering.
- Frequent testing encourages students to study.
“Having frequent quizzes, tests, or assignments motivates students to study.”
The authors of the article listed below* note this is ‘probably the most influential indirect benefit of testing…’ In numerous studies, where tests or assessments were either more or less sporadic, students were more likely to study when they knew assessments were more frequent. With less frequent testing, studying generally only occurred the day before the assessment. In another study, when surveyed about their studying behavior, ‘57% of students, when choosing what to study, chose topics that were due soon or already overdue. More frequent testing across the semester would encourage students to study more and would space their studying over several weeks.” As a teacher, I understand this indirect benefit to help in ‘growing’ more self-reliant and self-regulating learners (like point1). The more students implore testing as a form of studying, they are choosing a more efficient and effective method for learning than simple restudy or highlighting notes. And, while students more readily opt for the cognitively easier methods, frequent low-stakes testing demonstrates to students those positive benefits and may make learners more likely to choose more advantageous avenues for learning.
So, while the direct effects of testing and assessment may be more overt, it is quite important to discuss these indirect benefits with teachers and learners. And, in my opinion, these conversations need to begin early in a student’s learning career to create these healthier habits of study. And while some of these indirect benefits may seem obvious, often, our students absolutely do not consider them or understand why they should take the more difficult road of testing as a means of study than seemingly easier and less effective activities such as highlighting notes and simple rereading of information.
How could you start a conversation with your students about these indirect benefits of testing?
*Please access the journal article below for more information on this topic. All quotes above originate from this article.
Roediger III, H. L., Putnam, A. L., & Smith, M. A. (2011). Ten benefits of testing and their applications to educational practice. Psychology of learning and motivation, 55, 1-36.
Feature image by CDC: https://www.pexels.com/photo/boy-in-green-shirt-3992949/
I think a teacher would know a fellow teacher wrote this because of the practicality