Testing to help learning

Remember the first time you saw a concept map. I saw it and thought, this makes sense. This is a tool I can use to enlighten my students. There was a complex elegance to the webs of lines and circles. Then I showed my students the lines and circles and all the connections. They used it and some found meaning, but most avoided them and would moan their use. That did not stop me or my administration from insisting that we keep doing it.

Then I read an article from ScienceDaily that said that students learn better by “practicing remembering”. The phrase “practicing remembering” caught me. I could not get past it. Remembering is a natural process. Everyone knows how to do it. Like breathing we remember.

The study pit remembering practice against concept maps. The elegance of concepts maps versus the basic skill of remembering. Students were given material and then a test. After the test they reviewed the material and took another test. A week later the group that had practiced remembering showed a 50 percent improvement over the group that used concept maps. They were even able to make better concept maps than those who had studied using concept maps. Which makes perfect sense. They were tapping into a basic process. We remember things every day.

This study reinforces what I as an educator have begun to realize. Overly complex methods for teaching do not always improve learning. They may seem shiny and interesting, but when applied in the classroom they are time consuming to prepare and do not give good returns on that investment of time.

This study validates the use of testing as a teaching tool and as a means of assessment. With this knowledge a teacher could easily create an effective lesson. It would require less time than creating a complex concept map and give greater returns. There would be no need to spend money on books or speakers who would tell us how to use these maps. Any teacher worth the paper their degree is on can make a test.

Giving a test may not have the elegance of a map. It may not stir excitement within you when you pass it out, but it is effective. Tapping into something that students can already do is part of what makes this so exciting for me. Creating artificial connections in your mind to help you remember things is like trying to remember where you put your keys by remembering where you put your wallet. Remembering the location of the keys is much more effective. Why not practice remembering the information you need?

Teachers could apply this in the classroom by having students take a test immediately after being taught something. Then be allowed to review the material after seeing where their knowledge gaps are, and take the test again. Alternately they could be asked to free write about a concept just learned. The concept map with all its elegance could still be used, but the key here is to remember.