Test taking enhances learning; So regular tests given by coaching classes are good
January 24th, 2011
The latest issue of the Science magazine talks about research that establishes the importance of test taking to learning. See http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/19/science.1199327 for the abstract of that study. The New York Times article on that Science article at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/science/21memory.html?_r=1 says it in simpler words. Following are some excerpts.
Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques.
… But “when we use our memories by retrieving things, we change our access” to that information, Dr. Bjork said. “What we recall becomes more recallable in the future. In a sense you are practicing what you are going to need to do later.”
It may also be that the struggle involved in recalling something helps reinforce it in our brains.
Maybe that is also why students who took retrieval practice tests were less confident about how they would perform a week later.
“The struggle helps you learn, but it makes you feel like you’re not learning,” said Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College. “You feel like: ‘I don’t know it that well. This is hard and I’m having trouble coming up with this information.’ ”
By contrast, he said, when rereading texts and possibly even drawing diagrams, “you say: ‘Oh, this is easier. I read this already.’ ”
… Testing, of course, is a highly charged issue in education, drawing criticism that too much promotes rote learning, swallows valuable time for learning new things and causes excessive student anxiety.
“More testing isn’t necessarily better,” said Dr. Linn, who said her work with California school districts had found that asking students to explain what they did in a science experiment rather than having them simply conduct the hands-on experiment — a version of retrieval practice testing — was beneficial. “Some tests are just not learning opportunities. We need a different kind of testing than we currently have.”
Dr. Kornell said that “even though in the short term it may seem like a waste of time,” retrieval practice appears to “make things stick in a way that may not be used in the classroom.
“It’s going to last for the rest of their schooling, and potentially for the rest of their lives.”
What the above study means is that the coaching classes of India, especially the ones that coach for IIT have it somewhat right. The regular tests they do indeed make the students learn better.
However, many of the coaching classes take up so much time that students do not participate in other scientific activities such as doing experiments. As a result many students coming out of the coaching classes do not have much idea about doing hands-on experiments. Another criticism of coaching classes is that many students just learn the problem solving patterns without really learning the basics.
Entry Filed under: Coaching classes at plus two level