Critics have claimed that public schools were wrong to increase testing as they have in recent years. But several recent scholarly articles bolster the case that testing can help students. (click below to read more)
Exams have long been known to facilitate later recall, and a student tested after initial study of a subject retains more learning than if he or she studies longer but isn't tested right away. In a new paper, a psychologist surveying relevant literature has found that testing had "robust benefits" when it came to students' ability to apply their learning in different contexts—presumably the point of school.
Another recent paper supports multiple-choice tests. In an experiment with undergraduates, a multiple-choice test improved recall more than a test without answer choices. Also, a multiple-choice test apparently can improve retrieval of facts used on the test as incorrect answers.
"Testing Enhances the Transfer of Learning," Shana K. Carpenter, Current Directions in Psychological Science (online now). "Multiple-choice Tests Exonerated, at Least of Some Charges: Fostering Test-Induced Learning and Avoiding Test-Induced Forgetting," Jeri Little, Elizabeth Bjork, Robert Bjork, Genna Angello, Psychological Science (online now)
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