Testing to Improve Knowledge Retention: Yay or Nay?

Have you ever been annoyed that your pupils aren't reaching their full potential because they don't have the necessary background knowledge when it comes to constructing effective arguments in History? This is what happened to Lee Donaghy, an experienced history teacher in the UK. When it came to investigating sources and drawing conclusions, Donaghy noticed that his GCSE students had a lack of substantive knowledge. As a result, he decided to to test an assessment method which proved to increase the students' substantive knowledge in their history tests. His findings are described in his paper "Using regular, low-stakes tests to secure pupils' contextual knowledge in Year 10."

The method, which has its roots in cognitive research, consists of frequent, low-stakes tests intended to reinforce particular facts. Donaghy argues that this strategy outperforms conventional study-then-test strategies in terms of fostering long-term retention. At first, Donaghy states that he had some reservations about time commitment, he came to the conclusion that, considering the benefical effect on student development the investment was justifiable.

Here's how Donaghy applied the technique:

Identify Key Knowledge: Donaghy carefully chose pertinent information, dates, ideas, and numbers from textbooks, previous test papers, and curriculum specifications. Then, in accordance with the exam's main points, he organised these elements into thematic sets.

Regular, accumulative tests: Using previously tested content, Donaghy gave quizzes in each course until pupils showed proficiency.  He tested ten products in Week 1, for example, and added ten more in Week 2, retesting the original ten.  The types of questions utilised and the students' development over time are depicted in Figures 2 and 3 of the article.

Observe and Examine Outcomes: Donaghy kept a close eye on students' progress and saw that their memory of important details had significantly improved.

But did this translate to better assessment outcomes?  Donaghy observed a marked improvement in student performance on end-of-unit assessments, as evidenced by students' grade increases. He even provides compelling examples of how students effectively utilised contextual knowledge in their written responses. 

However, did this result in improved evaluation results? Donaghy observed significant improvement in his students' performance on end-of-unit tests. In his written comments, he even offers strong examples of how pupils applied contextual knowledge.

What does this mean for History teachers within the Maltese context? Just as time was a major concern for Donaghy, I would argue that it is also the case for Maltese teachers. Year 7s and Year 8s normally have two history lessons per week of 40 minutes each. From year 9 onwards, students only have one 40-minute general history lesson per week. Moreover, students often miss lessons because of school activities. This may put pressure on the teacher whose objective is to cover the history syllabus for end-of-year exams. In these cases, rather than having full 15 minutes out of every lesson to test student's substantive knowledge, the teacher may opt to go for a 5-minute end of lesson quiz which reinforces the substantive knowledge gained throughout the lesson. The teacher may also opt to use this same quiz as revision the following week, could work as reinforcement of the students' knowledge. Another option available to avoid using up lesson time is to provide students with the quiz to do for homework. However, in these cases, the teacher would need to follow-up to ensure that the students are doing the tests.

There are many online tools available that the teacher can use in order to create these quizzes and offer a more interactive and student-centered approach. Tools such as quizlet or word wall offer the teacher a variety of ways to present a quiz. It could take the form of a more traditional, question-and-answer format, or teachers may decide to go for a jeopardy style type of quiz which often offers high levels of engagement for students. If assigning the quiz for homework, teachers may decide to go for the quiz option on teams. The quiz automatically provides the students with a mark for their quiz, which saves the teacher a lot of correction time.

Despite the constraints, implementing these quizzes may be a good option for those classes whose recall of substantive knowledge may be on the low side. The quiz itself adds an element of fun, and also gives the students an extra dose of motivation in improving their history test scores.

References:

Donaghy, L. (2014). Using regular, low-stakes tests to secure pupils' contextual knowledge in Year 10. Teaching History, (157), 44–51. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43260872

Generative AI was used to generate the APA reference for the article used in this blog post and to generate a concise summary of the aforementioned article.