Learning by Self-Testing

Test yourself

Why is Self-Testing Effective?

One of the most famous studies about the efficiency of self-testing was done by Roediger & Karpicke (2006).

Methods

Students were divided into 3 groups.
- Group 1 studied the material four times before testing.
- Group 2 studied the materials three times and self-tested once during the learning process.
- Group 3 studied the original material just once, and used self-testing as a method for learning three more times before taking the final test.

Results

The results showed much stronger performance from Group 3.
This means that the group who had studied the material once and used retrieval as a learning strategy performed much better than the other two groups.
This helped to provide further evidence for a phenomenon known as ‘the testing effect’,

Conclusion

Self-testing and indeed low-stakes quizzing can have significant impact not only on the memory but also on the learning process itself.

Even more effective...

When coupled with things such as distributed or spaced practice, testing and self-testing have the potential to further enhance the impact of learning.
Encouraging self-testing over a period of time and returning to previously learned information can be a powerful tool in ensuring that knowledge is embedded into our students’ long-term memories.

1Introduction

1.1From Teaching to Learning

1.1.1Context in the Education Landscape 1

1.1.2Context in the Education Landscape 2

2Summarising

2.1Learning by Summarising

2.1.1What is a Summary?

2.1.2Learn by Summarising

2.1.3Summarisation at Work

2.1.4Case Study: Adam Riches

3Self-Testing

3.1Learning by Self-Testing

3.1.1Learning by Self-Testing

3.1.2Case Study: Emma Smith

4Self-Explaining

4.1Learning by Self-Explaining

4.1.1Learning by Self-Explaining

4.1.2Case Study: Ceridwen Eccles

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