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Strengths and weaknesses of different assessment methods
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In the research article “Test-Enhanced Learning” by Henry L. Roediger III, and Jeffrey D. Karpicke, the researchers set out to determine whether or not taking memory tests would improve retention for people over time. They hypothesized that performance where the participants were immediately tested would increase with the number chances to study the material. They also hypothesized that taking tests in a short time after studying would lead to greater retention on tests taken later compared to repeatedly studying the passages. There were two experiments to test their hypothesis. In the first experiment the participants in the experiments studied short passages on basic science. In Experiment 1, they either took a test on the material or studied
it again before taking a final retention test which was either taken 5 minutes, 2 days, or 1 week later. The participants were placed in small groups with four or less participants, and would be told that there would be four sections where they at any given moment would have seven minutes to study one passage that they had never seen before, study another one of the passages again, or they would take a test where they had to recall one of the passages.
Since this test has been devised, the number one question everybody is asking is, “ isn’t it unfair to base a student’s entire future on one test, when he or she simply could have had a bad day when taking the test”? The president Kirk T. Schroder of the Virginia Board of Education, answer this question by saying, “First of all, these tests are untimed, so no student is under arbitrary time pressure in taking the test.
For most people who have ridden the roller coaster of primary education, subtracting twenty-three from seventy is a piece of cake. In fact, we probably work it out so quickly in our heads that we don’t consciously recognize the procedures that we are using to solve the problem. For us, subtraction seems like something that has been ingrained in our thinking since the first day of elementary school. Not surprisingly, numbers and subtraction and “carry over” were new to us at some point, just like everything else that we know today. For Gretchen, a first-grader trying to solve 70-23, subtraction doesn’t seem like a piece of cake as she verbalizes her confusion, getting different answers using different methods. After watching Gretchen pry for a final solution and coming up uncertain, we can gain a much deeper understanding for how the concept of subtraction first develops and the discrepancies that can arise as a child searches for what is correct way and what is not.
Repeated testing may lead to better or worse performance. Changes in performance on the test may be due to prior experience with the test and not to the independent variable. In addition, repeated testing fatigues the subjects, and their performance declines as a result (Jackson, 2012). Because the professor is interested in determining if the implementation of weekly quizzes would improve test scores, an experimenter and/or an instrumentation effect may also affect results. In a single group post-test only design, possible confounds include the lack of a comparison group and the absence of an equivalent control group.
The Facial Recognition Lab was performed in order to determine whether or not the familiarity effect can be used to influence an individual’s memory. In the lab, ten Most Wanted faces were shown and the subject was asked to study them for an indefinite amount of time. Once they clicked “Next”, they were shown 20 faces in random order, ten of which were from the list they had just studied and ten were new faces. The subject was asked to determine which were new and which were Most Wanted. In theory this should be a relatively easy task, because the subject does not necessarily need to remember that a face was on the previous list, merely that they had seen it before. That it was familiar to them. Thus, on the second day they were shown 20 faces again. If the subject was randomly assigned into the control group, then they saw the Most Wanted faces mixed in with ten new faces. Otherwise they were assigned into the false memory group and were shown the exact same 20 faces they had seen the previous day. The subjects are given a “discrimination index” based on their level of accuracy. The hypothesis is that the control group will perform significantly better (i.e. have a higher discrimination index) than the members of the false memory group. This is because the control group still merely has to recognize a face. Granted they aren’t aware of which group they are in, but to the false memory group, all of the faces will have some degree of familiarity. They must go a step further and actually reconstruct which faces were on the Most Wanted list and which were not.
Bernstein and Loftus start off describing the first approach, which is Focusing on group of memories. This first study consists of subjects studying a list of items like words, nonsense syllables, pictures, tones, etc. (Loftus, Bernstein, p.370, 2009). Subjects will then try to recall what they studied or try to recognize which items were presented. These two are called recall test and recognition test. In these studies scientists tend to manipulate the information in different ways. The subjects in these kind of experiments, typically falsely remembered recent memory. Cognitive scientists have turned to neuroscience in hopes of learning what the brain can reveal about memory and cognition (Loftus, Bernstein, p.371, 2009).
We will pay five hundred New Haven men to help us complete a scientific study of memory and learning. The study is being done at Yale University. “Each person who participates will be paid $4.00 (plus 50¢ carfare) for approximately 1 hour’s time. We need you for only one hour: there are no further obligations. You may choose the time you would like to co...
Ebbinghaus’ work on memory performance contributed astonishing knowledge to the field of scientific psychology and enthralled several succeeding researchers and psychologists (Fuchs, 1997; Slamecka, 1985; Young, 1985). Ebbinghaus was precisely known for conducting memory experiments by using nonsense syllables, and from the results of those experiments, he postulated a unitary view of learning and memory. However, Endel Tulving, provided evidence from Ebbinghaus’ original research that there existed discernible kinds of learning and memory. Prior to his experiment, Tulving received some scathing criticism on his stance regarding Ebbinghaus’ research, but he averred that there was no intention to derogate its concept (Slamecka, 1985; Tulving, 1985). Rather, Tulving’s experiment emanated from Ebbinghaus’ original research to address implications that would supplement knowledge about the psychological science of memory.
As a college student, is the idea of your final grade being based off of just a midterm and final very stressful? O 'Malley argues in his essay "More Testing, More Learning" that professors should give out more quizzes and assignments to reduce the stress and procrastination students face before midterms and finals. Although this might be helpful for a high school setting, it would not be completely efficient at a college level. This is because frequent testing takes up a significant amount of students and professors time, are added stress throughout the year, will not fix a students procrastination, and having high stake tests prepares students for their future. Some of O 'Malley 's ideas seem reasonable and would help students while others are an inconvenience for the professor and students.
In a brief video created by Samford University, psychology professor Stephen Chew speaks to his viewers about effective ways to study in college and what students should know about the way people learn. Chew starts off by referring to a psychology experiment conducted by Thomas Hyde and James Jenkins from 1969. Hyde and Jenkings carried out a study that consisted of 5 groups who were asked to memorize a list of twenty four words. Groups one and two were in the intentional condition, meaning that they knew ahead of time that they would be asked to recall the list of words later on. Groups three and four were in the incidental condition, meaning that they did not know they would have to recall the words. Group one (intentional) and group three
1In the article, The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning, Jeffery D. Karpicke and Henry L. Roediger III expound on the long standing assumptions regarding the effects of repeated studying and repeated testing on learning in order to improve long-term retention on learning material. Recently studies have shown that research can occur during testing, contradictory to the traditional beliefs that learning occurs while people study and encode material. Another purpose of this research and this article was to examine a students’ assessments of their own learning, after getting a set of material under repeated study or repeated testing. Finally, The Critical Importance of Retrieval for Learning, explained further the relationship of speed
In the article, “The Critical Importance of Retrieval For Learning” the researchers were studying human learning and memory by presenting people with information to be learned in a study period and testing them on the information that they were told to learn in order to see what they were able to retain. They also pointed out that retrieval of information in a test, is considered a neutral event because it does not produce learning. Researchers were trying to find a correlation between the speed of something being learned and the rate at which it is forgotten
The judge exhibited a strong mathematical fallacy when he assumed that repeating the test could not tell us anything about the reliability of the first results. What he didn’t realize was that by doing a test twice and obtaining the same result, it would tell us something about the possible accuracy of the original result.
I think the advancement of personalized learning is most important. I am a tutor for geometry support students at my school and I have first-hand experience in knowing just how differently each and every one of them learns. I have had students who worked well-incorporating algebra and others who worked well with shape tiles to help guide them in their worksheets. These students are by no means unintelligent, but they do have varied styles and preferences in learning that isn’t as supported in their regular classes.
In my old high school I never had the time to evaluate what I was doing or rather what the teacher was saying. I would just emulate her work and retain it until the test just like many of us still do today. Once, my teacher asked me a question that I could not answer primarily because the answer wasn't in my notes. When I reminisce upon it today I feel ludicrous because it was a straightforward question. In the article, "High Standardized Test Scores Don't Translate to Better Cognition" the author states, "Even though some schools successfully raised their students' scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System state test, that improvement was not associated with an increase in what's known as the students' "fluid intelligence." (Bidwell). This quote shows that just because the examination mark increased it doesn't mean that the cognitive ability of students is becoming exceptional.Students need t...
Each of the three learning theories, Cognitivism, Constructivism, and Behaviorism, has worth and merit in my opinion. Yet, each one has its own unique qualities with one common factor, the learning process. It seems to me that the best teacher is one who would utilize all the theories of learning. However, if I look closely, I am most likely favoring one or two more than the others in my own instructional methods. I read the brief definition of these three theories and realized that I needed to examine a more in-depth explanation of each of them. The theory of cognitivism focuses on the mind of the learner