> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • Student Success Resource Center
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Newsletter Icon

Teaching

Find insights to improve teaching and learning across your campus. Delivered on Thursdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, sign up to receive it in your email inbox.

June 26, 2019
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

From: Beth McMurtrie

Subject: How Test Review Can Improve Students’ Study Habits

You’re reading the latest issue of Teaching, a weekly newsletter from a team of Chronicle journalists. Sign up here to get it in your inbox on Thursdays.

This week:

  • I describe how three professors use exam reviews to improve students’ metacognitive skills.
  • I share some interesting news articles and opinion pieces you may have missed.

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

You’re reading the latest issue of Teaching, a weekly newsletter from a team of Chronicle journalists. Sign up here to get it in your inbox on Thursdays.

This week:

  • I describe how three professors use exam reviews to improve students’ metacognitive skills.
  • I share some interesting news articles and opinion pieces you may have missed.

    Making the Most of Test Review

    Laura Wheeler Poms teaches epidemiology, a math-intensive course that has proved challenging for a lot of her public-health students at George Mason University, in Virginia. So three years ago she introduced a test-reflection exercise after the first exam, a make-or-break moment for many students since the concepts tested set the stage for the rest of the course.

    After she graded and returned her students’ tests, Poms wanted them to pause and reflect, not just on what they had gotten wrong, but why. And she wanted them to better understand how their study techniques may have contributed to those mistakes.

    Learning how to learn is one of those much-talked-about ideas in education that is often tricky to put into practice. You can tell students that rereading chapters and cramming the night before a test don’t effectively help them understand ideas or strengthen analytical skills. But for Poms, and a couple of other professors I talked to, it’s not until students walk through examples of their own learning that those messages start to resonate.

    Poms, George Mason’s undergraduate program director in global and community health, has found her post-exam review session valuable in showing students their gaps in understanding and providing them with concrete strategies for learning. That helps them get unstuck from bad study habits.

    “We all do it,” she says. “We rely on what worked for us before — and when it doesn’t, we’re not quite sure what to do.”

    I heard a lot about the concept of test reflection — also called a post-exam review or, most colorfully, a test autopsy — at the annual Teaching Professor conference. Several sessions were devoted to the topic. So I tracked down the speakers and asked them about how they put the idea into practice, the research behind it, and what results they’ve seen.

    So far Poms has done a test reflection only after the first of three exams, she says, because it is so time consuming. But that’s often enough to spark change.

    She hands out a four-part form. In the first section, students are asked how much time they spent studying, and what percentage of it was done alone versus in a group. They’re also asked what percentage of time they spent on particular study techniques. She provides a list of options, including rereading the textbook or class notes, memorizing, flash cards, creating analogies, and interleaving, which means the varying of study habits. Many students rely on just a few techniques, but the reflection gives her an opportunity to explain why some techniques work better than others.

    During class, she gives examples of how to incorporate different techniques. One student, for example, said she couldn’t participate in group study because she has children. Poms suggested she develop flash cards and ask her kids to quiz her.

    Another section of the reflection form asks students to figure out why they got certain answers wrong. Was it a math error, a careless mistake, a lack of preparation? Did they have trouble understanding the concepts or remembering definitions? Different reasons require different study habits.

    Poms also asks them to name two things they will do differently in preparation for the next test. It has to be specific, she says, since the default is often: “I will study harder.”

    Finally, she asks them to suggest how she can improve her teaching.

    Those approaches to encouraging metacognition are common in test-review sessions, other professors told me. Talk to students about both study strategies and knowledge gaps, they said. Ask students to think about what they can do differently next time. And look for ways to improve your teaching.

    Cathy Box, director of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship at Lubbock Christian University, is a passionate advocate for teaching students metacognitive skills. She goes as far as to call it a moral obligation. Jobs and technology are changing too fast to simply teach content. Instead, she argues, students must be taught how they can learn so they can adapt to the changing workplace.

    At Lubbock Christian, in Texas, students may be exposed repeatedly to the concept of learning how to learn. They hear about it in a freshman seminar, and professors sometimes talk about it within their discipline. Box introduces metacognition strategies to faculty members during a three-semester learning academy in which they read books such as Creating Self-Regulated Learners.

    “The professors find that the more times they do it in their own classes,” Box says, “it gets stronger and more powerful.” Initially students might think it’s “a dumb thing,” she says: “‘Just tell me what I need to do to get a 100.’” But “by the end of the semester they really do see the power of setting goals.”

    Box teaches faculty members other strategies to bolster students’ self-awareness of their learning habits. One way is to show them examples of good and bad work, hand them a rubric, and have them score both. Similarly, a professor could demonstrate how to work through a problem the right way and the wrong way, then ask students to review them and find the errors.

    Poms says she has seen a reduction in the number of D’s, F’s, and withdrawals in her epidemiology course, a rise in the number of students who come to office hours, and an increase in self-efficacy — a belief in one’s ability to succeed — among her students. She notes, though, that she has made other changes in her teaching as well, to introduce more active-learning strategies.

    Have you incorporated metacognitive strategies into your teaching, to help your students become more aware of how they learn and to improve their study habits? If so I’d like to hear about how you structured the review and what you learned from it. Email me, at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com. Your story may appear in a future issue of the newsletter.

    Research and Resources on Test Review

    Box points to a few articles and books that have proved helpful in designing test reviews: “Examining the Effectiveness of a Postexam Review Activity to Promote Self-Regulation in Introductory Biology Students,” in the Journal of College Science Teaching, and Seven Strategies of Assessment for Learning, by Jan Chappuis.

    As for research on the effectiveness of exam-review sessions, a 2013 study described in Using Reflection and Metacognition to Improve Student Learning: Across the Disciplines, Across the Academy found that so-called exam wrappers, used across introductory science classes, improved metacognition. A later study found no change in metacognition if an exam wrapper was used in just one course, leading the authors to suggest that it may be more beneficial in repeated exposure.

    ** A Message from The Chronicle:

    As institutions face increasing financial and political pressures, the emergence of the public-private partnership, or P3, has quickly become more common on college campuses. This issue brief offers an all-in-one primer on P3s, from assessing whether a P3 deal is right for your campus to identifying the right partners and services. Purchase a copy in the Chronicle Store. **

    ICYMI

    • James M. Lang, an English professor at Assumption College and a regular Chronicle contributor, questions the value of peer observations in teaching, noting that they suffer from many of the same weaknesses that student evaluations do.
    • On his blog Robert Talbert, a math professor at Grand Valley State University, writes about an approach he calls the Five Question Summary to get more “agile” student feedback on his courses.
    • Have you heard about Twitch? Designed for gamers, it’s now used by professors to stream everything from lectures to office hours.
    • Do you think students use the word “like” too much? Ben Yagoda, a professor emeritus of English and journalism at the University of Delaware, argues that the verbal tic has value.

    Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us, at dan.berrett@chronicle.com, beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com, or steve.johnson@chronicle.com.

    —Beth

    Teaching & Learning
    Beth McMurtrie
    Beth McMurtrie is a senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she writes about the future of learning and technology’s influence on teaching. In addition to her reported stories, she helps write the weekly Teaching newsletter about what works in and around the classroom. Email her at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com, and follow her on Twitter @bethmcmurtrie.
    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    • Explore
      • Get Newsletters
      • Letters
      • Free Reports and Guides
      • Professional Development
      • Virtual Events
      • Chronicle Store
      • Find a Job
      Explore
      • Get Newsletters
      • Letters
      • Free Reports and Guides
      • Professional Development
      • Virtual Events
      • Chronicle Store
      • Find a Job
    • The Chronicle
      • About Us
      • DEI Commitment Statement
      • Write for Us
      • Talk to Us
      • Work at The Chronicle
      • User Agreement
      • Privacy Policy
      • California Privacy Policy
      • Site Map
      • Accessibility Statement
      The Chronicle
      • About Us
      • DEI Commitment Statement
      • Write for Us
      • Talk to Us
      • Work at The Chronicle
      • User Agreement
      • Privacy Policy
      • California Privacy Policy
      • Site Map
      • Accessibility Statement
    • Customer Assistance
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Post a Job
      • Advertising Terms and Conditions
      • Reprints & Permissions
      • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
      Customer Assistance
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Post a Job
      • Advertising Terms and Conditions
      • Reprints & Permissions
      • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    • Subscribe
      • Individual Subscriptions
      • Institutional Subscriptions
      • Subscription & Account FAQ
      • Manage Newsletters
      • Manage Your Account
      Subscribe
      • Individual Subscriptions
      • Institutional Subscriptions
      • Subscription & Account FAQ
      • Manage Newsletters
      • Manage Your Account
    1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
    © 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
    • twitter
    • instagram
    • youtube
    • facebook
    • linkedin