“Right or wrong you can learn from the test.”

Nutshell

Setting regular tests for your learners and making sure you share the test answers afterwards!

How to do this

Testing became a bit unpopular a while back to the detriment of many a learner it fell out of the teaching routine!

Thanks to a resurgence in the importance of our profession to engage with educational research, tests are back!

Learners learn from tests! The act of testing highlights what a learner knows and what they don’t know!

WARNING: This has far less impact if you take the tests home and take too long mark them!

How it works for you

Set a retrieval based test every lesson!

Use the test either as the starter or the plenary. Learners should not be presented with more than 10 questions but they sit them in test conditions, total silence, no sharing answers with friends!

“Feedback needs to be instant!“

Plan enough time for you to go through the answers in class! Give learners a different coloured pen and have them either self or peer mark the test.

Science and Educational research tells us…

The learning is happening in two parts:

1. Thinking: When sitting thinking hard about each answer the very act of remembering is strengthening and building memory in their minds (solidifying the prior learning)
2. Reflecting: When they go through the answers at the end of the test and make corrections they are seeing forthemselves how well they understand a topic and are able to discover for themselves what still needs to be remembered.

Making testing routine (and non-threatening) you routinely go over content so that memory is strengthened. It’s like repeating your timetables over and over again until without thinking when someone says “Four fours are…?’ you can answer!

Happy testing!

Published by Paul

Teacher | Author | Lead Practitioner View all posts by Paul