Here, Kerry summarises some interesting and important information re the positive effects of testing. He writes:
Like many issues in life, perhaps it is not the tests themselves that are potentially damaging the welfare of some of our pupils/students but the way in which they are presented - for example, levels of stress and pressure on the teachers being transferred inappropriately to the pupils. Many children love doing quizzes and 'challenges' and in educational settings when we are supposedly equipping them with the knowledge and skills that they will be tested on, then it is the adults' job to ensure they are teaching well enough in the first place along with using positive psychology and conditions for testing in the classroom - which then builds up to more formal testing and exams at a later date.We hear a lot of complaints about the increased amount of testing required by education authorities in recent times (NAPLAN, PIRLS etc). The argument is usually that it reduces the time available for student learning, interferes with teacher curriculum planning, (outrageously) forces teachers to attempt to teach to the test, and also, some claim, it can be traumatic for students. For those among us of a certain vintage, frequent exams, both school-based and system-based, were an accepted fact of life during secondary education. Perhaps there are benefits of assessment not properly appreciated by many in education.
Some snippets from a recent paper:
“When we take a test on which we are asked to retrieve and produce previously learned information, successfully recalling that information increases our ability to retrieve it again later.
… Testing also increases the effectiveness of the way in which we choose to access and organize the tested information. … When taken together, these results help us understand why students who take more tests in the classroom tend to perform better on later exams (Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, & Kulik, 1991). Most of the benefits come from the first few tests, indicating that it does not require much compromise in the allocation of class time to administer periodic tests. In addition, students of all abilities appear to benefit from the opportunity to take tests (Pan, Pashler, Potter, & Rickard, 2015).
… The cognitive benefits of testing are not like a single shot in the arm. Taking a test improves memory for the material, and it also decreases the rate at which we forget that material. What this means is that the benefits of testing are even greater when looking at longer-term retention.
… All of this is particularly noteworthy because, counterintuitively, there are not many cognitive interventions that appear to slow the rate of forgetting. Studying material more leads to a higher initial degree of learning but does not slow forgetting (Anderson & Schooler, 1991; Hellyer, 1962). Employing a “deep” level of processing—in which the learner is encouraged to think about the meaning of the tobe- learned information—does not slow forgetting (Nelson & Vining, 1978). Yet, testing slows forgetting (Carpenter, Pashler, Wixted, & Vul, 2008), sometimes considerably (Wheeler, Ewers, & Buonanno, 2003), which may make it an ideal technique for promoting long-term, durable learning.
… The effective organization of a series of tests on the same material can enhance the benefits of testing yet further. The fact that testing decreases the rate of forgetting can be leveraged to start thinking about how tests can be efficiently sequenced. Because the material will be forgotten a little more slowly after each test, then if all tests were equally difficult from an objective standpoint, each test would actually be subjectively a little easier than the last. To render each test more similar in difficulty from the test taker’s perspective requires each test to be a little more objectively difficult than the last. One way in which this can be done is by using an expanding test schedule, in which each quiz is administered at a slightly longer interval than the last one. Expanding schedules have been shown to enhance memory for names (Landauer & Bjork, 1978) and text (Storm, Bjork, & Storm, 2010). It has been used to aid learning in young children (Fritz, Morris, Nolan, & Singleton, 2007), memory-impaired populations (Camp, 2006; Schacter, Rich, & Stampp, 1985), and even in rehabilitative regimens (Wilson, Baddeley, Evans, & Sheil, 1994). They may be particularly useful for maintaining high levels of retention over long periods (Kang, Lindsey, Mozer, & Pashler, 2014).
… Thus far, we have only considered how tests benefit a student’s ability to remember material. Of course, remembering what is taught is only a small part of the process of becoming educated in a discipline. Being able to generalize and draw new inferences on the basis of the learned material is critically important if we want students to apply their learning to new situations. And there is evidence that quizzing facilitates the generalization and application of knowledge as well.
… So far we have seen that the carefully tailored use of tests can enhance memory for and generalization from previously learned materials. Amazingly, the benefits of tests extend even to materials that are only learned after the test! In this section, we review evidence that retrieving information from memory—that is, exactly what a test forces you to do— allows learners to more effectively segregate their learning and prevent confusions among topics.
… One concern that people have with testing is that test takers will make errors and that the process that leads to those errors will become engrained and will prevent the learner from acquiring the correct solution. Interestingly, this does not appear to be the case; in fact, making errors may even have tangible benefits for learners.
… Tests provide the opportunity for students to tune their confidence in their understanding and mastery of course materials to appropriate levels. Students who receive immediate feedback on the accuracy of their responses by a computerized testing system reveal much more enhanced calibration of confidence than students who do not receive feedback (Zakay, 1992).” (p. 15-18)
Benjamin, A.S., & Pashler, H. (2015). The value of standardized testing: A perspective from cognitive psychology. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2(1), 13–23.