February Journal Club
By Alice Kim, Post Doctoral Visitor, Teaching Commons
The Teaching Commons hosted the February 2019 meeting of the Journal Club on February 13th. Our discussion of the paper “Optimizing the Use of Interpolated Tests: The Influence of Interpolated Test Lag” (https://teachingcommons.yorku.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/LavigneRisko2018_SoTLPsych.pdf) was an interesting exploration of the use of interpolated testing (testing students throughout a lecture on the material being covered), which is anchored by the finding that testing, in general, can be used to enhance knowledge retention. The researchers specifically set out to investigate when students should be tested on the information presented to them in the lecture: immediately after the material is presented to them vs. after a 3-minute delay.
The researchers found that students learned better when interpolated testing was used compared to when it was not. Moreover, they also found that when students were not given any information about the accuracy of their responses, interpolated testing was more beneficial to students’ learning when the testing occurred immediately after the material was presented compared to when the testing occurred about 3 minutes after the corresponding material was presented. However, when students were given information about the accuracy of their responses, testing that occurred immediately and 3 minutes after the material benefited students’ learning equally. Reflecting on these findings and how they relate to my own teaching made me wonder whether the benefits of interpolated tests on students’ learning could also be induced by other activities that require students to retrieve material presented during lectures. For example, in my classes I typically have my students write minute papers on content covered in class, and then share their ideas with a peer, followed by a class discussion. It would be interesting to investigate whether different activities that require students to retrieve lecture material are more beneficial to their learning.
As a group, the journal club attendees discussed the implications of the findings in our own teaching, as well as the importance of providing students with feedback and how feedback can come in different forms. Many of us were enthusiastic about incorporating interpolated testing in our own teaching, as the cost and effort of doing so seemed low in general and outweighed by the benefit of enhancing our students’ learning. We also acknowledged the different forms of feedback that can be provided to students and the impact that different types of feedback could have on students learning trajectory in a course of study. Whereas the study discussed above operationalized feedback as information about the accuracy of students’ answers to the test questions, some of the attendees conceptualized feedback as being more formative in nature and providing more information to students in terms of how they could improve. This latter conversation also made the group more cognizant about the importance of being cautious about how we communicate, as terms that seem very simple and basic may in fact be understood and used differently across various groups and disciplines, which could potentially lead to misunderstanding if we are not careful.
How have or how are you going to apply ideas from this article and/or our discussion to your practice?
How might your students benefit from this research?
What opportunities can you see for further research or exploration on this topic?
Please join the conversation using the comments box below.
The Journal Club is an opportunity for colleagues interested in exploring innovation in teaching and learning to collaboratively read and discuss literature in the field. Participants are provided with a journal article identified as a topic of potential interest to be discussed in an informal gathering at the Teaching Commons.
Do you have an article to share or a topic you would like to discuss? Are you interested in leading a conversation of the Journal Club? Contact Lisa Endersby, Educational Developer (lendersb@yorku.ca).
At the Teaching Commons, Alice’s research is focused on implementing cognitive principles of learning and memory in undergraduate course design. She earned a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Toronto, and her dissertation was focused on how new memories are formed. Alice’s goal is to apply her knowledge of learning and memory to enhance teaching and learning at York University and the larger educational community.