[Learning] Secret strategy to boost learning
“Pretesting acts as a metacognitive ‘reality check,’ highlighting what you do and do not know.”
Sitting a “pretest” on knowledge you have yet to learn might sound like a pointless exercise, but it yields numerous benefits
Sitting a “pretest” on knowledge you have yet to learn might sound like a pointless exercise, but it yields numerous benefits.
If a teacher were to give you a pop quiz on a topic that the class has not yet covered, you might consider it a futile exercise. After all, with no prior knowledge of the subject, your answers would be no more than wild guesses. However, research suggests that pretesting students on knowledge they haven’t yet learned significantly improves their subsequent learning of the topic.
Pretesting enhances students’ curiosity, focus, and motivation to learn.
Researchers study the pretesting effect by splitting a class into two groups. The first group takes a pretest with many questions on material they haven't learned yet. The second group doesn't take this test and serves as a control. Both groups then learn the topic and study the material. Finally, everyone takes a test to see how well they understand the material. In these studies, the group that took the pretest usually scores better on the final test. This result is consistent whether the students are kids or adults, whether the material is easy or hard, whether they learn from a book or a video, or whether the quiz is on paper or a computer.
Pretesting works best when the questions are about the topic you are going to teach. Giving feedback with the correct answers after the pretest can help, especially if the topic is hard. Pretest questions can be multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, or short-answer. Keep the time between the pretest and learning short because the benefits of pretesting fade over time. For the best results, show students the right answers right after the pretest with an explanatory video or text.
This is research by Science consultant and writer Ajdina Halilovic. He received an MPhil in neuroscience from the University of Cambridge.