In recent years, testing has gained new importance in public schools, much to the chagrin of its critics. But several recent scholarly articles bolster the case that testing can help students learn.
Testing has long been known to facilitate later recall. But psychologist Shana K. Carpenter, in surveying the recent scholarly literature, found “robust benefits” from testing on students’ ability to apply their learning in different contexts, which is presumably the point of school.
There is also evidence that testing after initial study results in better retention than repeated study in the absence of preliminary testing, according to another new paper by psychologist Peter Verkoeijen and colleagues, who reported on finding this result across languages among bilingual students.
Yet another paper, by psychologist Jeri Little and colleagues, provides evidence in defense of multiple-choice tests. While often maligned, these tests improved later recall more than tests without answer choices in two experiments conducted on undergraduates.