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| “2010 New York Times article reported on a scientific Study that showed that students who read a passage of text and then took a test asking them to recall what they had read retained an astonishing 50% more of the information a week later than students who had not been tested.” |
The “Testing Effect” describes the power of
retrieval. Its most common application can be seen in testing in school exams;
to help measure learning and assign grades. In the corporate world, this
process is often shunned as a facile means of overcoming employee resistance or
circumventing policy & procedure issues.
Testing as a whole has come under fire in
recent years. Various elementary, secondary and post-secondary learners and
academic bodies have cited that testing in the traditional manor is not an
effective means of determining comprehension and this notion has carried over
into corporate learning to some extent. Testing has gotten a “bad rap” and it
is often related to memorization.
In their book “Make It Stick”, authors
Peter C. Brown, Henry L Roediger III and Mark A. McDaniel cited that a “2010
New York Times article reported on a scientific Study that showed that students
who read a passage of text and then took a test asking them to recall what they
had read retained an astonishing 50% more of the information a week later than
students who had not been tested.”
The
book, Make It Stick, suggests that the
New York Times article would seem like good news, but here’s how it was greeted
in many online comments:
“Once
again, another author confuses learning with recalling information.”
“I
personally would like to avoid as many tests as possible, especially with my
grades on the line,. Trying to learn in a stressful environment is no way to
help retain information.”
“Nobody
should care whether memorization is enhanced by practice testing or not. Our
children cannot do much of anything anymore.”
eLearning
can be an important component of learning new skills, enhancing product
knowledge, reinforcing policies and procedures or changing behaviour, but only
when a well-defined testing process is associated with any given topic or group
of topics. This process enhances
retrieval of information and can have an important influence on work practices;
but only when content is coupled with a well thought out testing process that
is extended over time.
I suppose the next question is how? How
does the process of retrieval of information enhance memory? The basic concept is this - the act of
retrieving information from memory makes it easier to retrieve later. We
retrieve information from memory every moment of every day; how to tie a knot, how
to start your car, how to program your remote (well maybe not this one), how to
add and subtract, etc. These may seem common and mundane but they are made thus
through the repetition of retrieving information repeatedly, thereby embedding
knowledge more permanently.
I think many of us can bare witness to the
effects of retrieval strength in our daily lives, for example, if we go away for
an extended trip, our minds would be far away from the normal processes and
routines we follow daily. As a result, when we return, we have lost some
information, perhaps: passwords, log in
procedures, actions that we may undertake less frequently but typically would
recall when retrieved periodically. This can be described as the ebbing of retrieval
strength. We are not reminded of the information and gradually we forget.
What does it all mean for eLearning? I
think we have to re-consider how we perceive testing, its frequency and the
veracity of the testing process. In designing learning programs within
corporate environments, we often view learning as a one-time event or a
one-time window. We tend to design testing around that event or window but do
not plan repeated opportunities to review content, refresh knowledge and
enhance retrieval strength through a more rigorous testing process over the
long term.
The process need not be onerous. We
recommend offering shorter and more persistent testing on information. Make
sure the information is prioritized, meaning focus on topics of greater
importance to your organization’s mission. For example you may evaluate your
learning calendar for a given year and consider reintroduction of key learning
principles along with repeated testing opportunities. This can be coupled with
the introduction of new content each calendar year.
Making the process fun and “not boring” will
have an important effect on learning and embedding information making it easier
to retrieve, however and perhaps more importantly, designing an ongoing process
of presenting the prioritized information through multiple channels while reinforcing
the learning process with testing is essential to effecting change through
learning in your organization.
