Sponsored by Explore Learning.

Watch a video version of this tip on Instagram.

One of the best-kept secrets in teaching is that frequent quizzing leads to better learning. I’m not talking about formative assessment here — this is quizzing as a learning strategy. A growing body of research is showing that when students are regularly tested on the material they are learning, they learn it better than they do through many other forms of review, including re-reading, note-taking, or concept mapping (Yang et al., 2023).

Here’s an example: In one study, a group of university students read 40 pages of textbook materials weekly. After each reading assignment, they either re-read ten selected facts or took a short-answer test with corrective feedback. Over six weeks, students took two multiple-choice exams assessing 60 of the facts that were just re-read and 60 tested facts. Students scored ten percent better on the facts they had previously been tested on (57%) than they did on the facts they had only re-read (47%). 

There are loads of other studies like this one, where two groups consume the same material, and one group is given regular quizzes on that material, while the other group does nothing or applies some other review strategy. In just about every case, the quizzing group performs better on end-of-unit tests, AND they usually do better when they are tested on that same material months later, which means that these quizzes have a big impact on storing information in long-term memory. Even when researchers looked more closely at different variables like content areas, testing formats, timing, and so on, they didn’t find a significant difference: Nearly any kind of regular testing showed some benefits (Agarwal et al., 2021).

Why do quizzes work so well to boost learning? Taking a quiz is one form of retrieval practice, a method of studying where you try to recall or “retrieve” information from memory, rather than interacting with the information right in front of you. The effort it takes to try to remember a fact actually helps your brain form a stronger connection to that fact, even if you get the answer wrong. Retrieval practice can also be done through other methods, like flashcards, but frequent quizzing is a way to build it into your lesson plans and give all of your students the benefits that come from it.

So if you can start incorporating more quizzes into your teaching, you’re likely to find that students learn the material better. Ideally, these should be low-stakes quizzes, ungraded even — they’re not meant to “count” for or against a student’s grade. You can certainly use the results to assess student progress and adjust your teaching — a quiz given for the sake of retrieval practice can still be a useful tool for formative assessment, but ideally it won’t have an impact on student grades. Save the points for the final test. If you absolutely put something in your grade book, make the quizzes worth very little compared to other assignments or tests. Remember, this is a learning strategy, not a way of rewarding or penalizing students for learning the material. 

One more thing: Share this research with your students! If they know more about how their brains respond to quizzing, they are more likely to see an increase in quizzes as another part of the learning process, rather than a threat.

References

Agarwal, P. K., Nunes, L. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2021). Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: A systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms. Educational Psychology Review, 33(4), 1409-1453. https://pdf.poojaagarwal.com/Agarwal_etal_2021_EDPR.pdf 

Yang, C., Shanks, D. R., Zhao, W., Fan, T., & Luo, L. (2023). Frequent quizzing accelerates classroom learning. In C. E. Overson, C. M.  Hakala, L. L. Kordonowy, & V. A. Benassi (Eds.), In their own words: What scholars and teachers want you to know about why and how to apply the science of learning in your academic setting (pp. 190-199). Society for the Teaching of Psychology. Link to chapter.

See all EduTips here.