Four experiments investigated whether the testing effect also applies to the acquisition of problem-solving skills from worked examples. Experiment 1 (n=120) showed no beneficial effects of testing consisting of isomorphic problem solving or example recall on final test performance, which consisted of isomorphic problem solving, compared to continued study of isomorphic examples. Experiment 2 (n=124) showed no beneficial effects of testing consisting of identical problem solving compared to restudying an identical example. Interestingly, participants who took both an immediate and a delayed final test outperformed those taking only a delayed test. This finding suggested that testing might become beneficial for retention but only after a certain level of schema acquisition has taken place through restudying several examples. However, experiment 2 had no control condition restudying examples instead of taking the immediate test. Experiment 3 (n=129) included such a restudy condition, and there was no evidence that testing after studying four examples was more effective for final delayed test performance than restudying, regardless of whether restudied/tested problems were isomorphic or identical. Experiment 4 (n=75) used a similar design as experiment 3 (i.e., testing/restudy after four examples), but with examples on a different topic and with a different participant population. Again, no evidence of a testing effect was found. Thus, across four experiments, with different types of initial tests, different problem-solving domains, and different participant populations, we found no evidence that testing enhanced delayed test
Non-completion in higher education is a persistent problem and even worse of a problem in higher online education. Although there is a lot of research on predictors of non-completion, less is known about what interventions resolve the non-completion problem and to what extent these interventions focus on relevant predictors of non-completion. To close that gap, the literature was systematically reviewed with a twofold aim: 1. Identify modifiable predictors of non-completion in higher (online) education 2. Investigate characteristics of effective interventions to reduce non-completion in higher (online) education. Results showed that study-or learning strategies, academic self-efficacy, (academic) goals and intentions, institutional or college adjustment, employment, supportive network, and faculty-student interaction are modifiable consistent predictors of non-completion. Coaching, remedial teaching, and peer mentoring are promising interventions to resolve the problem of non-completion in higher education. Interventions aimed at increasing completion rates are limited in targeting relevant modifiable predictors of noncompletion.
Although there is a large body of evidence for the utility of particular study strategies such as retrieval practice and distributed practice as memory-enhancing instruments, they are seldom used by learners in educational practice. Thus far, the research on the use of these study strategies has focused only on undergraduate university students, oftentimes only investigating a set of predefined strategies. The question, thus, remains whether these results are generalisable to secondary school students. The present study is the first to explore the use of different study strategies by secondary school students. With the use of an open question, 316 secondary school students from three different secondary school levels were asked how they prepare for an exam when they are studying by themselves. The results show that secondary school students use study strategies considered to be suboptimal. In the discussion, we compare our findings with results of previous studies among undergraduate university students.
In this study, it was explored whether a testing-effect occurs not only retention of facts but also for application of principles and procedures. For that purpose, thirty-eight high-school students either repeatedly studied a text on probability calculations (SSSS), or studied the text, took a test on the content, restudied the text, and finally took the test a second time (STST). Results show that testing not only leads to better retention of facts than restudying, but also to better application of acquired knowledge (i.e., principles and procedures) in high-school statistics. In other words, testing seems not only to benefit fact retention, but also positively affects deeper learning.
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