Students’ Adaptation of Study Strategies When Preparing for Classroom Tests

Abstract

According to theories of students' test preparation, students may optimize their test performance by paying special attention to important information and processing this information in ways that are appropriate to the type of questions included in the forthcoming test. However, research is unclear about the conditions under which students adapt study strategies to the demands of test preparation tasks. Moreover, little is known about the processes and abilities involved. In this article, we present a theoretical model that integrates various factors that seem relevant to strategy adaptation in test preparation, including the teacher's intended task demands, students' perceptions of these demands, students' personal goals for studying, and their ability to adapt and implement strategies. The aim of our model is to stimulate further research on strategy adaptation, which may eventually provide evidence-based guidelines that could help teachers support the development of students' strategy adaptability and use tests as learning tools.

Measuring strategy use with self-report instruments: theoretical and empirical considerations

“…Taskspecific measuring connects to ideas and research, from which it appears that learners' learning strategies differ for types of learning tasks or subjects (cf. Samuelstuen and Bråten 2007;Broekkamp and Van Hout-Wolters 2007;Hadwin et al 2001). However, the distinction in measuring within or outside the context (i.e., task-specific or general measures) indirectly relates to the distinction in on-line versus off-line measuring.…”

“…Furthermore, measuring methods are used in non-evaluative ways; for example, in exploring learning strategies that are executed during studying expository texts (e.g., Schellings et al 2006), or to examine whether specific strategies are related to the learning results in a certain type of learning task (e.g., Broekkamp and Van Hout-Wolters 2007;Hadwin et al 2001; Van der Stel and Veenman 2008).These different goals for measuring learning strategies can render different conditions (i.e. methodological or practical) to which measuring methods must adhere.…”

Assessing metacognitive activities: the in-depth comparison of a task-specific questionnaire with think-aloud protocols

“…Different studies do find support for the generality of metacognitive skills, whereas other studies provide evidence against such a general skill (cf. Broekkamp and Van Hout-Wolters 2007;Veenman and Alexander 2011). Both positions may be equally tenable, depending on the grain size of analyses (cf.…”

“…Task-specific measuring connects to ideas and research, from which it appears that learners' learning strategies differ for types of learning tasks or subjects (cf. Bråten and Samuelstuen 2007;Broekkamp and Van Hout-Wolters 2007;Hadwin et al 2001). Online measuring (measuring learning strategies during task performance) is, by definition, bound to the task performed within the assessment.…”

Focus on First-year Sucess Perspectives Emerging from South Africa and Beyond

“…Various authors (Broekkamp & Van Hout-Wolters, 2007;Frederiksen, 1984;Newble & Jaeger, 1983;Scouller, 1998;Van Etten, Freebern & Pressley, 1997) describe ways in which assessment impacts learning. The first of these is the quantity and distribution of student learning effort.…”