Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know, according to new research. It actually helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques.

via Test-Taking Cements Knowledge Better Than Studying –NYTimes.com.

Testing kids is an effective way to help lock in skills and we do it all the time in our Core Learning Lab (with programs like IXL Math); but students also need to learn to make their own tests (an open-notes reading exam where they can use their own Concept Maps is a great way to teach that skill). After they leave school nobody is going to hand them a test as they try to master new knowledge or skills.

The research, published online Thursday in the journal Science, found that students who read a passage, then took a test asking them to recall what they had read, retained about 50 percent more of the information a week later than students who used two other methods [like concept mapping.]

This study highlights an obvious strength of frequent testing; but as usual when an either/or choice for educators is implied, the problem is in the details: what kind of Concept Maps did the kids make? Who taught them how to make them? Who made the tests–college professors? And did the researchers take into account that a dumb test–a test full of poorly formed questions and half-wrong “right answers” is not going to get these results? Or that many tests given in schools are dumb? These are the kind of questions we like our assessment team to ask at Old Town Academy.