Test-Enhanced Learning: A practical guide to improving academic outcomes for all students

Written by Kristian Still, Test-Enhanced Learning: A practical guide to improving academic outcomes for all students is an informative guidebook that explores the wealth of evidence behind and the benefits of test-enhanced learning, spaced retrieval practice and personalisation.

Detailing the most up to date research into improving learning and retention, it takes us on a journey into test-enhanced learning, spaced retrieval practice, motivation, metacognition and personalisation. In so doing, the book provides a blueprint for all teachers and schools to improve the academic outcomes of their students and to achieve this in ways that improve the motivation of learners and reduces the workload for teachers.

Kristian Still has been developing these ideas with his classes for many years and has achieved considerable success in terms of the direct learning gains, and improved assessment grades of his pupils and the indirect gains in students growing confidence in lessons, with a wider group of pupils contributing to class and improved classroom behaviour. Consequently, students are finding greater comfort in class and experiencing less pressure or underpreparedness when a question is asked.

The book is supported by the free Remembermore app which uses digital flashcards as an aid to deliver the learning gains of personalised, spaced retrieval practice, providing teachers with insights into the effectiveness of their own teaching. It also contains a number of practical case studies from teachers using these techniques and the app to produce great results in their schools.

Spaced retrieval practice is a highly effective but counter intuitive revision technique in that it involves forgetting and relearning knowledge. Test-Enhanced Learning provides a blueprint for motivating students to adopt this technique in favour of seemingly easier but less effective techniques such as re-reading. Moreover, the Remembermore app does most of the convincing for you. It is a tool, not only to provide the flashcards for retrieval practice, but also to demonstrate the power of the technique to pupils.

The book goes a step beyond mere retrieval practice, offering a fresh approach to test-enhanced learning, both pretesting and post testing, supported by real, classroom-based routines that have been tried and tested by both Primary and Secondary teachers across a range of subjects. Exploring the research behind test-enhanced learning, it reveals that both pretesting and post testing (retrieval practice) offers improved memorisation and secures long-term learning.

Suitable for all teachers in all settings.

Contents include:

• Introduction: It all began with Othello
• Chapter 1: Memory, learning, encoding and retrieval
• Chapter 2: Test-enhanced learning and repeated (repeated) retrieval practice
• Chapter 3: Spaced retrieval practice
• Chapter 4: Interleaving
• Chapter 5: The importance of feedback, the power of hints and the art of elaboration
• Chapter 6: Successive relearning
• Chapter 7: Metacognition and testing
• Chapter 8: Personalisation and overcoming illusions of competence
• Chapter 9: Testing, motivation and achievement
• Conclusion

Kristian Still is a Deputy Head at Academic Boundary Oak School, an independent private school in Hampshire. He has over 20-years’ experience as a head teacher and senior leader with a MsEd in Kinesiology, BSc in Sports Science, and a Level 5 Coaching and Mentoring. Kristian shares a keen interest in education leadership, evidence informed practice and #edutech.