Examining the Effects of Retrieval Practice and Spacing on Engineering Students' Retention of Precalculus Knowledge

增加和多样化获得STEM学位的本科生人数的必要性和好处是众所周知的。不幸的是，对数学知识的保留不足阻碍了许多学生获得工程学学位。认知心理学的研究表明，教育实践的保留效果很差，因为教育实践最小化了：1)学生提取他们获得的信息的次数(即提取练习)，以及2)两次提取之间经过的时间量(即间隔)。作为个别因素，增加提取练习的频率和间隔被认为是增加记忆的有效干预措施。该项目将调查这两种干预措施的独立和相加效应，以揭示其中一种干预措施是否比另一种干预措施更有效，以及联合干预措施是否比单独使用任何一种干预措施更好。这项研究将在实际的大学课堂中进行，扩展了之前在实验室环境中进行的研究，并将直接指导旨在帮助学生保留必要的数学知识并在工程中取得成功的教育方法。更具体地说，该项目旨在评估增加提取练习的数量和间隔作为单独因素和组合对微积分基础知识的短期和长期记忆的影响。测验问题的数量和时间间隔将是不同的，以便在工程师的微积分预科课程中跟踪和定位特定的学习目标。短期保持的测量将被收集，以洞察学生在微积分基础课程期末考试中针对特定目标的问题的表现，而长期保持的测量将从对进入后续微积分课程的科目子集的考试中收集。结果将告诉工程学和其他STEM教育工作者应该如何实施认知心理学的技术，以增加对核心知识的保留。更有效的教育实践可以减少从STEM领域转学的学生数量。

The need and benefits of increasing and diversifying the number of undergraduates obtaining STEM degrees is well-known. Unfortunately, inadequate retention of mathematics knowledge prevents many students from obtaining engineering degrees. Research in cognitive psychology suggests poor retention results from educational practices that minimize: 1) the number of times students retrieve information they have acquired (i.e., retrieval practice), and 2) the amount of elapsed time between retrievals (i.e., spacing). Increases in the frequency and spacing of retrieval practice, as individual factors, are known to be effective interventions for increasing retention. This project will investigate the independent and additive effects of the two interventions to reveal whether one is more efficacious than the other, and whether the combination of interventions is better than either one alone. The research will be conducted in an actual college classroom, extending the previous research conducted in a laboratory setting, and will directly inform educational approaches that aim at helping students retain requisite mathematics knowledge and succeed in engineering.More specifically, this project aims to assess the impact of increasing the amount and spacing of retrieval practice, as separate factors and in combination, on short- and long-term retention of precalculus knowledge. The number and temporal spacing of quiz questions will be varied in order to track and target specific learning objectives in a precalculus course for engineers. Measures of short-term retention will be collected to gain insight into students' performance on objective-specific questions on the final exam in the precalculus course, and measures of long-term retention will be collected from an exam administered to the subset of subjects who advance into a subsequent calculus course. Results will inform how engineering and other STEM educators should implement techniques from cognitive psychology to increase retention of core knowledge. More effective educational practices could reduce the number of students transferring out of STEM fields.