Exploring Second-Chance Testing as a Practical Form of Mastery Learning

在美国国家科学基金会改善本科STEM教育计划：教育与人力资源（IUSE: EHR）的支持下，该项目旨在通过调查第二次考试如何提高学生的学习和记忆，为国家利益服务。这项工作的意义源于这样一种观察，即一些学生虽然有能力取得成功，也愿意学习，但他们的课程却不及格。这些学生经常不及格，因为他们高估了自己对考试的准备程度，或者误解了课程的期望。这种失败可能会阻止这些合格的学生坚持STEM专业并加入STEM劳动力队伍。第二次测试是允许学生参加考试，然后对他们的表现给予反馈的做法。然后，他们被允许进一步学习这些材料，然后参加第二次同等的考试，以某种形式代替成绩。初步数据显示，第二次考试提高了平均考试成绩，降低了考试失败率。该项目将研究关于第二次测试的最佳实践，并描述其好处。该项目还将研究第二次考试是否会不成比例地帮助那些传统上在现有课程结构中得不到充分服务的学生。它还将研究如何帮助教师采用这种做法。第二次测试可以是一种强大的技术，因为它利用了“测试效应”（通过刻意的检索练习增加长期记忆）和“测试强化学习”（提高学习者从重新学习概念的机会中受益的能力）。此外，它还提供了减少学生由于无法正确评估课程期望和他们的准备水平而导致考试失败的可能性。伊利诺伊大学（University of Illinois）关于第二次考试的初步数据显示，以平均考试分数衡量，学生的表现有所改善，考试不及格率有所降低。此外，这些数据表明，评分政策的变化会对学生选择参加第二次考试产生相当大的影响。该项目的目标是更严格地衡量第二次考试的好处，绘制出评分政策的范围及其影响，并更好地了解教师采用第二次考试的因素。该项目将集中于三个研究问题。首先，第二次测试对学生的认知和非认知结果有多大的改善？其次，第二次评分政策如何影响学生在第一次和随后的第二次考试中的认知和非认知结果？第三，第二次考试是否会不成比例地帮助那些传统上在一次考试结构中得不到充分服务的学生？NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建，探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Program: Education and Human Resources (IUSE: EHR), this project aims to serve the national interest by investigating how second-chance testing improves student learning and retention. The significance of this work is rooted in the observation that some students fail courses, even though they have to ability to succeed and willingness to work. These students often fail because they overestimate the adequacy of their preparation for an exam or misunderstand course expectations. This failure can prevent these qualified students from persisting in STEM majors and joining the STEM workforce. Second-chance testing is the practice of allowing students to take an exam and then giving them feedback on their performance. They are then allowed to further study the material and then take a second, equivalent exam for some form of grade replacement. Preliminary data show that second-chance testing improves average exam scores and reduces exam failure rates. This project will investigate best practices with respect to second-chance testing and characterize its benefits. The project will also study whether second-chance testing disproportionately helps students who are traditionally under-served by existing course structures. It will also study what can be done to help instructors adopt this practice.Second-chance testing can be a powerful technique because it exploits both the "testing effect" (increased long-term memory resulting from deliberate retrieval practice) and "test-potentiated learning" (increased ability of a learner to benefit from an opportunity to restudy a concept). In addition, it offers the potential to mitigate students' failures on exams due to their inability to correctly assess course expectations and their level of readiness. Preliminary data at the University of Illinois on second-chance testing has shown improvements in student performance measured by mean exam scores and a reduction in exam failure rates. In addition, this data showed that variations in the grading policy can exert considerable influence on which students choose to take the second chance exam. The goals of this project are to more rigorously measure the benefits of second-chance testing, map out the scope of grading policies and their impacts, and better understand the factors involved in faculty adoption of second-chance testing. The project will focus on three research questions. First, how much does second-chance testing improve students' cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes? Second, how do second-chance grading policies affect students' cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes on first-chance and subsequent second-chance exams? Third, does second-chance testing disproportionately help students who are traditionally under-served by single opportunity exam structures? The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.