Abstract
IntroductionThe role of feedback in test-enhanced learning is an understudied area that has the potential to improve student learning. This study investigates the influence of different forms of post-test feedback on retention and transfer of biomedical knowledge within a test-enhanced learning framework.Methods64 participants from a Canadian and an Australian medical school sat two single-best-answer formative multiple choice tests one week apart. We compared the effects of conceptually focused, response-oriented, and simple right/wrong feedback on a learner’s ability to correctly answer new (transfer) questions. On the first test occasion, participants received parent items with feedback, and then attempted items closely related (near transfer) to and more distant (far transfer) from parent items. In a repeat test at 1 week, participants were given different near and far transfer versions of parent items. Feedback type, and near and far transfer items were randomized within and across participants.ResultsAnalysis demonstrated that response-oriented and conceptually focused feedback were superior to traditional right/wrong feedback for both types of transfer tasks and in both immediate and final retention test performance. However, there was no statistically significant difference between response-orientated and conceptually focused groups on near or far transfer problems, nor any differences in performance between our initial test occasion and the retention test 1 week later. As with most studies of transfer, participants’ far transfer scores were lower than for near transfer.DiscussionRight/wrong feedback appears to have limited potential to augment test-enhanced learning. Our work suggests that item-level feedback and feedback that identifies and elaborates on key conceptual knowledge are two important areas for future research on learning, retention and transfer.
Highlights
The role of feedback in test-enhanced learning is an understudied area that has the potential to improve student learning
Our work suggests that item-level feedback and feedback that identifies and elaborates on key conceptual knowledge are two important areas for future research on learning, retention and transfer
This paper describes an initial step towards exploring these issues, through an experimental investigation of whether and to what degree three different types of feedback – simple right/wrong, response-oriented, and detailed conceptually focused feedback – promote knowledge transfer in multiple choice question (MCQ)-based assessments
Summary
The role of feedback in test-enhanced learning is an understudied area that has the potential to improve student learning. This study investigates the influence of different forms of post-test feedback on retention and transfer of biomedical knowledge within a test-enhanced learning framework. Medical students are expected to learn, understand, retain and transfer a huge volume of information over the course of their studies. Formative testing – so called test-enhanced learning – is among the most effective of these and has consistently been shown to improve learning and retention of content across educational contexts [1,2,3] including medical education [4, 5]. For feedback to be most effective it should promote learning beyond retention That is, it should ideally promote transfer of learning to new problems and align learners with expert-like schemas for clinical reasoning
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