The Learning Review Table (LRT)

1. The Learning Review Table (LRT) Bruce King LSGI (with thanks to Ada Lee)

2. What is an LRT? • A tool to help students to improve comprehension, questioning ability and awareness of how his/her learning is progressing. • Individual students formulating and classifying questions related to what they are studying into 3 columns.

3. What is an LRT? • Column 1 • Questions whose answers are in the text and which you believe you understand • Column 2 • Questions whose answers are in the text but which you do not understand • Column 3 • Questions that are related to the text, but are not discussed in it and you want to know more about

4. What is an LRT? • With the help of this table, each student can easily discern • what he/she understands • what he/she doesn’t understand • and what he/she wants to know more about

5. The table

6. Background: Why Self-Questioning? • If teachers really wanted to teach students how to engage in thinking, rather than ask questions of the students, they would teach students how to ask their own questions (Berry 1987, p.154).

7. Background: Why Self-Questioning? • In developing the Learning to Learn program, Heiman (1987) identified self-generated questions as one of the hallmarks of effective thinkers. • Student-generated questions empowerstudents (Hudson-Ross 1989).

8. The original 3-Column Table • Koch & Eckstein, 1991 • Applied on a group of college physics students • to improve their reading comprehension • to prepare them to assume a more active role in learning • teach them the ability to monitor their own comprehension in future independent reading

9. Questions stems to encourage higher level questioning • Integrated into LRT • King (1990) developed a list of generic question stems to encourage higher level questioning and answering. The list may be applied in a variety of learning situations. E.g. • In what way is _________ related to _________? • How does _________ affect _________? • Compare _________ and _________ with regard to _________ . • Translated into Chinese

10. Evaluation of LRT • Quantitative • One mark for each question • Qualitative • One mark for each question • Two marks for a clear and interesting question • Marks for the answers to Column 1 questions based on correctness

11. Question taxonomy • Bloom's EVALUATION SYNTHESIS ANALYSIS APPLICATION COMPREHENSION KNOWLEDGE

12. Question taxonomy • SOLO EXTENDED ABSTRACT RELATIONAL MULTISTRUCTURAL UNISTRUCTURAL PRESTRUCTURAL

13. Why? • Motivation • Simple • Relieve pressure on • Students • Teachers • Try something new • Evaluate an L2L tool

14. Would it work well for my class? Would my students like it?

15. So what? • Typically have • Continuous assessment • Assignments • Laboratory/practical reports • Phase tests • Final examination

16. How 1? • First try, BSc3 • Introduce LRT and QS • Ask students to write own Column 1, 2 and 3 questions for a series of lectures • Marks for • Number of "valid" C1 questions • Quality of "valid" C1 questions • Quality of C1 answers

17. General positive response • "…can help us to understand more about the lecture notes during the preparation of questions" • "…really help me understanding my study" • "…we need to really understand the materials, otherwise the questions will not be in depth"

18. How the 3-Column design helps • “When I see that there are many questions in Column 1, my confidence for studying this subject is increasing.” • “For Column 2, which I think is the most important part of the test, it makes me clear about what problems I have and I will try my best to reduce the number of questions in Column 2.”

19. How the 3-Column design helps • “Column 3 stimulates me to think more about this subject.”

20. More Specific Detail... • “This method is useful for my study, because it let me know which part in the text I understood and which part I didn’t.” • “This can help me to learn more systematically.”

21. More Specific Detail... • “I like it because it helps me to revise more deeply but not need to memorise so many things.”

22. Some problems … • "…difficult to achieve the fairness in marking" • "I don't know whether the questions are suitable to be used in the examinations or test" • "…the guideline is not clear enough" • "…no way to ensure that everyone is honest"

23. More work for "us" • If you find the same or similar questions in Column 2 from different students, that means they encounter the same problem on that particular topic, then if time permits, you may like to re-visit the topic. • Might want to expand topic based on what you find in Column 3.

24. How 2? • Second try, HDG2 • LRT and QS in Semester 1 • Blooms Taxonomy in Semester 2 • Write two C1 questions and answers for each of two topics • Graded • 40% on quality of question • 60% on quality of answer

25. Positive comments • "… I need not try to remember all the material that the notes presented" • "… I feel more relaxed in taking this assessment" • "… good for students to enhance their creativity and make them more active to search or find what they want to know"

26. Negative comments • "… students may confuse of some information, because there are too much knowledge" • "… since the test is just like an assignment … we can find the answer from Internet or books and then copy a large amount of text. Eventually, we may learn less than in a formal test ."

27. How 3? • Third try, BSc2 • Introduced LRT, QS and Blooms Taxonomy • Test of learning strategy • Used for revision of topics • Normal phase test, compared with previous • No significant difference in results:

28. And? • Phase test = mini-exam = memorise • LRT allows students to quantify knowledge and understanding • Replace phase test with self-generated questions and answers via LRT • It must be part of assessment