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The Learning Review Table (LRT)

Bruce KingLSGI

(with thanks to Ada Lee)

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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.

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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

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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

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The table

COLUMN 1 COLUMN 2 COLUMN 3Write questions whose answers are in the text and which you believe you understand. (Answers to be written on a separate sheet.)

Write questions whose answers are in the text but which you do

not understand.

Write questions that are related to the text, but are not discussed and which you are interested to know more.

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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).

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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 empower students (Hudson-Ross 1989).

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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

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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

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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

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Question taxonomy

Bloom's

KNOWLEDGE

COMPREHENSION

APPLICATION

ANALYSIS

SYNTHESIS

EVALUATION

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Question taxonomy

SOLO

PRESTRUCTURAL

UNISTRUCTURAL

MULTISTRUCTURAL

RELATIONAL

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

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Why?

Motivation Simple Relieve pressure on

Students Teachers

Try something new Evaluate an L2L tool

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Would it work well for my class?

Would my students like it?

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So what?

Typically have Continuous assessment

Assignments Laboratory/practical reports Phase tests

Final examination

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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

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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"

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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.”

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How the 3-Column design helps “Column 3 stimulates me to think

more about this subject.”

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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.”

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More Specific Detail...

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

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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"

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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.

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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

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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"

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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 ."

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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:

mean sd n

Last year 2.6 0.905 25

This year 2.5 0.928 28

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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