But is it really forgotten (see "savings effect")?
Paul Brandon wrote:
> Because it promotes cramming (see spaced vs. massed practice).
> Material tends to be learned the night before and forgotten the next day.
>
> At 8:50 AM -0600 3/19/01, Hatcher, Joe wrote:
> >Hello all,
> > Over the years I have learned the danger of being certain about
> >anything concerning teaching, but one of the things that I am most certain
> >of is that the final exam is not only the most important exam of the course,
> >but is one of the best and most essential learning experiences of the
> >course.
> > Let me explain. If we look at exams as simply a means of
> >determining how "good" a student someone is, and as a way to decide what
> >grade to give them, then once a student has established themselves as "good"
> >in a course and has indicated that A is the correct grade, then I would
> >agree that there is no need for them to take the final.
> > If, however, we believe, as I do, that exams primarily exist as
> >tools for learning, then to pass up the final makes no sense at all (to
> >me!). If you want your students to truly learn what you are teaching, why
> >would you pass up an opportunity to review the semester, summarize and
> >recall important points and threads of thought, and to reflect one more time
> >on how the elements of the course work together to make a coherent whole?
> >Isn't the whole idea to have someone remember something *after* the course
> >is over? Wouldn't this be helped by having students confront the course as
> >a whole one more time? It seems to me that a *conclusion* to the course is
> >a bookend to the introduction that we do at the beginning. And, to me, a
> >final exam is an important part of that conclusion. I spend considerable
> >time creating a final study sheet that I think reflects the basic ideas of
> >the course, and in upper level courses have students give input as to what
> >these ideas are. No, I don't have evidence to support that this helps
> >learning; given the low percentage of retained knowledge evidenced by
> >another thread a few months ago, I don't have high hopes that learning is
> >high. But to *not* give a final and to *not* require students to reconfront
> >the material doesn't seem like it would help either...
> > I'm curious what rationales people use who do not give final exams.
> >
> >Joe Hatcher
> >Ripon College
> >Ripon, WI 54971
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> ----------
> >> From: Michael Sylvester
> >> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 8:06 AM
> >> To: TIPS
> >> Subject: exempt from final
> >>
> >>
> >> are there circumstances where you exempt a student from taking the final?
> >> I have had one or two cases of very bright students getting A s in all
> >> course work and who undoubtedly will get an A in the course.
> >> At my discretion,I have told them that they do not have to take the final.
> >> They were to perceive the exemption as a reward for maintaining
> >> a hibh degree of intellectual consistency through-out the semester.
> >>
> >> Michael Sylvester,PhD
> >> Daytona Beach,Florida
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
>
> * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
> * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
> * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
> * http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
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Steven M. Specht, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Psychology Department
Utica College of Syracuse University
1600 Burrstone Rd.
Utica, NY 13502
(315) 792-3171
"To teach is to learn twice". - Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)
