Abstract
The purpose of this research was to know how students treat the feedback of their test-results, and to find the effective ways of feedback.
First, 202 high school students were asked about how they treat the feedback of their English and mathematics test-result using questionnaires made of free descriptions and a 5 point-rating scale.
The result showed more than 88% of the students in English, and more than 75% in mathematics checking only their percentage results or just looking through their mistakes. While only less than 19% of the students in English. and less than 25% in mathematics often used feedback for the review.
This result suggested that the students made little profit of the feedback of the test-results.
Second, the effects of several types of feedback were experimentally examined on 294 high school students. Experiments were divided in 3 parts. The effect of the feedback was measured by the difference between pre-test and post-test comparing exprimental group with control group. Both exp. group and cont. group were divided into sub-groups in accordance with the pre-test.
In Experiment 1 using English, the exp. group were given a “check list” after pre-test. The list indicated the areas of each problem of the test so that the student could check the areas needing to be reviewed.
The result showed no significant differences between exp. group (n=29) and cont. group (n=29).
In Experiment 2, the check list were given to the exp. group but the post-test was previously announed to both exp. group and cont. group.
The result showed that exp. group (n=40) recorded significantly higher progress than cont. group (n=41) in school A using mathematics. The difference had significant tendency in school B using English (exp. group: n=36, cont. group: n=38). In the exp. group of school A, the low-achieved group recorded significantly higher progress than the high-achieved group. The difference had significant tendency in school B.
In Experiment 3 using English,“Individual short test” were recycled for the exp. group after the pre-test. In this test, the students themselves decided the areas of the problems of the test they would take. The feedbacks of the test-results are carefully arranged avoiding negative expression. The post-test was announced to both exp. group and cont. group.
The result showed that the exp. group (n=41) recorded higher progress than the cont. group (n=40), and its difference had significant tendency. The low-achieved group recorded significantly higher progress than high-achieved group in both exp. group and cont. group. After the individual short tests, about 85% of the students reported positive impressions (feeling at ease, a desire to continue etc.).
The limits of this research and further problems were discussed. The factors of the effective feedback of the test-results were suggested as follows
a) To give adequate informaton;
b) To have the students considering the review as useful;
c) To reduce the unwillingness of the review.
It is suggested that the combination of the factors would be more effective especially for the low achievers.
