{"id":7244,"date":"2023-09-12T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=7244"},"modified":"2023-09-12T16:20:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:20:04","slug":"getting-the-details-just-right-pre-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/getting-the-details-just-right-pre-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting the Details Just Right: “Pre-questions”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teachers, of course, ask students questions. ALL THE TIME with the questions.<\/p>\n

We ask questions DURING a lesson in order to “check for understanding.”<\/p>\n

We encourage students to ask themselves questions AFTER class, because “retrieval practice<\/a>” promotes learning.<\/p>\n

And, we ask questions BEFORE a unit — for at least two very good reasons.<\/p>\n

In the first place<\/strong>, we need to know what our students already know<\/em>. If we don’t evaluate their prior knowledge, we struggle to build on that prior knowledge in a coherent way.<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a><\/p>\n

In the\u00a0second place<\/strong>, we have increasingly strong research about the benefits of “prequestions.”<\/p>\n

Unlike “checks for understanding” and “retrieval practice,” “prequestions” come before<\/em> the unit.<\/p>\n

And unlike “measuring prior knowledge,” “prequestions” deliberately focus on facts and procedures that students\u00a0don’t yet know<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So: if I’m teaching a unit on\u00a0Their Eyes Were Watching God<\/em>, I might ask my students:<\/p>\n

“What is the definition of a ‘bildungsroman’?”<\/p>\n

“Describe the friendship between Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.”<\/p>\n

“What does hair often symbolize in literature?”<\/p>\n

Truth to tell, it’s quite unlikely that my 10th grade students know the answers to these questions. So: those are prequestions — not checks for understanding, or retrival practice, or confirmations of prior knowledge.<\/p>\n

Here’s the headline: we have reason to believe that “prequestions” — used correctly — help students learn information.<\/p>\n

Here’s the story…<\/p>\n

Hot Off the Presses<\/h2>\n

Long-time readers know that Dr. Elizabeth Ligon Bjork has done LOTS of essential work in the field of long-term memory formation and “desireable difficulties.”<\/p>\n

And, you know my admiration of Dr. Nick Soderstrom, whose distinction<\/a> between “short-term performance” and “long-term learning” should inform all teachers’ discussions.<\/p>\n

So: when the two work together, they have my attention!<\/p>\n

In this case, they JUST published a study on the topic of “prequestions.”<\/a><\/p>\n

And, this study took place in actual college classrooms — not simply in a psychology lab. For that reason, its conclusions have a better chance of applying to the real-world work that other teachers do in classrooms.<\/p>\n

In this research, students answered prequestions at the beginning of a few lectures. The\u00a0subsequent lectures then provided answers to those questions. (By the way: students got only about 1\/3 of those prequestions right — so for the most part they didn’t know the answers.)<\/p>\n

On the final exam, students had to answer questions that …<\/p>\n

… DIRECTLY related to those prequestions, or<\/p>\n

… INDIRECTLY related to those prequestions, or<\/p>\n

… were NOT related to the prequestions.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, they did better on both directly and indirectly related questions<\/em>, compared to the unrelated questions.<\/p>\n

In brief: prequestions really did help college students learn in the classroom.<\/p>\n

So simple! So effective!<\/p>\n

So, Those “Details”?<\/h2>\n

My title promises that we need to “get the details just right.” In this case, as in so many others, I have thoughts. (Important note: at this point, I’m switching from\u00a0reporting on research<\/em> to\u00a0offering my experience-based opinions<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

First Thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soderstrom and Bjork specifically write that prequestions helped because students took them seriously.<\/p>\n

Here’s my concern: while college students may have the metacognitive perspective to take prequestions seriously, I do worry that younger students might not.<\/p>\n

That is: once younger students realize that their answers to these questions don’t really matter<\/em>, they might not take them as seriously as their college-age selves would.<\/p>\n

The structure of prequestions, in fact, might discourage seriousness. Students rarely know the answers to these questions — that’s the point.\u00a0Why would students attend seriously to questions they can’t possibly answer?<\/p>\n

This potential problem leads to two tentative suggestions:<\/p>\n

TELL students how and why prequestions might help, and<\/p>\n

Use prequestions only RARELY.<\/p>\n

After all, the more often that students must answer un-answerable questions, the less likely they are to give them appropriate mental effort.<\/p>\n

My hope is: students who encounter prequestions only rarely won’t get cynical about trying to answer them.<\/p>\n

Second Thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

If we use prequestions only rarely, are some times better than others?<\/p>\n

My instincts are: yes<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Simply put: use prequestions at the beginning of a unit to highlight the most important concepts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If we can get the benefit of this technique only rarely, then use it at the most important times.<\/p>\n

This advice comes from common sense, not\u00a0 from research — but common sense isn’t entirely forbidden on this blog.<\/p>\n

Third Thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not all prequestions are created equal.<\/p>\n

If a prequestion forces a student to think<\/em> — that’s a good prequestion: even if they get a wrong answer.<\/p>\n

However, if a prequestion\u00a0activates a prior misconception,<\/em> that question will actively interfere with learning.<\/p>\n

For that reason, we should follow this rule:<\/p>\n

Ask prequestions where students don’t know<\/em> what the answer is, and where they don’t\u00a0wrongly believe<\/em> that they do know what the answer is.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For instance:<\/p>\n

If I ask my student “which falls faster: a 10-pound bowling ball or a 15-pound bowling ball,” they almost certainly …<\/p>\n

… don’t know the correct answer (that’s good), but<\/p>\n

… wrongly think that they DO know the correct answer (that’s bad).<\/p>\n

So: that prequestion would activate a prior misconception — and make learning harder.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, those prequestions I asked at the top of this post (definition of “bildungsroman”) almost certainly don’t active prior misconceptions.<\/p>\n

A Secret Unveiled; A Plea for Teamwork<\/h2>\n

I confess I have one deep frustration with this research pool.<\/p>\n

Almost all teachers — and all students — hate tests.<\/p>\n

So: if I name something “the testing effect,” teachers and students will HATE it — even if it’s beneficial. (Hint: the “testing effect” is just another way of talking about “retrieval practice.”)<\/p>\n

And, if I name something “pretesting,” teachers and students will HATE it — even if it’s beneficial. Pretesting sounds like a test, no?<\/p>\n

Sure enough, researchers have named a beneficial teaching “pretesting,” thereby ensuring confusion, and discouraging its use.<\/p>\n

But — of course — “pretesting” simply means “asking questions on a topic before you’ve taught the material.” It’s NOT A TEST. It’s just a set of QUESTIONS.<\/p>\n

So, I’ve been writing about “prequestions,” although everyone else in this field calls them “pretests.”<\/p>\n

I hope you’ll join me in this virtuous rebranding.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

Prequestions (aka “pretesting”) help students learn new material — and not just the information in the questions themselves.<\/p>\n

Because the technique works if students take it seriously, I suggest …<\/p>\n

… using it rarely,<\/p>\n

… using it for important material, and<\/p>\n

… asking prequestions that DON’T activate prior misconceptions.<\/p>\n

\n

Soderstrom, N. C., & Bjork, E. L. (2023). Pretesting Enhances Learning in the Classroom.\u00a0Educational Psychology Review<\/i>,\u00a035<\/i>(3), 88.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teachers, of course, ask students questions. ALL THE TIME with the questions. We ask questions DURING a lesson in order to “check for understanding.” We encourage students to ask themselves questions AFTER class, because “retrieval practice” promotes learning. And, we ask questions BEFORE a unit — for at least two very good reasons. In the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7244"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7251,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244\/revisions\/7251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}