Effective remediation helps a student identify his misunderstandings of a concept. It encourages him to articulate why he misunderstood the material. The process can begin with conversational learning. One approach is to have study groups review a test together, as described in the chapter “Study Groups”. This is a highly effective beginning of the discovery phase of remediation, in that it can give the student guidance and encouragement. He must then dive into the concept on his own — by rereading a relevant homework assignment, or watching a related video, or doing some independent research, for instance. This can also be accomplished with a remediation minicontract that gives the student a choice in how to explore the topic in depth. When this exploration is complete, a way of articulating the student’s mastery is needed. This is discussed in more detail below.
There are a number of possible options in guiding a student who is learning from his mistakes. These can be used alone or in combination. They can also be varied depending on the content of the test.
Here are some of those options:
He identifies how he should have learned the concept. Where was it introduced? What pages in the text book? What classroom activity? Which homework assignment?
He describes the source of the misunderstanding. Was there a specific diagram that the student misconstrued? A passage that he read and misunderstood?
He articulates the correct answer in his own words. Recycling quotes from the textbook are unlikely to help him learn.
He explains why the correct answer is correct. Again, this explanation must be in the student’s own words.
He creates an original test question about the same specific topic as the missed question, and answers it correctly. A student’s ability to to articulate what the question was really about is a big step in learning from the mistake.
Another aspect of metacognitive training requires the student to learn how he best learns. By paying attention to how he studied (unsuccessfully) for a test and exploring new options in studying for the next one, he can evolve towards more effective learning.
Care must be taken in choosing from the above options. It is important that the remediation process isn’t too time-consuming or daunting. It should not drive students away from this essential part of the learning process.
As an example of how to use these options, here is a test resubmittal form that I developed for my classes.
Notice that it not only requires a student to learn from his mistakes, but also to become more metacognitive about the process he uses for studying for the test.
There are, of course, other ways to help a student learn from his conceptual misunderstandings. One possibility is to have him compare and contrast his mistaken answer and the correct one. A quick way to accomplish this is by using a graphic organizer that requires him to identify what aspects of his wrong answer are the same as those of the right answer, and which aspects are not. Expressing what is similar and what is different can help him unlearn the misunderstanding. This technique can also be used any time students need to distinguish between confusingly similar concepts.
In the form below, the mistaken answer goes in the left shadowed box and the correct one in the right. Any overlapping aspects of the two answers, aspects that are true of both, go in the boxes between them. Any that are different go in the boxes to the left and right. Describing these aspects in a concise enough way to fit them into the form can force a student to zero in on the heart of the problem.
(Thanks to Research for Better Teaching, Inc. for this graphic organizer.)
