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Retrieval Practice Improves Exam Performance as a Function of Review Question Number and Format
Jason Pitt1,2, Bethany Huebner1,2
1Jason Pitt is the assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Evansville, Evansville, IN 47708 ( jp351@evansville.edu ). Please address all correspondence to Jason Pitt.
Multiple-choice review questions enhance learning and exam performance in physical therapy education. Providing more than one multiple-choice question maximizes these benefits, proving efficient for improving test scores.
Area of Science:
- Educational Psychology
- Health Professions Education
Background:
- Retrieval practice is a proven learning enhancement technique.
- Optimal review question format and quantity for maximizing retrieval practice effects remain unclear.
- Limited research exists on retrieval practice within physical therapy education.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of review question format (open-ended vs. multiple-choice) on learning.
- To determine the optimal number of review questions for maximizing learning outcomes.
- To evaluate the efficacy of different review question strategies in physical therapy education.
Main Methods:
- Eighty-eight physical therapy students participated in the study.
- Exam questions were categorized into no review, open-ended review, or varying numbers of multiple-choice review conditions.
- Performance on 160 multiple-choice exam questions was analyzed using mixed-effects logistic regression.
Main Results:
- Both open-ended and multiple-choice review questions significantly improved exam performance.
- The greatest performance gains were observed with more than one multiple-choice review question.
- Multiple-choice review questions demonstrated superiority over open-ended questions when controlling for difficulty.
Conclusions:
- Multiple-choice review questions are as effective as open-ended questions for multiple-choice exams.
- Multiple-choice review questions offer an efficient method for enhancing exam performance due to ease of implementation.
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